Blog: Aggravation of Shutter Delay

 

By Gary Fong
 
 
Figure 1
 
I was playing tourist in New York using my wife’s point and shoot, rather than lugging around my usual gear.  I figured….walking around all day, 85 degree muggy NY weather…it was going to be hard just standing up…not to mention the frailties of my advanced age.
 
But every other image I tried to make, I was missing the pictures I wanted simply because of the auto-everything characteristics of the point and shoot camera.  When shooting the standard tourist photo of the Statue of Liberty, I raised the camera up, composed, and press the shutter… It was a quickie.
 
Figure 2I’ve spent decades refining my seamless compose/shoot movement…HOWEVER, when I put the camera down almost a full second later…I heard the shutter go off (top). Checking the back of the camera I notice an odd picture of my knee.  I must say it’s one of the finest memorable moments on my touring of the East Coast…but not the intended image.
 
Talk about shutter delay…with these point and shoot cameras, one must be clairvoyant about what one shoots. The timing for point and shoot cameras should be 1) press the shutter button, 2) thinking about what to shoot, 3) compose….then 4) hope the camera goes off at the correct “moment”.
 
People may think I’m exaggerating…but trust me, I’m NOT.