Canon PowerShot A50Canon's "Digital ELPHs" goes megapixel plus - great picture quality, superb portability!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 7/10/1999 |
Shutter Lag Time/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before
the shutter actually fires. This time 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. (Using a
hand-tweaked animated GIF image providing an on-screen count-down in tenths
of a second.)
The A50 had a bit longer shutter lag than most digicams we've tested, depending
somewhat on the camera/subject distance. At greater distances (where the lens
mechanism had less distance to travel to achieve proper focus), shutter lag
was about a second, very much on a par with other cameras we've tested. On the
other hand, when the subject was much closer (a couple of feet, for instance),
the shutter lag increased to about 1.6 seconds. When the camera was pre-focused
by half-pressing the shutter button prior to the exposure itself though, the
shutter delay dropped to only 0.2 seconds for all cases, a pretty typical performance.
The other important time interval in digital photography is the cycle time,
the minimum time interval between successive exposures. The A50 performed quite
well in this respect: It appears to have a fairly sizeable RAM buffer to help
it process images quickly. We measured the minimum cycle time at roughly 4 seconds
for large/fine pictures, decreasing to about 2 seconds for small/coarse pictures.
These are very respectable times for a 1.3 megapixel digicam!
Overall, the PowerShot A50 is about as responsive to the shutter control as
other digicams, except at rather short camera/subject distances. Picture-to-picture
cycle times are better than most other competing cameras.
Other times: Startup - ~5.8 seconds. Switch to play mode, high-res picture
~11 seconds. Shutdown ~ 4 seconds.
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