Shutter Delay in Digital Cameras

In most cases this delay is small enough and not noticeable but when taking action photos, when trying to capture an event that just happened or when trying to capture a moving object this delay can result in a photo that just missed the action. When using a digital camera to take action photos you will notice that there is a delay between the time you press the shutter button to the time the camera actually takes the photo. A shutter delay is defined as the time gap between pressing the shutter button to the camera actually capturing the photo. There is no shutter delay in film cameras as in these cameras the shutter button is virtually connected to the shutter itself and holding down the button results in the camera taking a photo immediately. In digital cameras the shutter button is connected to a built-in micro computer and holding down the shutter button initiates a series of events that result in capturing a photo. When you press the shutter button the camera goes through a series of setup events in order to get all its electronics ready. Only when these events are finished can the camera capture the photo. The time it takes for the camera to complete these events can vary but is usually around one second or so. When taking subsequent photos there is an addition delay as a result of the camera compressing the photo and writing it to the slow flash memory.