i m planing to buy a point and shoot digital camera, there are two options in nikon, i like both the cams but i am confused in one matter.
the details are as follows.
nikon cool pix l820 - max shutter speed 1/1500 and minimum shutter speed of 4 sec
nikon cool pix l820 - max shutter speed 1/4000 and minimum shutter speed of 1 sec
so if i purchase the first one(which is in my budget) what will be the effect of shutter speed on the photos.
please reply as soon as possible
As you have not provided the different camera names , i'll try to answer based on the info you have provided.
TO make it simple , during answering i will not take into account the other factors such as aperture , iso and will suppose that you have adjusted them automatically for different shutter speed , skip this if you don't know what i mean.
1st camera which has shutter speed range of 1/1500s - 4s can be used to take pics in normal conditions but if you want to take a picture of very fast moving objects such as a honeybee(while it is flying over a flower) such that its wings appear freezed in the picture then you will need very high shutter speed (shutter speed >= 1/4000 sec) with very high shutter speed image may come out like this http://www.freewebs.com/honeybeesrule/honeybeefly.jpg
but 1st camera only support maximum shutter speed of 1/1500 sec , so the image may come out like this (wings appear blurry). http://www.freewebs.com/honeybeesrule/honeybee.jpg
None of these picture is bad , but it all depends on the type of picture you want to take.
Similarily the lower shutter speed can be used for some effects too , you might have seen images of waterfall in which the water appears milky and smooth , they are taken at a low shutter speed but remember that low shutter speed requires the use of tripod so that images dont come out blurry because of camera shake.
See these two photos and you'll know what i mean
shutter speed - 4 sec http://blog.sigmaphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/11-05-01-Buttermilk-Falls-Shutter-Speed-Tests-4s_1k.jpg
shutter speed - 1/500 sec http://blog.sigmaphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/11-05-01-Buttermilk-Falls-Shutter-Speed-Tests-1-500s_1k.jpg
So before buying any of these two camera , you've gotta ask yourself what type of photos you take more and then choose wisely. I think most probably you will want a camera with high shutter speed , as i dont think you would bother to take a tripod with a compact camera but thats just me .
PS - These pics are not mine and i've just used them to explain to you what image different shutter speeds can get you for the same subject
