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Minolta Dimage RD3000 Unusual 2-CCD design produces a professional-level SLR digicam at an affordable price. Select a topic Reference: Datasheet Dimage RD3000 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests Review First Posted: 5/23/2000

Shutter Lag / Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a delay (lag time) before the shutter actually fires. This is to allow the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is almost never reported on, and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, we now routinely measure it.
Overall, the RD 3000 isn't the fastest camera we've tested: With the provided lens, and shooting at fairly close range, the shutter lag in full autofocus mode was 1.97 seconds. When the lens was focused manually, the lag time dropped to 1.52 seconds, still far from speedy. Only when the camera was prefocused by half-pressing the shutter button did the time come up to par among digicams we've tested, with a delay of only 0.27 seconds. (Apparently, much of the shutter lag time is used for white balance and exposure computation, since manual focusing didn't significantly improve the delay.)
Shot to shot, the RD 3000 is quite fast when left in the Continuous Drive mode, with a cycle time of only 0.695 seconds (1.44 frames per second) when the shutter button is simply held down for a burst of exposures. You can also shoot single frames in Continuous Drive mode, simply by pressing and releasing the shutter when you want to take the pictures. Working this way, the shot to shot time rises to only 0.92 seconds for up to five frames at full resolution. This is quite fast, although after the fifth shot you have to wait for the first image to be cleared out of buffer memory before you can shoot another. This process takes the same amount of time as is normally required between shots in single-frame mode, 23 to 34 seconds depending on quality mode and image content. Actually, while its non-continuous cycle time is rather slow, the RD 3000 does better than many cameras in that it lets you shoot additional pictures in Continuous Drive mode as soon as space is available in the buffer, rather than forcing you to wait until everything is cleared out.
The RD 3000 is quite fast when starting up, taking only 3.9 seconds from power on to the first picture captured. Likewise, it switches from playback to record modes in only 3.0 seconds to the first picture. Switching to playback from record mode takes longer, about 6.75 seconds until a rather blocky low-resolution version of the image is displayed, 12 seconds for the full-resolution image to appear. Shutdown can be either zero seconds or several minutes, depending on your reckoning. If your main concern is to simply put the camera away, the time required is zero, since there's no lens to retract. On the other hand, if you want to shut the camera down so you can remove the memory card, you could wait as long as two minute, if you've just shot a rapid-fire sequence of images in Continuous Drive mode.