Casio QV-3000EXCasio steps into the 3-megapixel era with great picture quality and 340 megabytes of storage!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 2/14/2000 |
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 an electronic test setup, accurate to 0.01 seconds.
The QV-3000 was average to slightly faster than average in its shutter delay, with a lag time of 0.83 seconds in full autofocus mode, 0.71 seconds in manual focus mode, and only 0.18 seconds when the focus and exposure are preset by half-pressing the shutter button prior to the exposure itself. Cycle time was surprisingly fast for a 3 megapixel camera, apparently thanks to an internal RAM buffer: The camera could capture successive shots at intervals of 3 seconds for the first three shots, after which it would take 15-18 seconds to capture the next one. Strangely, the cycle time for low-resolution images was actually longer, at 6 seconds between frames. (Our guess is that the camera is capturing a full-resolution image and then downsampling it, rather than the more common approach of clocking out only half of the data from the CCD in the first place. While the QV-3000's approach takes longer, the result is very highly detailed and artifact-free low-resolution files.
As noted earlier, the QV-3000 also has a "continuous" mode, in which it will capture 3 frames in rapid succession when the shutter button is held down. We clocked the continuous mode frame rate at 2.5 frames per second. (0.4 seconds between exposures)
The QV-3000 is a bit slower on startup, taking about 9 seconds from power-on to the first picture captured. On shutdown, it retracts the lens in only 3 seconds, letting you put the lens cap on and slip it in your pocket. The camera remains active (a blinking green LED next to the viewfinder) for about 25 seconds though, apparently to insure that all image data is properly written to the MicroDrive. The camera switches from Record to Play mode in about 4 seconds, although the instant review function mentioned above means this time delay won't matter in most picture-taking situations. Going from Play to Record though, takes the same 9 seconds as does initial power-up, perhaps because the lens has to telescope out again. (We'd like to see the camera leave the lens out until it's actually shut off, which could reduce this mode-change time.)
Reader Comments! --> Visit our discussion forum for the Casio QV-3000EX!
Follow Imaging Resource: