Digital Camera Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Minolta Digital Cameras > Minolta DiMAGE A1

Minolta DiMAGE A1 Minolta updates their revolutionary five-megapixel electronic SLR with faster shutter speeds, an Anti-Shake mode, 14-bit A/D, and a tilting LCD monitor, among other improvements. Select a topic Reference: Datasheet A1 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 on A1 Review --------------------------------- 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: 08/08/2003, Updated: 11/10/03

Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a digital camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms to do their work and can amount to a significant delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported by manufacturers or reviewers, and can significantly affect the picture-taking experience, I routinely measure shutter lag and cycle times using an electronic test setup I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled timing, with a resolution of 0.001 second.)

NOTE: My qualitative characterizations of camera performance below (that is, "reasonably fast," "about average," etc.) are meant to be relative to other cameras of similar price and general capabilities. Thus, the same shutter lag that's "very fast" for a low-end consumer camera might be characterized as "quite slow" if I encountered it on a professional model. The comments are also intended as only a quick reference: If performance specs are critical for you, rely on the absolute numbers to compare cameras, rather than my purely qualitative comments.

Minolta DiMAGE A1 Zoom Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	3.23	No wait for lens to extend, so reasonably fast.
Shutdown	3-36	No lens to retract, so time shown is that required for camera to finish writing data to the memory card. First time is for small data file, second is for full buffer of TIFF images on a fast card. (Lexar 24x WA.) Buffer-empty times for slow cards could be quite a bit longer.
Play to Record, first shot	0.86	Time until first shot is captured, from playback mode. Quite fast.
Record to play (max/min res)	2.63/1.45 2.51/1.49	Top numbers for large/fine images, bottom ones for small/normal. First number of each pair is for camera having just captured an image, second number is for camera through processing last image, in resting state in capture mode.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.612/0.607	First number is for lens at wide-angle setting, second is for telephoto. Very fast (!), interesting in that tele time is slightly shorter than wide-angle: Usually, the opposite is the case.
Shutter lag, continuous autofocus	1.04/1.02	First number is for wide-angle, second for telephoto. As is usually the case with cameras I test, continuous autofocus doesn't result in faster shutter response. To the contrary, in the case of the A1, it actually significantly slows it. Continuous AF may very well improve results with moving subjects, but if you subject isn't moving toward or away from you, use single autofocus for the best results.
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.225	About average for prosumer cameras in its class.
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.171	Faster than average, but by no means the fastest on the market.
Cycle Time, Single Shot Mode Large/Small JPEGs	1.05/1.25 (25)	First number is for large/fine files, second is for lowest resolution/quality. Buffer capacity in large/fine mode is 7 shots, after which the cycle time slows to about 5 seconds with a fast memory card. (Likely slower with a slow card.) After capturing a long series of large/fine shots, the buffer clears in about 25 seconds. At the small/basic quality setting, there seems to be no limit to the number of shots that can be captured without slowing. Oddly though, in small/basic mode, the cycle time is much more variable, with a standard deviation of 15%. (Low of 1.02, high of 1.65.)
Cycle Time, Single Shot Mode, RAW files	2.28/6.05 (30)	First number is interval between shots for first 6 captured, then stretches to 6.05 seconds. Buffer clears in 30 seconds with a fast card, likely longer with a slow one.
Cycle Time, Single Shot Mode, TIFF files	2.95/11.5 (35)	First number is interval between shots for first three captured, then stretches to 11.5 seconds. Buffer clears in 35 seconds with fast card, likely longer with slow one.
Cycle time, Normal Continuous Mode, Large/Small JPEG	0.52/0.52	First number is for large/fine files, second is for smallest/lowest quality setting. In both modes, the camera captures bursts of three, with a pause to write data to the card between. In large/fine mode, the burst rate is always 0.52 seconds/frame. With small/basic, the first two shots are 0.52 seconds apart, the second and third are separated by 0.64 seconds. (odd) With large/fine files, the pause between the first and second groups of three shots are 1.31 seconds apart, but subsequent to that, the interval ranges from about 12.8 to 13.2 seconds. (May be longer with slower cards.) With small/basic files, the pause between groups of shots is always about 1.35 seconds.
Cycle time, Normal Continuous Mode, RAW files	0.52-0.71 (29)	Grabs bursts of five shots. Interval between shots within each burst varies from 0.52-0.71 seconds, with an average of 0.64 and a standard deviation of 9%. Interval between bursts is about 29 seconds with a fast card, is likely to be longer with a slower one.
Cycle time, Normal Continuous Mode, TIFF files	0.56/0.66 (36)	Bursts of 3 shots. Interval between first two is always 0.56 seconds, between second two is always 0.66. 35.7 seconds between bursts with a fast card, likely longer with a slower one.
Cycle time, High Speed Continuous Mode, large JPEGs	0.35/13.6 (24)	Bursts of 3 shots. Interval between shots is 0.35 seconds. Interval between bursts is 1.35 seconds between first and second burst, then 13.6 seconds for subsequent ones. Buffer clears completely in 24 seconds with fast card, likely longer with slower one. (Inter-burst delay also likely longer with slower card.)
Cycle time, High Speed Continuous Mode, small JPEGs	0.35, 0.51, 1.44 (2.7)	These are times for small/lowest-quality JPEG files. Oddly, the camera consistently shot with three different intervals, in a repeating pattern of three frames. Between the first and second frame, interval was 0.35 seconds, between second and third, interval was 0.51 seconds. Then between third and fourth, interval was 1.43 seconds. This pattern would then repeat indefinitely. Buffer cleared entirely in 2.65 seconds.
Cycle time, High Speed Continuous Mode, RAW files	0.35/32.0	Bursts of five frames. Always 0.35 seconds between frames, 32 seconds between bursts. Buffer fully clears in 32 seconds. Inter-burst and buffer clearing times will both likely be longer with slower memory cards.
Cycle time, High Speed Continuous Mode, TIFF files	0.35/36.5	Bursts of three frames. Always 0.35 seconds between frames, 36.5 seconds between bursts. Buffer fully clears in 36.5 seconds. Inter-burst and buffer clearing times will both likely be longer with slower memory cards.

The DiMAGE A1 is every bit as fast as its predecessor, the DiMAGE 7Hi, which was one of the fastest prosumer cameras on the market. The A1's autofocus system is very fast, regardless of the zoom setting of the lens, with full-autofocus shutter lag times of roughly 0.61 seconds regardless of zoom position. (Most cameras have a faster shutter response with the lens set to its wide angle position, vs the telephoto setting.) This is faster than the vast majority of prosumer digicams currently on the market, making the A1 better suited for sports and other action photography than most competing models. Its manual and prefocus lag times are also pretty fast at 0.225 and 0.171 seconds respectively, but not as far ahead of the rest of the market as its full-autofocus performance is. Continuous-mode operation is pretty speedy as well, with cycle times of 0.52 seconds (1.92 frames/second) in normal continuous mode, and 0.35 seconds (2.86 frames/second) in high-speed continuous mode.

The A1's buffer capacity is a little puzzling. In single-shot mode, the camera can capture at least 7 shots without pausing, but in its continuous modes, it only captures images in bursts of three frames at a time. (The exception being RAW-format files, which permit sequence lengths of up to 5 frames.) A seven-shot buffer capacity is quite good for a prosumer camera, but the 3-frame burst length in continuous mode (when you arguably might most need more buffer capacity) is rather limiting.

Overall though, with fast autofocus-mode shutter response, quick single-shot cycle times, and a very fast high-speed continuous mode, combined with an excellent 7x zoom lens, the DiMAGE A1 is one of the better prosumer cameras on the market for sports and nature photography.