Powershot S400 poor with action shots

[Rambler]

I have tried several times to take photos at swim meets with the S400 but with no luck. The delay in the photo actually shooting is so long that I always miss the action.

Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

I have even tried pressing the shutter half in to make it auto focus, but it still delays.

Once at a bicycle race I could not take any pictures because the action would be past before the shutter released.

Ideas?

Rambler

[sykocus]

try locking the focus and the exposure. half press the shutter and then press the maco/landsacpe button for focus lock and then the flash button for exposure lock. also try setting it in high speed continous mode. all these things help, but the fact is shutter lag is simply a downfall of most point and shoot digital cameras.

[S45_fornow...]

I have tried several times to take photos at swim meets with the S400 but with no luck. The delay in the photo actually shooting is so long that I always miss the action.

Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

I have even tried pressing the shutter half in to make it auto focus, but it still delays.

Once at a bicycle race I could not take any pictures because the action would be past before the shutter released.

Ideas?

Rambler

The S400 is not the best choice of camera for action shots, but here are a few tips:

Practice panning the camera to follow the moving subject. After pressing the shutter button, continue to pan with the subject till the pic has been taken.

As another poster has recommended, try using focus and exposure lock, then take your pic as the subject moves past you (while panning if you want the subject in focus). Try to shoot the subjects as they are moving past you from at an angle (side-to-side) and not as they are moving directly toward you or away from you.

Practice, practice, practice...

Hope this helps some.

[Rambler]

Thanks for the input. I do try panning and find the lag to be around 2 seconds long This allows for you to keep a swimmer in the view finder, but a biker is impossible.

I have not tried the exposure lock and focus lock. I thought that pressing the shutter half way did that. I also have tried continuous but found the delay often meant pictures of an empty road or the back of a racer.

As you said, maybe the camera just does not handle action well.

I will try these things.

Thanks again.
Rambler

[Rambler]

I tried the camera over the weekend extensively to test these Ideas and got concerned.

First let me preface my results with that I got a new 2Gb Kingston Elite card for the camera that I assumed would speed things up a bit. But it appears not to have helped. The camera did not react faster when using exposure or focus lock. Actually the camer seems to have gotten slower.
On several occasions, I was taking a group photo and counted out "1 2 3 cheese". The picture would not take for an additional 1-2 seconds after I pressed the button. This often caused for bad pictures because people would move after "cheese" think the photo had been taken. I have gone over all the settings I know might affect this but can't seem to find anything.

Should I reset the camera?

Rambler