Olympus Camedia D-510 ZoomOlympus updates its popular 2.1 megapixel D-490 model with a new user interface and improved features.<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 6/18/2001 |
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 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 Imaging Resource proprietary testing. The table below shows the times we measured for various camera operations. Startup, shutdown, and record-to-play times were quite fast, and shutter lag was very much on a par with other cameras, even some more expensive ones. Cycle time was slower, but comparable to other cameras in the D-510 Zooms price range.
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Normal Card |
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Time is total time from power on to first picture, not just time to telescope lens. Fairly fast for a camera with a telescoping lens.
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| Shutdown |
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Time to retract lens, ready to put away. Quite fast.
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time to first shot when switching from playback mode. (Quite fast)
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| Record to play (max/min res) |
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First time is for switch from record to play with no image being processed, second time is measured from shutter press to image ready to display. Again, quite fast.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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Better than average for entry-level cameras, about average for a higher-end model. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Very fast. |
| Cycle time, large/fine files |
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Shorter time is for first 2 shots, then "buffer" fills. Subsequent times vary widely, longest was 9.7 seconds. Quite fast for first two shots, average for subsequent ones. |
| Cycle time, small/basic files |
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Quite fast. No slowdown due to buffer fill for at least 10 shots. |
Overall, the D-510Zoom was a surprisingly fast camera. Higher end models are as fast or faster, but we don't usually see the speed of the D510Zoom in a value-priced product. Quite impressive, and the prefocus shutter lag is particularly so. - This camera would be a good, inexpensive choice for people interested in a camera to take photos of kids' sports, thanks to the fast 2 second cycle time (for the first two shots), and the scant 0.13 second shutter lag when you prefocus by half-pressing and holding the shutter button prior to the shot itself.
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