When I teach a new class learning digital photography, over 75% of the students turn up with the camera the salesman suggested.

Guess what? They soon find out that its wrong one for them. This can be a very expensive mistake. So the big questions are what is the right one for me and how do I know which is best for me.

One of the first things that you want to know about the camera that the salesman is trying to sell you is as follows - How long does the camera take to turn on and be ready to take the shot? In the consumer market this can range between 1 to 5 seconds most being towards the 5 seconds mark. How long does the camera take to focus on the subject? (not to take the picture) most cameras take between 1 to 3 seconds most at around the 1 second mark. How long does the camera take to actually take the photo after you have pushed the shutter button completely? Again, most cameras take between 1to 3 seconds. Now you can see to take a photo can take up to 5 seconds just to turn on and up to another 3 seconds to focus in and the up to another 3 seconds just to actually take the photo.

In a cheaper camera, but not necessarily cheaper it can be up to 9 seconds to take a photo. You may say