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"Picky Details" for the Canon PowerShot SD100 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)

Timing
I measure both cycle times and shutter delay times, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the SD100:

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.

 

Canon PowerShot SD100 Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	3.83	About average.
Shutdown	2.81	Fairly fast.
Play to Record, first shot	2.15	Time until first shot is captured. Fairly fast.
Record to play	2.58	Time to display a large/fine file after capture. About average.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.977 / 1.245	First number is for wide angle, second for telephoto. On the slow side of average.
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.064	Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button. Extremely fast.
Cycle Time, max/min resolution	3.3 / 2.3	First numbers are for large/fine files, second number is time for small/basic images. In large/fine mode, cycle times slow after the ninth image in the series, to about five seconds. Slower than average.
Cycle Time, continuous mode, max/min resolution	0.52 1.91 fps	Large/fine and Small/basic image quality selections resulted in same 0.52 second cycle time. (1.91 frames/second) 6 shots in the buffer in large/fine mode, 125 at small/basic. ~56 seconds to clear the buffer after a full sequence.

 

Power
The SD100 uses a single lithium-ion cell for its power source, or the optional AC adapter. Because the camera's AC adapter inserts into the camera via a dummy battery, I was unable to perform my standard measurements here. The SD100 did show generally good run times though, operating for nearly 90 minutes from a freshly-charged battery, in its worst-case mode. (Record mode, with LCD active.) - As always though, I strongly recommend purchasing a spare battery along with the camera, as digicam batteries always go dead at the worst possible times.

 

Storage Capacity
The SD100 stores its photos on SD memory cards, and a 16MB card is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a 64MB card for more storage space.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included 16MB card at each size/quality setting.

Image Capacity vs Resolution/Quality 16MB Memory Card		Super Fine	Fine	Normal
Full Resolution 2,048 x 1,536	Images (Avg size)	9 1.7 MB	16 948 KB	33 482 KB
	Approx. Compression	6:1	10:1	20:1
1,600 x 1,200	Images (Avg size)	15 1.1 MB	26 598 KB	50 316 KB
	Approx. Compression	5:1	10:1	18:1
1,024 x 768	Images (Avg size)	26 615 KB	45 349 KB	80 199 KB
	Approx. Compression	4:1	7:1	12:1
640 x 480	Images (Avg size)	56 283 KB	87 183 KB	137 116 KB
	Approx. Compression	3:1	5:1	8:1

 

SD100 Review
SD100 Test Images
SD100 Specifications
SD100 "Picky Details"
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