What is shutter-lag or the shutter delay?

Shutter lag is defined as the delay between triggering the shutter (i.e. when the photographer presses the shutter button) and when the photograph is actually recorded. It is one of the common issue in the photography world, specially for those who photograph fast moving objects. Shutter lag is a problem in action photography or any other photography where there's some motion to capture. In simpler sense, it is defined as the time gap between when the shutter is pressed / released and when the photo is taken. It also includes metering and focus lag.

Shutter lag or the shutter delay time is more of a problem in digital cameras these days. The delay is often due to slow transmission of the captured data through charge-coupled device (CCD), the processing time and storage. However, with latest improvements and technology, the shutter lag in inexpensive cameras like the usual point-and-shoot cameras have reduced the average shutter lag to half seconds. Whereas in case of most high-end cameras have reduced this down to a quarter second or less. The improvements in technology like the speed, power, consumption, bandwidth usage, processing speed as well as CCD technology have minimized the shutter lag problem.