Nikon CoolPix 885More Pixels, More Features, (a little) More Money - Nikon extends their sub-compact Digicam line!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 9/19/2001 |
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, we now routinely
measure it using a proprietary Imaging Resource test apparatus. We also test
for routine timings, such as startup/shutdown times, and the "cycle time",
or minimum interval between successive pictures. The results are listed in the
following chart.
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(secs) |
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Rather slow.
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| Shutdown |
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Pretty fast. (This is time to retract lens. Allow longer
if file being saved to card, before card can be removed.)
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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A little slow.
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| Record to play (max/min res) |
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Longer time is for max res JPEG, immediate switch to
quick review. Shorter time is for quick review, with camera already
done saving image to card.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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First time is for wide angle, second for telephoto. A good bit slower than average. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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A fair bit faster than average. (Average is about 0.3) |
| Cycle time, large/fine files |
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Shorter time is for first four shots, then need to wait for the buffer to clear. A bit slower than average for the category. |
| Cycle time, small/basic files |
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A bit slower than average for small/basic files. |
| Cycle time, TIFF files |
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TIFF mode files are huge, take a long time to write. Longer time is for conventional card, shorter time for "12x" high speed card. |
| Continuous mode, large files |
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First time is for first four shots, then slower after buffer is full. |
| Continuous mode, small files |
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Stays this fast for up to ~60 shots, thanks to large buffer. |
| VGA Sequence |
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| Ultra High Speed |
(30 frames/sec) |
Small files, but *man* is that fast! (Shoots a total
of ~70 frames at this rate, without pausing.)
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Overall, we found the Coolpix 885 to be a little slow relative to competing models. Startup is quite leisurely. - Despite the lens racking out fairly quickly, it seems to take the camera a while to get itself sorted out and ready to take a picture. The total time from power on to first picture is thus a fairly long 8.2 seconds. Once operating, shutter delays are fairly lengthy, 1.43 seconds with the lens at its wide angle setting, 1.77 seconds at its telephoto position. These are quite long, given that most digicams we test come in at one second or less. On a positive note though, the 885 captures images quite quickly if you prefocus the lens by half-pressing and holding the shutter button prior to the exposure itself. Shot to shot cycle times are also a little slow (although not terribly so), at 3.3 seconds for either large or small image sizes. On a positive note, the 885's continuous mode frame rate is quite good at 0.95 seconds between shots for full-sized files.
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