Pentax 555 Flash Lag Time

I just received my Pentax 555. We put the default memory card (16mb) in the
camera. One thing we are noticing is that, when using the flash, the camera
will flash twice with a considerable lag time. It appears that the flash
time is impacted by the red eye setting and can be improved a little bit by
turning off the red eye and/or holding down the button part way to and then
the rest of the way to take the picture.

Does anyone else have experience with this? Is there a way to improve the
flash lag time without turning off the red-eye or having to hold down the
button part way. We want to take pictures of our kids and they have a
tendancy to move quickly. And a slow flash/picture time would miss many
poses.

If this is a result we would have to live with, is there another camera of
equal size, comparable optical zoom (5 or greater) that would have a faster
lag time for both flash time and picture time, that we should consider?

Thanks

Steve

Nothing for that price or size or features.

Turn the manual focus on. The focus takes a long time in dim lighting. Focus
one click short of infinity and adjust only as necessary. The pic will be
almost instantaneous. The aperture is set by pointing the camera before
snapping the pic.


"Steve Arndt" <s.arndt.RemoveThis@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:iRxSb.188759$xy6.969553@attbi_s02...
 > I just received my Pentax 555. We put the default memory card (16mb) in
the
 > camera. One thing we are noticing is that, when using the flash, the
camera
 > will flash twice with a considerable lag time. It appears that the flash
 > time is impacted by the red eye setting and can be improved a little bit
by
 > turning off the red eye and/or holding down the button part way to and
then
 > the rest of the way to take the picture.
 >
 > Does anyone else have experience with this? Is there a way to improve the
 > flash lag time without turning off the red-eye or having to hold down the
 > button part way. We want to take pictures of our kids and they have a
 > tendancy to move quickly. And a slow flash/picture time would miss many
 > poses.
 >
 > If this is a result we would have to live with, is there another camera of
 > equal size, comparable optical zoom (5 or greater) that would have a
faster
 > lag time for both flash time and picture time, that we should consider?
 >
 > Thanks
 >
 > Steve
 >
 ><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->