Question on DSLR next shot lag?

Question

You see I bought this camera that has super zoom,image stabilizer, 6 MP. I did not want to buy another format type DSLR. Did not want to start over again buying lenses. I used a 35mm Nikon for many years. My choice I thought was a good one- the Sony DSC-H2.
I missed some great shots today because of 1 sec next shot delay.I got real mad at any delay. I forgot it had burst of shots. My question:
Do DSLR have ANY next shot delay?

Answer 1

DSLR's are GREAT with virtually zero shutter lag. I won't say that it is ZERO, but you'd need a scientific instrument to measure the shutter lag. In the real world, we can say that it is zero. I have never missed a shot due to shutter lag.

Now... I'm not saying that there are not situations where it might take a fraction of a second for the autofocus to lock on, but again - I've never felt cheated out of a shot with a DSLR the way that you do with a point and shoot. If you go to sites comparing shutter lag of various cameras, you won't even find DSLR's listed.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyh2/page4.asp says that your camera takes about 1.3 seconds shot-to-shot. You can see that pre-focusing with "half-press" of the shutter cuts the time from full press to capturing the image to an amount measured in hundredths of a second.

You can look at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond80/page12.asp and see that a D80 can go from _POWER_OFF_ to taking the shot in less than a tenth of a second.

From that page: "The D80 is fast, very fast, there's very little you can do with the camera which leaves you feeling it is having to catch up with you. Startup is as good as instant (as the camera is in a sort of perpetual sleep mode when off), playback and menus feel snappy, continuous shooting performs as specified and write performance to the SD card is excellent. There's one more performance related item we don't measure and that's 'blackout time', the amount of time the viewfinder is obscured by the mirror during a shutter release. Nikon claim this to be around 160 ms and we can well believe it, seemingly very brief, impressive."

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos400d/page12.asp says: "The overall performance of the EOS 400D was good although not perhaps as 'snappy' in-use as its major competitor, the Nikon D80. Startup 'off to shot' time is as good as instant, which means assuming you are sure of camera settings you can flick the power switch and take a shot (auto focus willing) within a few tenths of a second."

The Canon was also able to take a shot in less than 1/10th of a second, but read the comments.

I think this is so cool. Go to http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond200/page12.asp to check out the D200, which (as you know) is my camera. "Power off to shot" was zero-point-zero seconds.

With any of the SLR's, you can use the continuos mode (as you can with your Sony) and pretty much eliminate shutter lag. The D200 motors along at over 5 frames per second, if you want. In the time it takes me to type the word "click," the camera could take five pictures. Your Sony continuous mode takes "one-plus" per second, depending on file size. You'll see that on the chart, too.