4 July 2009
Most modern compact digital cameras have a self timer feature. The purpose of this is to provide a delay between pressing the shoot button, and the camera actually taking the photo. This is used by photographers to take self portraits, hence the name self timer.
There are however, other advantages to using a self timer. If you are using a powerful zoom, or taking a photo in low light conditions, pressing the shoot button can often result in unwanted camera shake at the point of capture. This is avoided when using the self timer feature, and therefore also reduces the need for a tripod mount.
Many digital cameras provide a selection of different times, the Canon Digital IXUS 90 IS for example, lets you select either 2 or 10 seconds, alternatively you can enter a custom time.
With the introduction of face detection and recognition technology, there is now an alternative to the self timer. A face timer is a great way to take self portrait or group shots, and works by again delaying the time between pressing the shoot button and actually taking the photo, but it uses face detection technology to wait until an extra face is detected in the shot before capturing the image.
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