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HP PhotoSmart 618 HP's capable mid-level model offers 2.1 megapixels, an optical zoom lens, and ease-of-use. Select a topic Reference: Datasheet PhotoSmart 618 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 PhotoSmart 618 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: 03/19/2001

Shutter Lag/Cycle Time
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time is to allow 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 Imaging Resource proprietary testing.

Hewlett Packard PhotoSmart 618 Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	6.1	Not too bad, just a little slower than average among cameras with telescoping lenses.
Shutdown	1.5	Quite fast for a telescoping-lens camera.
Play to Record, first shot	1.8	Time until first shot is captured, from playback mode. Quite fast.
Record to play (max/min resolution)	1.7/8.4 - 1.7/4.4	Faster than average to first view, slower than average to full-res. (First numbers in each set are for low-res preview, second number is for display of full-resolution image.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.75	About average
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.57	Slightly slower than average.
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.23	About average.
Cycle Time, max/min resolution	2.7-3.9 3.4-4.9	Widely varying results, see text.

The PhotoSmart 618 performs pretty well in terms of shutter lag and cycle times. It's not a speed demon, but it's no slouch either. Startup time is fairly typical for a camera with a telescoping lens, and the shutter lag figures are about average for middle- to high-end digicams we've tested. The real puzzler is the camera's cycle time (shot-to-shot speed) performance, which varied widely in our testing. Normally, a camera is fairly fast for the first couple of shots, until its "buffer memory" fills, then it slows afterward. In Full Size/Best Quality Level, the 618 performed in much the same way, with a cycle time of about 2.5 seconds for the first four shots, dropping to a bit less than 4 seconds on subsequent shots. On the ninth shot, however, the cycle time sped back up to 2.7 seconds for one shot, and then reverted to the 3.9-second performance. We didn't spend time investigating further, but the single "blip" back to a shorter cycle time was unusual.

We saw the same kinds of variations in the 1/4 Resolution/Good Quality mode. Interestingly, the cycle time for these images is actually longer than for Full Size/Best Quality images. It appears that the camera always captures full-resolution images, and then downsamples them on the fly to make the low-resolution version. This produces very good quality, low-resolution images, but at the cost of increased cycle times. Overall cycle time performance is average to a bit slower than average for other midrange digicams we've tested.