Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30By: Dave EtchellsPanasonic's latest in the Lumix lineup, with an eight-megapixel sensor and high quality long-zoom Leica optics. <<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 8:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 01/18/2006 |
Shutter Lag and Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required for 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 rarely reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30:
(secs) |
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| Power On -> First shot | LCD turns on and camera is ready to shoot. Very fast. |
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| Shutdown | First time is time it takes for the rear-panel LCD to turn off, indicating camera has shut down. Second time is worst-case buffer-clearing time.* Quite fast, but odd that it takes any time at all when not processing a just-shot image, given that the lens doesn't need to retract. |
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| Play to Record, first shot | Time until first shot is captured. Very fast. |
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| Record to play | First time is that required to display a large/fine file immediately after capture, second time is that needed to display a large/fine file that has already been processed and stored on the memory card. Fairly fast. |
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus | First time is at full wide-angle, second is full telephoto. A good bit faster than average. (Average is 0.8-1.0 second) | |
| Shutter lag, prefocus | Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding down the shutter button. Pretty fast. |
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| Shutter lag, continuous autofocus | 0.63 |
As usual, no benefit from continuous focus with stationary subjects, and we have no way to test reliably with a moving subject. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus | 0.27 |
Fairly fast. |
| Cycle Time, max/min resolution | 1.20 / 0.99 | First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for small/basic images. Times are averages. Shoots this fast regardless of resolution and clears the buffer after each shot. Very fast, especially for an 8-megapixel camera.* |
| Cycle Time, Flash exposures | 6 | (Flash at maximum power output) Average to a bit slower than average for this class of camera, but the FZ30's flash is quite powerful, has excellent range. |
| Cycle Time, TIFF / RAW, max resolution | 4.32 / 3.72 | First number is for TIFF files, second number is time for RAW files. Times are averages. Shoots this fast in either mode and clears the buffer after each shot. Quite fast, given the large size of these cards.* |
| Cycle Time, continuous High mode, max/min resolution | 0.37 (2.73 fps) |
Shoots at the same rate regardless of resolution. Times are averages. Shoots a burst of 5 large/fine images this fast and clears the buffer in about 2 seconds.* Shoots a burst of 9 small/basic images this fast and clears the buffer in about 1.2 seconds.* Very good shooting speed, and buffer clearing is very fast, given the size of the images.* |
| Cycle Time, continuous Low mode, max/min resolution | 0.50 (2.00 fps) |
Shoots at the same rate regardless of resolution. Times are averages. Shoots a burst of 5 large/fine images this fast and clears the buffer in about 1.8 seconds.* Shoots a burst of 9 small/basic images this fast and clears the buffer in about 1.2 seconds.* |
| Cycle Time, continuous "infinite" mode | 0.50 (2.00 fps) |
Shoots at the same rate regardless of resolution.* Times are averages. Shoots at this rate until card fills. Buffer clears in about 2 seconds for large/fine files, almost immediately for small/basic files. Very fast, particularly in light of the large image sizes and lack of a buffer-size limitation. |
| * NOTE that buffer clearing times and cycle time in "infinite" continuous mode will be very dependent on the speed rating of the memory card in use. The numbers shown above were measured with a very fast (133x) Kingston Memory SD card. Slower cards would produce correspondingly longer clearing times. | ||
The DMC-FZ30 showed very good overall performance, starting with a quick 1.0-second startup time. Shutter lag is a fair bit better than average at both wide angle and telephoto. Prefocusing the camera (by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button prior to the shot itself) drops the shutter delay to 0.131 second, a little on the slow side of average these days. Shot-to-shot cycle time for large/fine files is also fairly zippy at 1.20 seconds. In Continuous-mode, at the High setting, cycle times average 0.37 second (2.73 frames per second), fairly average for this class of camera. The flash takes about six seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, also about average, but quite good considering the power of the FZ30's flash. Connected to a computer, download speeds are fast enough that you probably won't feel the need for a separate card reader for faster downloads. Though not speedy enough for professional sports photographers, the DMC-FZ30 is a responsive camera, suitable for family and kid portraits as well as sporting events.
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