Canon T1i Performance

Very good speeds for a consumer digital SLR.

The Canon T1i turned in fast startup and shut-down times, fast enough that they're difficult to measure. Enabling sensor cleaning on shut-down will add some delay, but we didn't test that. The Canon T1i's buffer clearing times are quite good, but depend on the image quality and size, as well as the speed of the memory card.

The Canon T1i's mode switching times are good, though Record to play is a bit sluggish.

The Canon T1i's full autofocus shutter response is very good at 0.159 second using our standard single-point AF test. Enabling the built-in flash increased full AF lag just slightly to 0.273 second: that small an increase is excellent. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of only 0.089 second. Manual focus was slower, at 0.111 second, and Continuous focus was slower still, at 0.208 second.

The Canon T1i's AF lag time in Live View mode was longer, as expected. We measured 1.342 seconds using "Quick Mode" (phase-detect AF), and 2.591 seconds using Live Mode (contrast-detect). The "*" button is used to autofocus in the Canon T1i's Live View mode, so it must be pressed first before the shutter release. The above times include pressing the "*" button and waiting for focus confirmation before tripping the shutter.

Shot-to-shot cycle times in the Canon T1i's single-shot mode were quite good, at about 0.4 second for any quality. Buffer length was more than 20 shots for JPEGs, but dropped to 8 for RAW and 5 for RAW+JPEG.

Continuous mode speeds were good, especially considering the large files, at about 3.4 frames/second in any mode. Measured buffer depths were more than 20 frames for large/fine or small/normal JPEGs, 8 frames for RAW mode and 4 frames for RAW+JPEG. (Note that in our cycle time testing we shoot a target consisting of a fine-grained digital noise pattern, designed to be very hard to compress. This gives us worst-case buffer capacity numbers: You're likely to see greater buffer capacity when shooting more normal subjects.)

The Canon T1i's flash took 3.2 seconds to recharge after a full-power pulse, which is also good.

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, the Canon T1i's download speeds are fast.

Bottom line, the Canon T1i is pretty fast in just about every aspect of its operation. While continuous mode speeds aren't state-of-the-art, they are fast enough for most moving subjects, and shutter lag and cycle times are quite fast. Very good performance overall for a consumer model.

Battery
Below average battery life for a lithium-ion SLR design.

The Canon T1i uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Battery life is below average, even when using the optical viewfinder, so we recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the Canon T1i is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Canon T1i accepts SD/SDHC memory cards, and does not ship with a card.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SD/SDHC memory card for the Canon T1i: at least a 1GB card, preferably a 4 or 8GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings, or when shooting RAW files. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)