Monday, August 24, 2009

Point and Shoot: Focus Lock

One of the worst things about point and shoot cameras is pushing the button and then having to wait two or three seconds before the camera takes a picture. You wait for just the right moment when your child opens his present and then snap. But instead of capturing the look of surprise you get the awkwardly contorted returning-to-normal face like this:
This is an unfortunate fact of life which can't be totally avoided, but there is something you can do to minimize the problem.

Part of what causes point and shoot cameras to be slow when taking a picture is focusing. When you push the button, the camera first focuses on your subject before capturing the image. However, if you push the button half way down, the camera will go ahead and focus on your subject. Then when you are ready, you can push the button down the rest of the way (don't let up in between.)
Keep in mind that your camera will be focused at a specific distance. So you don't want to change the distance between your camera and subject once you have the button half way down or you will end up with blurry pictures.