Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5By: Dave EtchellsPanasonic updates its 12x optically stabilized Leica lens digicam to five megapixels. <<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 8:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 05/09/2005 |
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-FZ5:
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(secs) |
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| Power On -> First shot |
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LCD turns on and lens extends forward. A little on the slow side.
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| Shutdown |
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First time is time to retract lens, second time is worst-case buffer-clearing time. A little slow for lens retraction, very fast for buffer clearing.
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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 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. Pretty fast.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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First time is at full wide-angle, second is full telephoto. Very fast, particularly for a long-zoom digital camera. |
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Shutter lag, continuous autofocus |
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As usual, continuous AF conveys no speed benefit for static subjects. (We don't have any good way of testing performance with moving subjects, so there may be some advantage there.)
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| Shutter lag, prefocus |
0.135
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Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button. Pretty fast. |
| Cycle Time, TIFF/max/min JPEG resolution |
3.84 / 1.23 / 1.17 |
First number is for TIFF files, second number is for large/fine files, third number is time for "TV" mode (640x480) images. Times are averages. No detectable buffer limit, every shot is captured this quickly, regardless of how many are taken in series. Very fast for all file formats. (Tested with a Lexar 32x SD card, slower cards may impose limits.) |
| Cycle Time, continuous Unlimited mode, max/min resolution | 0.47 (2.14 fps) |
Cycle time is the same regardless of resolution. Times are averages. No buffer limit, shoots this fast continuously until the memory card is filled. Zippy! (Tested with a Lexar 32x SD card, slower cards may impose limits.) |
| Cycle Time, continuous Low mode, max/min resolution | 0.47 (2.14 fps) |
Cycle time is the same regardless of resolution. Times are averages. Shoots a burst of 4 images this fast in large/fine mode, 7 images in TV mode. Clears the buffer in about 1 second in either mode, and is ready for another burst. (Hard to understand why you'd use this mode, there doesn't seem to be any advantage relative to the "Unlimited" mode above. |
| Cycle Time, continuous High mode, max/min resolution | 0.33 (3.0 fps) |
Cycle time is the same regardless of resolution. Times are averages. Shoots a burst of 4 images this fast in large/fine mode, 7 images in TV mode. Clears the buffer in about 1.5 seconds for large/fine mode, 1 second in TV mode, and is ready for another burst. Very fast, although limit of only 4 images in large/fine JPEG mode is a little low, given how fast everything else about this camera is. |
A little slow on startup, but very good shutter response, excellent cycle times. The Panasonic FZ5 is a little slow off the mark, getting its lens deployed when you first turn it on, but after that it's quite speedy indeed. Shutter response is very good with a full-autofocus lag time of 0.51 - 0.56 second. Its shot to shot cycle times are exceptionally good, at 1.23 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, regardless of how many shots you take in rapid succession. (That is, there's no arbitrary buffer limit.) Continuous mode speed is also good, ranging from 2.14 frames/second in "unlimited" mode (run lengths limited only by card capacity) to 3.0 frames/second in high-speed continuous mode for up to four large/fine images in rapid succession. Very impressive overall!
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