Questions - New Camera

I am thinking about buying the new z981 camera when it hits the market .It seems to have all the features I want in a digital camera . I am in a wheelchair and can't haul all the usual DSLR crap around (and if I bought one I'd have all the crap ) what I need to know from someone with a Z980 is the best FPS rate and is it fast writing to the SDcard . I have a Z715 and the write speed was abysmal .Thanks

Hi landshrk5, I use a 2GB Transcend HC card with my Z980 and have never had problems with writing speed. You can snap away as fast as you can focus. Or you may select the burst mode to save the top three or bottom three frames. In this mode the speed is a little more than one frame per second (I think), but then again you may be able to take up to 9 frames before the buffer becomes full. At this point you may have to wait a second or so for it to complete the write cycle. I'm just going by memory here, so someone may correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks , Ireally liked the pictures from my old kodak but the write speed was a rub . From what I've read about the 981 it might be what I want . I was looking at all the superzooms and have a S5IS Canon now and have always been a Canon fan but for a 26X zoom I just might cheat in Canon . I kinda miss the days of hauling a big sack of camerrrra junk around but it's like a big tacklebox , buy a big one and you just buy more unnescessary stuff to fill it .

My Z980 is no speed deamon. In P mode it has a delay of about 2 seconds between pics. In Smart Capture the delay between shots seems a fraction of a second longer. Rushing between shots leads to out of focus shots.

It will take up to nine reduced pixel pics (3.1 MP) in slightly under two seconds. Then there is a delay of about eight seconds until the camera is ready to shoot again.

The processing time between shots is a firmware/hardware function and so there is no telling if the Z981 will be the same as the Z980.

Hi Bob, there is no need to wait for the cam to complete writing before taking the next shot. As I said you can shoot as fast as you can focus. I've never waited between shots ever.

I can take a second shot with my Z980 without waiting. The third and subsequent shots have a two second, or so, delay. Am I missing something? It would not be the first time today.

Thanks guys ,I'll just have to wait for the camera to come out . The write speed is the only complaint and it is a deal breaker for me . I was on line with a tech from Kodak the other day and she did not have enough of a database for the new camera to answer my questions . My Canon takes appx. 1 frame per second (no burst function) but yopu can shoot your card full with no delay . If speed is still a problem I just might have to short myself 6X and 2 megapixels and go with the Canon S20IS The 2MP is no biggi ,but I will hate losing that extra 6X zoom . My curse has always beencameras , cars and women . Had a bunch of all of them , only got good at some of them and had trouble with most of them .Trouble is that the new stuff comes out before you get too comfortable with what you have .

When I sold cameras and electronics years go ,I always told my customers to pick out what they wanted and stop looking at any more stuff cause even back then the technoogy was fast enough to be a constant problem . Now it's so fast it is hard to keep up...

I use a San Disk Extreme III with a 30 mb/s throughput rate and the camera will take pictures as long as I hold down the shutter in burst mode. It does slow down in direct relation to the megapixel count, but it will keep taking pictures. Here's the link to my original post.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1011&message=33247861&q=burst+mode&qf=m

The Z1015 does the same thing.

Very handy info , thanks .i think i will try the 981 out when it hts the market .