Cheapest fast shutter digital camera

Baddass · 13 Nov 2011 at 12:50

Hi. Can anyone suggest what is the cheapest high shutter speed digital camera available? I don't need it to be particularly great as I have an existing camera which is fine for general pics, point and shoot etc, but one thing it is missing is a manually configurable shutter setting. I need a cheap camera where you can manually set the shutter speed including 1/1000 and 1/2000 secs. As cheap as possible as long as its not awful

Thanks

K.C. Leblanc · 13 Nov 2011 at 15:17

Most dslrs can manage 1/4000 of a second, even something quite basic and old like a Nikon D40. You probably get one for a shade over £200 with a basic lens.

If you want something even cheaper I've just had a look at my Fuji S1500, it'll do 1/2000th and will it's current equivelent the S2950. Both have manual exposure.

Can I ask what you need that shutter speed for? Bare in mind you will need a lot of light you use such high shutter speeds.

Raymond Lin · 13 Nov 2011 at 15:38

High shutter means less light, it also means you will a fast lens when it's not a bright sunny day.

SMed · 13 Nov 2011 at 15:51

What exactly are you trying to freeze in motion?

matja · 14 Nov 2011 at 13:55

A Nikon D70 will do 1/8000 second shutter and 1/500 flash sync (think there is a simple mod to allow even higher), which should be cheaper than even a D40. The D70 has the AF motor for the older lenses, too. They still take a cracking image for their age IMO.

Baddass · 14 Nov 2011 at 16:22

thanks guys. I need the camera to take photographs of a stopwatch type program running on a monitor which has an accuracy to 3 decimal places (i.e 1.001 seconds etc). and i need to be able to capture the changes of this stopwatch at 1000th of a second as a result. recommended camera setting is 1/1000 or 1/2000 of a second, but i need a camera with a manually configurable shutter speed to achieve this.

The current camera i use for this i am having to replace but i don't need the new camera for anything else really at all, hence the request for a low cost option. doesn't need to do much else or have a high MP count either as it wont be used for actual photos really.

thanks

Tomsk · 14 Nov 2011 at 17:01

If it's running on a normal CRT or LCD monitor the screen refresh rate is going limit any changes. At 120hz, the screen will be refreshing every 0.008333333.... seconds.

You might want to consider high speed cameras, like these from Casio
http://www.exilim.co.uk/exilimhighspeed/

I think Olympus and Sony also have cameras with hi-speed video.