help buying camera

The things you describe are about the settings on your camera, not the camera itself. You can change the settings. Read the ****ing manual :-)

yea, i thought so in the beginning, and yes i read the manual, i turn off autozoom, which is extremely time consuming, so yea, no autozoom, but even after youve manually focused, there is still a delay embedded into the camera is unchangable

almost every reputable brand of digital camera does that these days.
If there is a delay between pressing the shutter and the picture taking it'll be down to the picture needing a longer exposure.

I hope you mean 'auto focus' as I've never seen a camera that can 'autozoom' and frame your subjects for the perfect picture.

My advice:

1) Buy a magazine - web sites are great but I find reading a magazine such as What Digital Camera or something similar that is tailored to people buying digital cameras are excellent for advice and you can compare features with your needs.

2) Don't go for the highest megapixel you can find unless you need it.
Unless you have an A3 photo printer and will be printing giant you're unlikely to actually need anything above 5MP, and you'll save money on memory cards too.

3) The last two digital compacts I've owned and loved and have NEVER had a problem are Panasonic Lumix models and I'd highly recommend them, or Sony cameras, or Canon's.

Oh, and the best advice has to be, go to a camera shop and play with them.

oops, my bad, i wasnt thinking about it that much, sorry, yeah i mean auto focus, thanks, i think that i will go to a camera store, probably will get the best results

My entry-level Canon digital camera has a number of settings that don't use the delay you and plugz describe, based on what I'm shooting, light conditions, etc.

Definitely go to a camera store. I thought you had already done that when you said you were looking at cameras.

ive been browsing the internet for a week, i want to catch instant candid shots, so im also thinking about a camera with a LCD screen pops out so i can catch candid shots of people

This site has incredible amount of in-depth reviews on many digital cameras:
http://www.dpreview.com/

thank you, this should help a bunch

All digitals should have a delay as Plugz describes. You really need to read your manual and you'd learn that these are good things.

Push your button half down, then it will focus, all the way down and it can take the picture. You don't want to just click. You will get blurry images because your camera does not have time to see what you're wanting to focus on. You have to do this with old film cameras too.

i understand the autofocus and the time needed for auto focus, but i have seen friends with old digital cameras that will take an instant picture, i dont mind doing the auto focus, but the delay after the auto focus is what gets me

Most old 35mm cameras were very basic point and shoot models that you just took photos with, the trouble is, they didn't very often produce very good pictures.

The reason for the delay as you put it is likely to be down to the conditions in which you're shooting, the digital cameras nowadays make automatic adjustments to the shutter speed and other settings to make sure your picture comes out right.

For average shits it'll be instant, but there will be times in dark settings where you'll have a second or two before it takes as the camera tries to get a decent exposure.

That said, this isn't a big issue, none of my digital cameras have a noticeable delay, apart from perhaps while processing the image before displaying it on the screen, but just because the screen goes black while the camera is working doesn't mean it hasn't taken.

I've just grabbed my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7 off the shelf and run off a few pictures, there is a half second delay between the first and second shutter clicks, however moving the camera in between those times doesn't affect the picture, it still is an instant take.

What makes you worry about this delay?
It's not something I've ever come in general use across with digital cameras except for SLRs which do it on purpose.

so your saying that even with the delay, if the first shutter clicks, i will have captured the image of the first click, no matter what my picture may look like on my second click?
i'm unhappy with my current camera because i often like taking candid shots of people without them noticing, and capture a more natural aspect of there lives, rather than what u usually get when u stick a camera in someones face, it may seem like 1 sec dosnt matter, but it easily ruins the whole affect if they notice u

Again, with reference to my entry-level Canon, you can opt for the "sports" or "action" setting, which fires off a series of several autofocused shots within nanoseconds of each other. At least one of them is likely to be a perfect capture.

Digital photography still hasn't outstripped the artistic potential of film, and a lot of folks (myself included) may never want to give up the road feel of a real camera. There are a lot of pros and cons to consider.

A real camera shop (I'm not talking Wal-Mart here!) can cut through all of them for you and help you arrive at the best compromise the market offers at present. But of course, next year.....

yes thats another complication, if i buy something nice expensive thats top quality this year, theres a 90% chance that next year there will be a new camera that will outstrip everything that i bought that camera for,
my old camera had that setting, but i used it for when i was having trouble getting a good quality shot of something, i would turn that on and it would snap away, i never tried to take my candid photos with the setting though

Out of curiosity...

[and to answer your question, yes, the first click the shutter closes and the image is saved, then the second click is the shutter re-opening again.]

i have a sony, im not sure of the model or anything, i hate it, havnt touched it in a long time, i prefer my manual. as i said before, my recent goal is to capture candid pictures, and thats hard to do with a Canon, unless its from a distance, so a good solution for me would be getting a small portable camera that takes a quick picture and has a LCD screen so i could take pictures from my waist with the person being unaware of the camera,

ok, good, i'll keep that in mind

Basically thing vary widely across models by the same brand.

Like I say, I really highly recommend Panasonic Lumix cameras, they are great, sturdy, cameras and perform really well in my experience, I've had two of them now and both are great, I'm considering buying a third at the moment as the one I have now is a bit long in the tooth. I'm getting either the DMC-TX3 or possibly the FX30-7MP but I'm drawn to the former due to the features vs. cost.

On a side note, all this talk of candid picstures I hope you're not taking up skirt pictures or any other infringement of person.

haha, no im not desperate or anything, when i say candid i mean pictures of people before they see the camera and strike a pose

i think i'll take a look at some of those camera's, my friends have all suggested moving away from sony, none of them really like the cameras that sony gives,

do u know any good lumex, or any other type of camera that has a LCD screen that flips out, that is one of my top priorities

Most of the cameras I've seen with screens like that tend to have pretty poor reviews. the only ones I really know of are the various Sanyo models that are video cameras too but the actual picture performance seems to be below par on those.

I know Kodak brought one out recently, called the 'easyshare one' that may fit your bill but it's only 4mp.

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=6433&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=10096

edit:

Just seen they have a 6mp version too but i think it's been discontinued:

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=8994&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=10270

hmm, interesting, i'll read some reviews and then check it out at the store, there must be some good quality cameras out there that will suite my needs

Good luck!

Let us know what you go for.