Er, did you miss the bit about light being needed for photography?

 Also from the time that I click on the shutter,

It's taking the amount of time it needs to gather sufficient light.

  Clearly

What do you know about exposures?

Do you know what an "f stop" is?

  If not, start Googling!

Exposures are determined by the "film speed", the exposure time, and the
aperture f stop. If you want a shorter exposure you either have to open
up the lens, or choose a faster "film speed".

 All cameras above the simplest point and shoot will give you control
over each of those. That and the related "exposure compensation".

An exposure taken at ASA 100 will take 8 times along as one taken at ASA
800.

 An exposure at f8 will take 8 times as long as one opened up to f 2.8.

  Now, a word about ASA film speed. and cameras. Faster "film" speed
means more "film" noise.

  Cameras with smaller sensors will be noisier than full sized SLR type
cameras. That's why pocket cameras have lower film speed settings. My
pocket A95 is as noisy at ASA 100 as my larger Rebel is at ASA 800.

  Now, I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that higher
megapixel sensors will be noisier than lower ones. Anyone know more
about this?

  Some cameras in the same class will have less noise at the same film
speed setting. I found it curious that you left out the one manufacturer
known for low noise at higher film speeds. That would be Canon.

  Lastly, if you are shooting landscape type night pictures, consider
steadying the camera, that's what tripods are for.

 HTH,

  Jeff

On May 13, 9:14 pm, rosamonte...@yahoo.ca wrote:

Really...?
-----

- gpsman

On Tue, 13 May 2008 18:14:39 -0700, rosamontes18 wrote:

FWIW - I've been very pleased with my Kodak P850. Unfortunately, the P
series has been discontinued but some are still available at very good
prices at the Kodak online store.

Regarding the time it takes to "take a picture". This delay has been the
Achilles heel of digital cameras since the early days in digital. This delay
(as compared to almost instant response with film cameras) is minimized,
generally, by the more money you spend on a camera.

There has been a great improvement in this delay time over the last few
years in all digital cameras. It would make sense that if you purchased
almost any new camera (compared to four years ago) that the response would
be better.

Having said that, I recently purchased a Nikon D60 as a companion to my
older Nikon D100. One thing I notice about these cameras is that they can
shoot very fast without much noticeable delay. Very nice for capturing
moving subjects.

One thing you should consider on your current camera to improve its response
time is to turn off red-eye reduction. Possibly turn off autofocus and focus
manually if your camera permits that. Also check into presetting White
Balance and turning off auto-WB. These things can drastically improve
response time.

About the blurry and dark images during night shots. Not much you can do
about that except use a tripod with longer exposures.

-Frank

Any of these mentioned will give good results.  I have a Fuji that I've
had for a few years and been very happy with it.  My daughter has a
Kodak and is very happy with that one.  We have both now moved on to
dSLRs (Nikons) for additional functionality but I find I still use my
old Fuji from time to time.

On May 14, 2:14 am, rosamonte...@yahoo.ca wrote:

FIrstly I think that to produce a list of makers before you know why
you are having the problems you are is a bit premature.

I'm also not clear if you are only having problems with night
photography, or if you are experiencing shutter delay on day photos.
For night photos you need to use a tripod.  Since there is a lot less
light the shutter had to be open a lot longer to gather enough to take
the photo, hence if the camera moves you get blurry images.  Whatever
camera you choose it will be the same for night photos, so a new
camera won't solve that problem.

If you are holding the camera at arm's length to use the LCD on the
back to frame the shot that will make the problem even worse.  I
always use the viewfinder, and one problem for me with most modern
compact cameras is that there is either no viewfinder, or it's very
hard to use.  My old Canon A70 has an excellent large bright optical
view finder and if only it had more pixels I would still be using it,
but 3.2 is not enough to produce quality A4 prints from given that I
frequenty crop the image, plus I want to be able to produce A3
prints.  My newer Fuji has a horrible electronic one which is much
harder to use.  My next camera will be a D-SLR and the quality of the
viewfinder will be part of how I choose which one to get.

Most digital cameras (D-SLRs are the exception) suffer from some
degree of shutter lag e.g. you press the button and there is a pause
before it actually takes the exposure.  However some are better/worse
than others.  It also takes time from pressing the power button to the
camera being ready to take photos - again this is shorter with D-SLRs
than with compact cameras, and both I imagine are a case of getting
what you pay for.

I'd be interested in how you narrowed your choice of brands down,
especially since you don't seem to know what the problem is and you
seem to have eliminated the makers of some very fine camers - I would
expect to see Canon and Olympus on the list.

BTW the image quality from my Fuji is pretty grim if I save JPGs - it
oversharpens leading to halos where there is a junction between bright
and dark areas.  It is probably only a problem for me as I enter
camera club competitions and most judges have eagle eyes when it comes
to that kind of problem.  It's a camera with a 10x zoom as well, and
is prone to 'purple fringes' (caused by chromatic aberation) which
again is a case of getting what I paid for - it was a cheap camera.
With a D-SLR the first is down to the quality of the image processing
in the camera (and how it's setup), but the second is down the the
quality of the lens(es).

On May 13, 8:14 pm, rosamonte...@yahoo.ca wrote:

Anything under about 60/ sec needs a tripod, or set it on a solid
surface and use the timer. did you try that first. Night photography
can enter alot of noise, an old sony I have has special noise
reduction for night work. You should test what ever you want before
you buy it or you might be unhappy.

I am not quite sure what it is that I'm doing...

You have a DSLR which cost many hundreds of £/$.

You come out with the above statement.

I have to laugh at digital users.