Canon EOS D60Canon updates their D30 Semi Pro SLR with a 6 megapixel sensor and other improvements, and sets a new low-price point in the process!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 2/22/2002 |
Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
The production model D60 showed the same shutter lag/cycle time performance as did the prototype I tested. Here's the numbers I measured:
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Very fast. |
| Shutdown |
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Time to save a single large/fine file before removing card. Otherwise, shutdown time is effectively zero, because no lens to retract. |
| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time from playback mode to first shot captured. Very fast, as camera has "shooting priority," is always ready to shoot. |
| Record to play (max res) |
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Time to display large/fine file immediately after shot is captured. Very fast. |
| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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AF speed will vary greatly depending on lens used. This time was with Canon 24-85mm zoom lens, focusing at fairly close range (about a meter). Quite fast. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus |
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Time with same lens as above, but set to manual focus mode. Very fast. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Delay with shutter button half-pressed and held before the exposure. Very fast. |
| Cycle Time, large/fine JPEG |
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Very fast. Shoots at 0.52 second minimum intervals for first 8 shots, then slows to about 1 second per shot to 16th shot. 17th and beyond, slows to card-dependent speed, about 5 seconds average. Buffer clearing very card-dependent, ranging from 15.97 seconds with SimpleTech 320 MB card to 85.74 seconds (!) with "Mr Flash" card. |
| Cycle Time, small/basic JPEG |
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Very fast. Identical performance to large/fine files, same buffer capacity, only buffer clearing time reduces with small files. (Buffer cleared in 8-9 seconds when shooting small files, regardless of card used.) |
| Cycle Time, RAW mode |
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RAW mode cycle times are the same while filling "first buffer" (first 8 shots), drop to a bit under 2 seconds for "second buffer"(next 8 shots), then 10-17 seconds depending on card speed for shots past number 16. |
| Continuous Mode, large/fine JPEG |
(2.94 fps) |
This fast for 8 shots, then slows to ~0.91 seconds per shot. |
| Continuous Mode, small/basic JPEG |
(2.94 fps) |
Same speed and run length as large/fine files, but slows to about 1.02 seconds/shot after buffer fills. |
| Continuous Mode, RAW mode |
(2.94 fps) |
Same speed and run length as large/fine, but variable interval after 16th shot is 10-17 seconds, depending on speed of flash card used. |
In shot-to-shot cycle times, the D60 was quite fast, and had a very decent buffer capacity of 8 shots before it slowed. Even after the buffer was full though, shot to shot cycle times were only about a second, much better than average. (See note below about the "second buffer" though.) Shot-to-shot cycle times averaged about 0.5-second in the large/fine mode, and about the same in small/basic. Shooting at the RAW setting produced similar cycle times, though times increased as the buffer filled (typically after around eight shots, increasing to approximately 1.6 seconds). The D60 is a camera that penalizes an overeager shutter finger, at least in single-shot mode: If you press the shutter too quickly after an exposure, the camera may force you to let up on the shutter button and press it again before it will fire once more. This never seemed to happen with the second shot in a series, but the third and subsequent shots were subject to this behavior.
In Continuous Shooting mode, the cycle times averaged about 0.34-second for the first eight shots, increasing to 0.91-second intervals with each successive shot (for both large/fine and small/basic file settings). The time it took to clear the buffer however, differed depending on the type of CompactFlash card in use. The Lexar 256MB CompactFlash took approximately 28.92 seconds to clear the series of large/fine images, and approximately 8.83 seconds to clear the series of small/basic. The Mr. Flash CompactFlash card took approximately 85.74 seconds for large/fine, and about 8.97 seconds for small/basic. I also tried the SimpleTech CompactFlash, finding a faster time of about 15.97 for large/fine, and the IBM MicroDrive took about 28.24 seconds to clear the large/fine series.
Two Buffer Memories?
I was puzzled by how quickly the camera seemed to process each shot after its buffer filled (e.g., after the first 8 shots), but how long it took to completely clear the buffer. - If it was snapping additional images every second or so, how could it take 28 to 85 seconds for the buffer to empty completely? Out of curiosity, I experimented with much longer run lengths, and discovered that the D60 apparently has two buffers: After the first buffer fills, shooting proceeds at a somewhat slower pace for some number of shots (until the second buffer fills?), after which cycle times increase pretty dramatically.
I first found this behavior when shooting in continuous mode, saving RAW files to the memory card. The camera snapped about 3 frames per second for the first 8 shots, then slowed to a rate of just under two seconds per frame. After the 16th frame though, the cycle time suddenly jumped dramatically, to between 10 and 17 seconds per frame, depending on the speed of the memory card I was using. When shooting in large/fine mode, this second buffer limit takes many more shots to reach, and the slowdown isn't quite as bad. Cycle time also varied rather oddly as the run of shots continued. Shooting in continuous mode, saving files in the large/fine JPEG format, the first 8 shots were captured at intervals of about 0.34 seconds. The interval between shots 8 and 9 was 0.9 seconds, and then the intervals between shots 9-42 were about 1.1 seconds. From shot 43 on though, the interval jumped to about 3.5 seconds, and remained there. With an inexpensive "Mr. Flash" memory card, the camera actually performed slightly better, showing cycle times of about 1.04 seconds out to shot 47, at which point the interval jumped to roughly 4.2 seconds.
In single-shot mode, behavior was much the same, with cycle times roughly doubling from 0.5 to 1.0 seconds for shots 9 through 16, then increasing to something on the order of 5 seconds apiece for large/fine files on a typical memory card.
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