Digital SLR Recommendation

[texascity]

shutter lag & long zoom & AA batteries were my main criteria.

 

the Konica Minoltas are some of the lowest lag (<.1 sec) & 12x zoom with stabilization.

I have the older Z3 .. up to the Z6 now.

 

I also lub the ability to take a continious stream of pics of live action..

waiting for an event to take place ( ball thrown / bird fly / BG spit / dog scratch ) I just set it to take 4 frames per second until the shutter button is released .. & very often I will get the 1 cool action shot out of dozens (& dozens .. & dozens) taken sequentially

 

waiting for a water bird to take off can burn a lot of memory .. but pretty cool pics.. the 12x (= 400mm zoom w/ macro) allows for incredable action close ups

 

for sports type spontaneous pics shutter lag is of most critical importance.

how many wonderful shots have been missed because the damn digital camera was lagging..

 

I 'hate' my 10x zoom Olympus becasue of shutter lag

.. 1 second lag makes live shots impossible.

the olympus takes better pics .. but seemed to miss the ones I really wanted because of lag

the elephant from a tuk tuk requires a low lag (& a sequential stream of zoomed pics to get the exact right composition)

 

(I seldom do 'layout w/ lighting' type pics .. requiring magazine quality images .. mine are always viewed as compressed .jpg anyway)

 

a camera review site I found invaluable:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/

 

I love my ultra-quick ( was quickest available 18 months ago) 12 x zoom Z3.

sports & action are it's sweet spot.

 

digital slrs are out of my sub $400 camera price range.