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Minolta Dimage S304

Minolta packs Dimage technology & optics into a compact 3.3 megapixel prosumer camera!

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Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests
Review First Posted: 9/13/2001

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 Imaging Resource proprietary test system.

Minolta Dimage S304 Timings

Operation Time (secs) Notes

Power On -> First shot 4.8 About average for cameras with telescoping lenses.

Shutdown 4.9 Time until lens retracted and ready to put away. A bit faster than average.

Play to Record, first shot 1.6 Time until first shot is captured, from playback mode. Quite a bit faster than average.

Record to play (max res) 1.9 Quite a bit faster than average.

Shutter lag, full autofocus 0.91/0.77 Somewhat faster than average. (Higher number is for telephoto lens setting, lower is for wide angle.)

Shutter lag, manual focus 0.14 Quite a bit faster than average

Shutter lag, prefocus 0.12 Quite a bit faster than average.

Cycle Time, max/min resolution 1.1-8.9
1.1-1.3
31.9 Camera captures four shots before slowing in large/fine mode, indefinite number (70?) in small/basic mode. Cycle times when writing to the buffer are very fast. Last time is for TIFF mode.

Cycle time, continuous mode 1.07sec
(0.93 fps) Quite fast. Bursts range from 4-5 frames at max res/quality to about 70 frames in lowest res/quality mode. Very zippy!

Overall, the Dimage S304 is a pretty fast camera. Startup and shutdown times are about average for a camera with a telescoping lens, but shutter lag and shot to shot cycle times are quite fast, with the cycle times particularly so. We said earlier that we hadn't seen any particular advantage to Minolta's phase-detect autofocus technology, but in the case of the S304, it seems to pay off in shorter than average shutter delays. Quite impressive overall.

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Minolta Dimage S304 Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	4.8	About average for cameras with telescoping lenses.
Shutdown	4.9	Time until lens retracted and ready to put away. A bit faster than average.
Play to Record, first shot	1.6	Time until first shot is captured, from playback mode. Quite a bit faster than average.
Record to play (max res)	1.9	Quite a bit faster than average.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.91/0.77	Somewhat faster than average. (Higher number is for telephoto lens setting, lower is for wide angle.)
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.14	Quite a bit faster than average
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.12	Quite a bit faster than average.
Cycle Time, max/min resolution	1.1-8.9 1.1-1.3 31.9	Camera captures four shots before slowing in large/fine mode, indefinite number (70?) in small/basic mode. Cycle times when writing to the buffer are very fast. Last time is for TIFF mode.
Cycle time, continuous mode	1.07sec (0.93 fps)	Quite fast. Bursts range from 4-5 frames at max res/quality to about 70 frames in lowest res/quality mode. Very zippy!