topic Sony DSC-W310 delay in shutter firing. in Cyber-shot compact cameras

Sony DSC-W310 delay in shutter firing.

CrookesJunction — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:48:39 GMT

With this camera there is a delay of about one second between pressing the button and the shutter opening. Self timer set to off. Makes it really difficult to photgraph young children. Is this normal?

Sony DSC-W310 delay in shutter firing.

Mick2011 — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:05:07 GMT

Hello and welcome to the Sony Forums.

With most compacts it's normal to experience a bit of a lag from press to release, as the camera has to perform a number of pre-release functions; the more it has to do, the longer it takes.

If it just needs to detect the subject and focus, it shouldn't take too long; if it's low light, you have anti-red-eye set on the flash, or smile detection selected, it will take quite a bit longer and something like 1 second isn't unusual. If your subject is moving, as kids often are, it could take a while just to focus...

You can switch a lot of these things off, but if you're taking shots of kids and they're not jumping about (it does happen, I'm told :smileywink:) you can pre-focus, and preset many other delay-causing operations, by half-depressing the button and holding it there until you see your moment. The shutter should now fire almost instantly when you fully-depress.

It takes a bit of practice to get the pressure just right on the button, but once you master it you should be catching a lot more than you miss.

Let me know how you get on

Cheers

Mick

Sony DSC-W310 delay in shutter firing.

CrookesJunction — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:50:00 GMT

Thank you Mick, I'll try that & see how it goes.

Bob

Sony DSC-W310 delay in shutter firing.

CrookesJunction — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:22:59 GMT

Thanks Mick

I have experimented over the last few days along the lines you suggest. Definite improvement but I'll just have to accept that all my best pictures were taken with an ancient Yashica SLR with a decent film!

Regards

Bob

Sony DSC-W310 delay in shutter firing.

Mick2011 — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:43:17 GMT

Good to hear it was worth experimenting with Bob

Agree completely: nothing beats an SLR for 'capturing the moment', except maybe a DSLR!

Not as massive a financial outlay as they used to be either. The market's so competitive these days that entry-level DSLR kits are often cheaper than mid-range compacts.

Just a thought!

Happy shooting

Mick