David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Shutter Lag

In small cameras, shutter lag (Small, Medium, or Large?) is the number one cause of owner frustration. (There's virtually no shutter lag in SLRs, which is one reason they're so awesome.)

Unfortunately, you won't see a camera's shutter lag touted in the ads, or even mentioned at all by the camera companies. (Can you imagine? "The new Sony TX44C-273IW! Ten megapixels, 1-second shutter lag!")

It is, however, possible to research this information. It's on the camera-nut Web sites described in Appendix A. Even then, there's no standard way of measuring shutter lag—the different Web sites don't use the same testing methods—and shutter lag is a lot worse in low light than in bright light.

The point, then, is simply to keep this pitfall in mind as you shop. Do a little research on the Web, for example, or just keep your eyes open to shutter lag references when you're reading camera magazines and camera reviews.