My wife wants a small camera that she can keep in her purse / small handbag for impromptu "kid shots"
would prefer best resolution possible and it needs to be FAST ( ie can catch the kids in motion).
She had a sony ( can't recall which) that was way to slow.
I am a camera idiot and really need the help from our Teamspeed experts.
thanks,
Doc B

 

Hate to break it to you, because you are not going to like the answer.

We bought a fancy schmancy SONY DSC-T700 that has a 1/1000 shutter speed on Christmas. It is tiny, costed $400, and was still not fast enough (see my thread about me giving up and getting a DSLR).

I am not aware of any little cameras that can do better than this.

The DSLR's, for comparison, are at 1/4000 shutter speed.

I was actually complaining to my wife about this, and she said this, "We didn't know. Most people don't need a fancy big camera (she calls the DSLR fancy big camera). We do because kids don't sit still, and even in year 2009, the little fancy cameras are still just too slow.

So we are getting the Nikon D90 with the 35mm f/1.8G lense. We will start with the automatic mode, then at some point take some lessons.

 

Sorry Stuka but the max shutter speed is irrelevant ...

The "big fancy cameras" have lenses that let more light in, which means the actual shutter speed will be quicker (I've rarely seen more than 1/4-500), which in turns means your pics shouldn't be blurry. Anything above 1/60th should be okay.

Compact P&S have a "startup time", some are fast than others, couldn't really tell you which though.

Depends what SQN meant by too slow. Too slow as in "by the time the camera is read to shoot the action is over" or too slow as in "I press the shutter and it takes forever for the pic to snap"?

 

bingo!!!

 

Thanks for the education.

I deduced that it was the shutter speed problem because the P&S SONY we have is pretty fast when you press the button to hear the fake shutter noise, and yet it is still too slow.

So this picture turned out this way because the lens is crap and therefore not enough light came in fast enough for the shutter speed to matter?

 

Canon PowerShot G10 Review: 1. Introduction: Digital Photography Review

 

That's correct! Well ... shutter speed does matter, just not the maximum shutter speed. The small lens lets only so much light through, leading to a longer exposure, ie longer shutter open.

I'd check the exif of the pic to know exactly the "specs", but TS attachments lose the exif data in the upload process.
It's a combination of iso, f-stop and shutter speed.
If you upload it via imageshack or similar I could check it out. You can look it up in Photoshop too, "File Info". Tells you everything.



sine_qua_non ... you need an SLR if you want that sort of fast. The smallest (Canon Rebel or Nikon equivalent) will be just fine. I've used the best non-SLR camera ... and the cheapest SLR puts it to shame in that department.

Not really practical to carry around though ...

 

gracias!!!

 

I'm not a fan of the point-and-shoot, toss-in-purse type gear, but I have to echo Green's suggestion of the G10. It's a great little camera from what I've seen, and offers a ton of functionality considering its package. That said, I'd still lean towards a Nikon D-SLR any day of the week. But, they don't fit your needs. So enjoy the G10 .