Minolta Dimage 5The "little brother" to the Dimage 7 - same great features, but 3.3 megapixels and a (much) lower price...<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 9/14/2001 |
Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a
lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows 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 an Imaging Resource proprietary test system.
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Time from power-up to first shot. Quite a bit faster
than the Dimage 7's 5.1 seconds. (Odd)
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| Shutdown |
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Time to finish writing average large/fine file to the
Memory Stick. (Quite a bit faster than the Dimage 7 again, but this
makes sense, since the '7 is writing bigger files.)
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time until first shot is captured. Very fast.
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| Record to play |
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First time is for immediate switch after pressing shutter,
second is time to display image from quiescent state in capture mode.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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Longer time is for telephoto, shorter for wide angle. Average to slightly faster than average, noticeably faster than the Dimage 7. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus |
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A good bit faster than average. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Faster than average.
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
1.53 19.7 |
First number is for large/fine
files, second for small/economy. Last time is for full res TIFF files.
Oddly, small/economy files take longer between shots than large/fine.
Up to 12 large/fine files this fast. Quite fast for full-res files. Times
are in manual focus mode, add ~0.6 seconds per frame for autofocus delay. |
| Cycle time, continuous mode |
(1.41 frames/sec) |
Quite fast. Captures 12 images, then takes 11 seconds for the next |
Overall, the Dimage 5 is a pretty fast camera. Startup and shutdown times are about average for cameras without telescoping lenses, but shutter lag and shot to shot cycle times are quite fast, with the cycle times particularly so. Oddly, despite the identical lens and electronics, the Dimage 5's shutter lag times are noticeably lower than those of the Dimage 7. (Perhaps a result of the autofocus system having less data to deal with, thanks to the smaller CCD?)
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