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Kodak DC3800



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Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests

Review First Posted: 10/1/2000

Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you depress the shutter release button on a digital camera, there's usually a lag time before the lens actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to work and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is almost never reported in the camera's standard user's manual, and because it can significantly impact the picture-taking experience, Imaging Resource now routinely measures shutter lag using a special electronic test setup.


DC3800 Timings
Operation
Time (secs)
Notes
Power On -> First shot
2.8
Time to first shot captured. Quite fast
Shutdown
0.7
Time until lens shutter closes. Also very fast.
Play to Record, first shot
1.02
Time to first shot captured. Quite fast.
Record to play (max/min res)
4.15/2.15
Time until image fully displayed on LCD. About average
Shutter lag, full autofocus
0.65
 Quite fast.
Shutter lag, prefocus
0.32
 A bit slower than average.
Cycle time, maximum resolution.
9.46
 Rather slow by current standards
Cycle time, continuous mode
0.5
DC3800 can capture four shots at 0.5 second intervals, 2.0 frames per second. (Pretty quick!)



The DC3800 starts up and shuts down quickly, and has a pretty short shutter lag when autofocusing compared to other cameras we've tested. It's rather slow from shot to shot though, taking 9.46 seconds between frames at full resolution. On the other hand, its continuous-shooting mode captures 4 frames at a rate of 2 frames per second, a very fast performance for a basic camera.


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