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Toshiba PDR-M700 Toshiba introduces 10x optical zoom and an updated user interface. Select a topic Reference: Datasheet M700 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on M700 Review --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests Review First Posted: 08/26/2003

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 allows 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 a special electronic test setup.

NOTE: My qualitative characterizations of camera performance below (that is, "reasonably fast," "about average," etc.) are meant to be relative to other cameras of similar price and general capabilities. Thus, the same shutter lag that's "very fast" for a low-end consumer camera might be characterized as "quite slow" if I encountered it on a professional model. The comments are also intended as only a quick reference: If performance specs are critical for you, rely on the absolute numbers to compare cameras, rather than my purely qualitative comments.

PDR-M700 Timings
Operation	Time (secs) Normal Card	Notes
Power On -> First shot	5.0	Fairly slow.
Shutdown	3.5	About average.
Play to Record, first shot	0.69	Pretty fast.
Record to play	0.93/1.02	Pretty fast (numbers are for large/small files).
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.89/1.07	About average, good for a long telephoto.
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.27	Faster than average.
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.14	Very fast.
Cycle time, large/fine files	1.38	Fast. Seemingly no buffer memory, as there's no point at which the cycle time increases dramatically. (Rather variable times all the time though.)
Cycle time, small/basic files	1.28	Oddly, only slightly slower than with large/fine files.
Continuous mode (High Speed), large files	0.28 (3.6 fps)	Very fast. Shoots this fast for 6 frames (buffer size), then must wait 5-8 seconds to dump data to the memory card. Small/basic images show almost identical performance.
Continuous mode (Normal), large files	0.89 (1.28 fps)	Fairly fast. With large/fine files, you can shoot up to about 12 shots before having to wait for the memory card to catch up, 100+ shots in small/basic mode.Once again, small/basic files show same shooting speed, but the buffer capacity stretches to 100+ shots.

Overall, the PDR-M700 ranges from average to fairly fast in its operation. Startup and shutdown are rather leisurely, and shutter lag is only average at 0.89-1.07 seconds (which actually isn't too bad for an ultra-zoom camera), but shot to shot cycle times are very good at about 1.4 seconds, and its continuous modes are quite fast indeed.