Fuji FinePix S7000Fuji's latest electronic SLR offers a larger, 6.3-megapixel CCD that interpolates to 12.3 megapixels - one of the highest resolution consumer models we've tested to date!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 01/16/2004 |
Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a
delay or lag time before the shutter actually fires. This is the time required
by the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms 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,
I routinely measure it with a custom test setup I built for the purpose.
(Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) The table below
shows the numbers I collected for the FinePix S7000.
| | ||
| | | |
| Power On -> First shot | | Time from power on to first shot captured. About average for a camera with a telescoping lens. |
| Shutdown | | Time to retract lens. About average to a bit slower than average. |
| Play to Record, first shot | | Fairly fast. |
| Record to play (max/min res) | | A little slow for highest-resolution files. |
| Shutter lag, full autofocus | | First time is with lens set at wide angle, second time is with lens set to telephoto. Slightly faster than average. (Average is 0.8 - 1.0 seconds.) |
| Shutter lag, continuous autofocus | 0.76 | As is generally the case with cameras I've tested, continuous autofocus doesn't improve the shutter lag at all. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus | | A little on the slow side for this class of camera. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus | | About average these days, although many high-end models are faster. |
| Cycle Time, CF card, max/min res | | Almost identical speed between large and small images, main difference is in number that can fit in the buffer - Four or five shots for the largest files, essentially unlimited for the smallest ones. With large files, after 4-5 shots, the cycle time increases to 2.8 seconds. The buffer clears in about 15 seconds with a fast memory card (Lexar 256MB 24x WA.) |
| Cycle Time, xD card, max/min res | 1.23/1.21 | The S7000 really seems to prefer xD memory cards: The cycle time is almost identical between xD and CF cards, but the xD cards write much faster, with the result that buffer capacity stretches to roughly 11 shots for the largest files, and the buffer clears in only 5-6 seconds, vs the roughly 15 seconds with a fast CF card. |
| Cycle Time, RAW file format, CF card | 1.24/7.67 | Interval between first two shots is 1.24 seconds, but stretches to 7.67 for subsequent RAW-format images |
| Cycle Time, RAW file format, xD card | 1.48/3.43 | Interval between first two shots is 1.48 seconds, but stretches to 3.43 seconds for all subsequent ones. (Odd that the initial interval is longer than with CF cards, but the subsequent shots happen much faster.) |
| Cycle Time, Top/Final 5 continuous mode, max/min res. | 0.31 (3.3 fps) | Very fast for five shots, and "Final 5" mode is very handy for catching fast action. After buffer is full with large/fine images, it takes 12.6 seconds to clear with an xD card, 21 seconds with a fast CF card. With low-resolution images, the buffer clears in about 7 seconds with both xD and CF cards. |
| Cycle Time, "long continuous" mode | (1.11 fps) | Camera writes to memory card continuously while shooting, so you can capture up to 40 large/fine frames this fast before needing to stop. Buffer clears almost immediately (a second or so), after which you can shoot another series of 40 images. |
The S7000 is a fairly fast camera overall, although it falls a little short of the earlier S602 in terms of shutter lag. While the S7000's shutter lag is just about average though, it does still have very good cycle time performance, and its high-speed continuous modes are quite fast indeed. My favorite feature is the "Final 5" continuous mode, which shoots frames continuously while the shutter is held down, but then only records the last five captured before you released the shutter button. This helps compensate for the photographer's reaction time, actually recording images beginning a second or so before he/she reacted to the subject. The standout for the S7000 is how quickly it can record its RAW-formatted files to xD cards, the 3.43 seconds required between shots in RAW mode (after the two-shot buffer is filled) being better than most competing models.
I was surprised to find a significant difference in performance between xD and CF cards: The S7000 cycled much faster for raw-format files with xD cards, and showed both greater buffer depth and greatly reduced buffer clearing times as well. - This was consistent across several CF cards I tested, including the fairly fast Lexar 256 MB, 24x "WA" card I used to gather the numbers shown above.
Reader Comments! --> Visit our discussion forum for the Fuji FinePix S7000!
Follow Imaging Resource: