The wife and I are planning on buying a new digital camera in the very near future. We have an older Sony that isn't terrible, but has 2 strikes against it: The screen on the back is very small (around an inch or so) and most importantly, it takes a longgggggggg time between pressing the button and actually taking the picture.
We have a 5 month old daughter, and with our current camera we hit the button, a red light comes on, and it flashes twice. Needless to say, when you're trying to capture a smile or a great moment on film, having a 2 or 3 second delay before the picture is taken really ruins the moment. She goes from having a great smile on her face to looking confused at all the lights going off, nevermind the actual time it takes for the picture to capture in the first place. Very annoying.
The screen doesn't seem to be such a huge issue with newer cameras, as most that I've looked at have a 2.5 inch LCD screen which is fine.
However, I'm having trouble (being a rookie at this stuff) knowing which cameras take a quick picture. So......I have a few quick questions for all the fine folk on CP:
1) How do you know which cameras take quick pictures? Is that related to shutter speed?
2) I've read that getting a camera with a good lens is more important than megapixels. How do you know if a camera has a good lens or not?
3) How important is optical zoom? Is 3x or 4x enough, or should I be looking at at least 5 or 6?
4) Which camera makes should I look at (Canon, Panasonic, Kodak?) and which ones should I steer clear of?
5) Anyone have any suggestions for a camera they think would fit my needs at a cost of around $300-350 or less?
Thanks very much in advance for any help........I need it!
