Shutter lag on Note 3 . . .

[DemDog]

I hate digital photography especially on a smartphone. Guess too many years with an old fashioned SLR and film have me spoiled and I just don't get the hang of digital photography.

But I have settled on using my Note 4 for taking snapshots. One problem though is that when I am in a low light situation and need to use the flash I get this horrendous amount of shutter lag (the time needed to actually take the pix) after I have touched the shutter button on the stock camera app. The result is that the subject may move and thus the photo that I wanted does not happen.

This situation kinda reminds me of one Matthew Brady, the famous Civil War photographer and early photography where the subject had to remain motionless for quite a long time while the camera let in the proper amount of light.

It there anyway to get the stock camera app on the Note 3 to take the flash pix without all the shutter lag?

 

[mikedt]

Sure there isn't any way of speeding it up, it's the limitation of phone cameras, some are better than others. On my Oppo phone, it's about a 1/4 second between pressing the button and shutter firing, which is better than the Samsung I had before that.

Whereas a DSLR or the better(more expensive) point and shoot, superzoon compacts will usually be pretty much instant, but then other hand some can cost thousand bucks or much more. A thing with LED flash, that very much all phones have, it's no good for freezing the action of a fast moving subject, unlike the xenon strobe flash that real cameras have, which fires instantly without lag.

I find LED flash on phones to be much more useful as a flashlight than for taking photos with anyway.

 

[DemDog]

As I figured. No way to make the smartphone camera anything like an SLR or DSLR. I guess I need to go find a half way decent point and shoot digital for my current needs.

Thanks for the confirmation on what I was hoping was not true.

 

[mikedt]

Cameras in phones are getting better, certainly compared to what they used to be. The camera is only really a small part of a smart-phone, compared to a dedicated DSLR or modern superzoom compact.

For me really the convenience of always having a camera on me, I used to have an SLR but it was often in the bag at home rather than always on me. And just got outings for special occasions, holidays, etc. I have an Oppo F7a, which has quite a good camera as phone cameras go, the shutter is quite fast and has an f2 lens, but it does have all the limitations of LED flash when trying to use it for photography rather than as a flashlight...LOL.

There have been a couple of phones, that have had real camera features, like instant shutter, xenon strobe flash and a real zoom lens. But don't think they sold very well. Basically a compact camera with a phone built in. There are smart-cameras now, DSLR and zuperzoom compacts, that have WiFi internet and Android in them, but they don't make phone calls though.