Camera writes too slow

[afishlover]

I have a Sony DSCS85.

I use the camera for photographing pond fish, koi. The camera writes so slow by the time it is done writing, the fish is out of the photo or out of focus. How do I get around this problem?

Can some one recommend a better camera for my purpose?

A Fish Lover

[Chunk]

I have a Sony DSCS85.

I use the camera for photographing pond fish, koi. The camera writes so slow by the time it is done writing, the fish is out of the photo or out of focus. How do I get around this problem?

Can some one recommend a better camera for my purpose?

A Fish Lover

It sounds like your problem has more to do with slow shutter response time than writing speed. The lagtime between depressing the shutter button and exposure is the time the camera needs to determine exposure and automatically focus. If you have a setting that allows manually choosing aperture and shutter speed that will cut down on the time. Same for manual focus if available. The biggest lag is probably due to autofocus time so manually focussing will give you your biggest improvement.

Does your camera establish exposure settings and prefocus if you depress the shutter button only halfway? If so you can do that and then wait for the fish to get into a pleasing composition before pushing the shutter fully.

Shutter response was one of the main gripes I had with My Canon S30. The Panasonic FZ20 that I've recently replaced it with has an excellent shutter response. Many of the newer P&S cameras are much improved in this respect but it's a good idea to check the online camera reviewers who usually include shutter response as part of their evaluation.

The currrent digital SLRs have excellent shutter response if you want to make that much of an investment.

[Clemmie]

DSLR's tend to have the best response times, and the fastest write speeds. If you're do a lot of long bursts at the maximum frame rate, however, it is still possible to fill up the memory buffer, and have to wait a bit while it finishes writing to the card.

I do hear this complaint a lot, though, of having to wait for the camera to write to the card - to which I simply ask this: Do you think your Brain could compose and write that much data, that fast?

I don't think so, either - so let's stop expecting miracles.

[another view]

Like Chunk says, write speed is how fast the image writes to the card after it's been shot. When you shoot, the image first goes to the camera's buffer memory and then is written to the card. A slow write speed can hurt you if you shoot a lot of frames because the buffer may fill faster than they can be written to the card. Sports photographers pay most attention to this, because if the buffer's full you have to wait for space before you can shoot again.

I think the biggest problem is autofocus. If you can either focus manually (difficult on a compact digital) or pre-focus your life will be easier. To pre-focus, push the shutter down halfway to focus on something. Maybe put your hand in the water or focus on a rock, etc. Once the focus is locked, move the camera to recompose if needed and move your hand - but don't let go of the shutter. When the fish gets to the predetermined spot, shoot. Should be much, much less lag time.

[92135011]

want fast?
film would do you good.

Or...go for the newer CMOS canon SLR types.
They are said to be the fastest around when it comes to speed.

[afishlover]

Yes it has and I do use the auto focus and I think what is happening is a lot of the time the focus happens on the water and not on the fish and I end up with a blurry photos.

I have tried the manual focus and that always ends up blurry.

I bought the camera just to photograph the fish I sell and what a disappointment. I have gone back to using my old Sony which uses floppy disks. While it does a much better job of focusing, the quality of the photos is not the best. The new Sony was a whole lot more expensive and it does an awesome job of photos if you are not shooting moving objects.

Can some one recommend another camera that does nice quality photos on moving objects?

AFL

[Chunk]

Since you are talking about a narrow use for the camera, you might get more specific information from other fishlovers who are already taking successful shots of their fish. There are some rec.aquaria newsgroups and probably other online forums where you might find those folks. Find online fish sites whose photos you like and ask the site owners what techniques they use.