Point & Shoot with Low Shutter Lag?

[dhaslag]

Looking for a point and shoot camera. Need advice. Features I'd like:

1. Low shutter lag ... at start up, between photos, when using the flash

2. 12+ mp, not more than $350, prefer something fairly compact but not too small

3. Good/excellent photo quality, decent flash (I know you can't expect much on a compact camera.)

4. Good zoom

Will mainly be used for vacations, family gatherings. Don't need a bunch of extras because I won't take the time to learn them.

A couple I'm considering include the Panasonic Lumix DMCZS 20 and the Nikon Coolpix S9100. I'm not set on these though.

Any advice?

[SIMON40]

Start up times on compacts with large zooms tends to be in the region of two seconds or so- enabling extension of all that glass..!
Once fired up- the TZ-20 is a pretty swift performer- with good AF speeds and shot to shot speed of about 0.3 secs. The zoom however is quite slow in operation- with wide angle to telephoto taking quite some time- 5 secs apparently..!
With regards flash recycle times- the nikon S9100 is quite speedy- roughly ready to shoot again in about one second..!
Others to consider might be the ZS-15 (less zoom and mono audio on video- but arguably better IQ),Sony HX20v,Canon's SX range (230/240/260HS).

[dhaslag]

I was just looking at the Sony HX20V. I'll take a look at the Canons too and make a decision. I'm not a very good decision-maker but with it narrowed down to just 4 cameras, I can surely decide. Thank you!

[hoffam19]

For what it's worth, I've owned dslr's for a few years now, and I just picked up the HX20V as a lightweight solution for backpacking and I've been very impressed with picture quality. It has 20x optical zoom which I feel is pretty good for it's size, quick start up, sweet in camera panoramic feature that works great. I haven't tried any rapid shooting, so I can't say anything about recycle times. AF seems to be pretty quick in most cases and it seems to have decent low light performance.