Sony Cybershot Digital Camera

[Chasingcars]

Does anyone have this camera? Ive noticed that when taking pictures with flash there is a really long delay before it takes the pic so finding myself ' missing the moment' as the shutter speeds seems really slow.
Is this something that can be adjusted??

[frugalfred]

It may be the autofocus adjusting.

[Fitzer]

Have you got the anti red-eye feature on as this slows things right down on cameras, basically it flashes to make peoples pupils close up and then flashes again to take the picture. Some compact cameras have very long shutter lag anyway though so it might just be that I'm afraid. Focussing can also cause the problem as Fred says but the way around that is to half press the shutter so that it achieves focus and then complete the press when the 'moment' arrives.

[jno]

also, the camera may need to take a deep breath after the last flash photo, so it won't be able to take more than one in a hurry.

[Chasingcars]

Fitzer...i think you may hav hit the nail on the head as now i think about it the camera does double flash, hadht really thought about it before- thankyou.
If i change settings and take anti red eye off, does that mean all future pics will have red eye??

[Fitzer]

The answer is really 'it depends', the anti red-eye only really works for posed shots where people are looking at the flash and if they're doing that you can get them to hold still for the second flash and you're sorted. If the subject isn't looking toward the camera they're not going to get red-eye anyway and if you do get shots with red-eye you can fix them on the computer afterwards anyway. I switch it on and off as seems best to me at the time, but better a shot with red-eye than missing your chance.

[Chasingcars]

Great thanks Fitzer thats most helpful, will try and play around with camera today!
On another note relating to the same subject, you know in proffesional pictures the subject in the foreground is in focus and the background is out of focus, is that something that can only be done with higher spec cameras or could i achieve something similar with my digital camera?

[Fitzer]

The artfully blurred background is known as bokeh and is the effect of a very shallow depth of field, so if the item is 10 feet away the items in focus would maybe range from 9.5 feet away to 10.5 and anything nearer or further would be blurred. Unfortunately this is a an effect of the relationship between the size of the hole letting in the light (aperture) and the focal length of the lens, in the case of a compact camera both of these are very small which leads to a large depth of field (there are technical articles which explain why this is so), on slr cameras these numbers are larger and the depth of field gets less. The best way to get anything approaching good bokeh on a compact is to zoom the lens to it's fullest extent and try to have the item being photographed as far in front of the background as possible.