What's the term for the annoying delay between when I press the button on my camera and when it takes the picture?

shutter speed?

@Judi, that’s what I was thinking, but I forgot to mention that it has to do with the flash. The speed is okay without flash. Is that still an issue of shutter speed?

It’s definitely not a shutter speed issue, but I have no idea what in the world that is. I believe that you should be able to go to the settings and change it.

I think “annoying delay” is a great name. Actually its the lag for the flash trigger (I don’t know if it is a capacitor or some other component) to charge up enough to provide the flash, or perhaps a delay for automatic features to get into the proper mode for your shot. .

@saturated brain: It might be related to my weird “anti-shake mode” option. I hadn’t realized i’d had it turned on, but maybe I do. I’ll check it out.

@juniper Try it. But I think that @whatthefluther has got something going on.

Turn off your Red Eye Reduction.

When you press the button, the flash fires a couple of times to dilate the subjects pupils, then it fires the real flash and opens the shutter.

Waiting! lolz

I know that the time between you lock the keys in the car and then realize you have done so is called an “ignasecond.” So I would guess that the time between pushing the button and the shutter actually doing something could be “subject schmear” or something similar.

I thought it was called shutter delay. Could be wrong.

Digital cameras are a different beast all together, and I believe it’s less so a mechanical issue and more of a hardware-speed one.

@Grisaille is right, it’s shutter delay. The only digital cameras with absolutely no shutter delay are digital SLRs, but they’re pretty big, complex cameras (for example, look up the canon digital rebel series). There are consumer digital cameras with considerably less shutter delay than what you describe, but I don’t know if they put that in the stats, you might have to try them out in the store to see how the camera works.

I could also be the time it takes to auto focus.

Shutter delay is usually the time it takes the camera to focus, If I am taking fast shots (lots of movement) where shutter delay is a problem, I switch to a 35mm.

@DrBill – Oh, ok. Sorry.

I have a camera similar to that. and a problem similar to it as well. The solution for me was to press the button partway down to focus on the area the action was on and then down to take the picture.

Also, use a preset that works with the situation. i.e. action etc.

Shutter lag is the name.

My Olympus FE140 has a pretty quick shutter speed, and there are a few settings on it I recently discovered to turning off the flash and since it doesn’t have that annoying red eye reduction feature, or anti-shake mode, it works pretty fast. The newer point and click digitals have both those options and they are the reason I won’t upgrade to a new camera. More options is not always better. (I had an FE130 and the flash stopped working from being dropped, so I went looking for another one, found that Olympus doesn’t make it anymore. I found the FE140 on eBay, bought it and love it).

One thing good about a digital camera is that the cost of film is not a problem and you can take a hundred shots, or a thousand, depending upon your quality settings, and it all costs the same. Nothing. Editing software and a tripod are effective tools against red eye and shaky shots. I personally have both and don’t need those unnecessary other options.

Like @Bri_L said, try pushing it halfway. The flash shouldn’t go off but it will focus. When it’s all ready to go, then say “cheese!” and it will work just fine. My old camera did this, now I have a canon rebel xsi and it isn’t a problem anymore. Of course I can’t fit it in my pocket :(