What is a good camera which do not blur if my hand is shaky yet inexpensive? Possibly less than S$200?

Question

What is time lag? and which camera is good if taken at night time?

Answer 1

Your pictures are blurry because the shutter speed is adjusting itself to be slow (probably 1/60 second or less) to allow enough light in for the image to be properly exposed.

The bigger around the camera lens, the more light the iris allows in, so the faster shutter speeds the camera can use. Try to look for a camera with f2 as its maximum aperture. These can cost a bit more because the larger aperture lenses are more expensive to make, but if you don't try to get a huge megapixel camera with a fast lens (large aperture), but rather stick to a slightly older camera, say a model from a year or two ago, you can get one with a fast lens, say 3-5 megapixels, and a low price.

Optical image stabilization is something that good camcorders, and now some digital cameras have, that helps eliminate blurriness. Digital image stabilization is a cheaper and less effective way to try to accomplish the same thing. Both are poor attempts to compensate for insufficient light reaching the camera's/camcorder's sensor.

A wide (fast) lens is the best way to get unblurry lenses.

Also look for a setting like "Sports" or "Action" on the camera ... this means the camera is going to choose a fast shutter speed (and consequently, open the lens up wide to allow light in) to freeze action. Try this setting on your current camera before buying a new one.

Answer 2

You are talking about the anit-shake feature. It is only available by Sony now since they bought Minolta. I don't think they are available for the cheaper models. You will have to pay $200 to $300 to get one that comes with this feature.

Shutter lag is the time between you push the shutter release button and the image is captured. The very good cameras have almost zero lag. For cheaper camera, sometimes the lag is as much as half a second.

At far as night time pictures, most cameras come with night scene mode. As long as you have the camera on a tripod, they all do an ok job.

Answer 3

I ran a search at www.dpreview.com for cameras with image stabilization for under $200, and got just four results:
Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 (4MP, zoom 35-420mm)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS2 (5MP, zoom 35-105mm)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2 (5MP, zoom 37-222mm)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3 (5MP, zoom 37-222mm)
On paper, the Panasonic LZ3 should be the best of these four cameras in low light situations because you can crank the ISO setting higher than on the other models, but according to the review at Steve's Digicams the results were disappointing. It's a capable camera for general use, however.
You can read the in-depth reviews for all models yourself at http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html
To answer your second question, by time lag I suppose you mean either:
* shutter lag: the delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera actually taking the shot - with point & shoots generally 1/10th second. And you can add another 1/10th second delay due to the electronic viewfinder. For these reasons, point & shoot cameras are not particularly suited for action shots.
* time lapse: a feature where you can set the camera to take a picture every x seconds or minutes automatically. You can use this feature to set the camera on a tripod and record the changing sky at night, for example.

Answer 4

I have saw ads on Panasonic cameras having that function... U might wanna check them out... N U can try online auction sites like ebay and yahoo to get them at reduced prices...

But actually when taking pics with flash, the pics will not be blurry... I know because I too have shaky hands... =)

Answer 5

Simple. Use a tripod or monopod which will help in stabilising your camera. You can also use a shutter release which will further help in reducing the shake.

For much higher budgets, you can use image stabilised lenses.

Answer 6

try cheapest prices search engine and you can find a camera that will fit your needs and save time and money. i shop a lot and they work for me.

lisa