Olympus C-740 Ultra Zoom3.2 megapixels, a sharp 10x zoom lens, tons of features, and an affordable price!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 03/02/2003, Updated: 07/17/03 |
Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a
delay or 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, I now
routinely measure it with a custom test system I constructed for the purpose.
(With crystal-controlled timing, accurate to 0.01% and with a timing resolution
of one millisecond.) Here are the figures I obtained in my testing of the C-740:
| |
||
| |
(secs) |
|
| Power On -> First shot | |
Camera
has to extend lens first. About average. |
| Shutdown | |
Time to retract camera lens. About average. |
| Play to Record, first shot | |
Time until
first shot is captured. About average. |
| Record to play | |
Time to
display a large/fine file after capture. About average. |
| Shutter lag, full autofocus | |
First number is for wide-angle, second is for telephoto. (Unusual that both numbers are the same.) Slightly slower than average, but fairly good for a long zoom. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus | 0.65 | Slower than average. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus | |
Time to
capture, after half-pressing Shutter button. Very fast. |
| Cycle Time, max/min resolution | |
First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for small/basic images. The C740 seems to have a pretty generous buffer memory, as it can pop off 7 large/fine images at this rate before slowing to write to the card. Very good performance, with a nice, big buffer. |
| Cycle Time, normal continuous mode, max/min resolution | 0.87, 0.70 |
First numbers are for large/fine files, second numbers are for small/basic images. Buffer holds about 7 shots at large/fine, 140+ at small/basic image size/quality. For both sizes of images, the interval between the first two shots is longer than between the second and third. First time shown for each size/quality is time between first two shots, second time is for subsequent. |
| Cycle Time, high-speed continuous mode, max/min resolution | 0.54/0.54 | In high-speed continuous mode, the interval between frames drops to 0.54 seconds, but only three large/fine or six small/basic frames fit in the buffer. After those shots, you'll wait about 10.5 seconds for large/fine files to write to the card, or 4.8 seconds for small/basic ones. Very good speed, but it would be nice to have a bit bigger buffer. |
| Cycle Time, TIFF images | |
Pretty typical time for a 3 MP TIFF image. |
The C-740 Ultra Zoom is quick enough, but clearly not a speed demon. Startup and shutdown are about average. Shutter lag is on the slow side of normal (a bit faster than that of the 750 though), but its prefocus lag is very fast. In my experience, long-zoom cameras suffer somewhat in the shutter lag area, apparently because such lenses take longer to focus, so the 740's performance isn't bad in comparison. Definitely not the camera for fast-paced sports action though. Cycle times are quite good upper midrange camera, andthe roughly 6-7 shot buffer (at large/fine image quality) is pretty generous for this class of camera. Overall, a pretty good performance, but it would sure be nice to have super-fast focusing for sports shots. (The long zoom lens is great for sports usage, but a faster full-autofocus shutter response would be a big help in that application. - The very fast prefocus lag time is great though.)
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