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Canon G16 Performance

Timing and Performance

Generally good performance for its class, though RAW burst mode is slow.

Startup/Shutdown/Play to Record/Buffer Clearing

Power on
to first shot
~1.8 seconds

Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy and capture a picture.

Shutdown
~1.7 seconds

How long it takes to retract lens.

Play to Record,
first shot
~0.8 second

Time until first shot is captured.

Buffer clearing time
3 seconds
after 5 LSF JPEGs*
2 seconds
after 39 RAW files*
2 seconds
after 37 RAW+JPEG files*

Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card. Some cameras won't retract their lenses and shut down until the buffer is cleared.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC memory card. Slower cards may produce correspondingly slower clearing times.

The Canon PowerShot G16 took about 1.8 seconds to power on and take a shot in our tests. That's pretty good for its class. Shutdown took about 1.7 seconds. Buffer clearing was quite fast with a fast card.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus Wide
0.314 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide angle position.

Full Autofocus Tele
0.270 second

Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at telephoto position.

Full Autofocus
Flash enabled
0.667 second

Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at wide angle position.

Continuous AF
0.338 second

This mode usually shows no speed increase with our static subject; we have no way to measure performance with moving subjects.

Manual Focus
0.265 second

For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".

Prefocused
0.066 second

Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

Full autofocus shutter lag was pretty good, at 0.31 second at wide angle and 0.27 second full telephoto. Enabling the flash increased shutter lag to 0.68 second, to account for pre-flash metering. In manual focus mode, shutter lag was about 0.27 second. Prefocused shutter lag was 0.066 second, not the fastest out there for a digicam, but still pretty fast.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Super Fine JPEG
1.05 seconds

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 1 second to clear.*

Single Shot mode
RAW
1.27 seconds

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 2 seconds to clear.*

Single Shot mode
RAW + LSF JPEG
1.38 seconds

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 2 seconds to clear.*

Early shutter
penalty?
No

Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.

Continuous mode
Large Super Fine JPEG
0.08 second (12.50 frames per second);
5 frames total;
3 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 5 shots, then slows to an average of 0.11 second or 9.28 fps.

Continuous mode
RAW
0.55 second (1.80 frames per second);
39 frames total;
2 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer of 39 shots.

Continuous mode
RAW + LSF JPEG
0.61 second (1.64 frames per second);
37 frames total;
2 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer of 37 shots.

Flash recycling
2.5 seconds

Flash at maximum output.

*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC memory card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity also affects cycle times and burst mode performance, with higher ISOs generally increasing cycle times and reducing burst performance.

Single-shot cycle time was good for its class, capturing a large/super fine JPEG frame every 1.05 seconds on average, a RAW file every 1.27 seconds, and a RAW+JPEG pair every 1.38 seconds. There was no apparent buffer limit with any file type in single-shot mode, however there was a lot of cycle time variation when shooting JPEGs, ranging from 0.82 to 1.63 seconds.

Continuous mode captured 5 large/super fine JPEGs at a blistering 12.5 fps before decreasing to a very fast 9.28 fps, without AF. (With AF, the rate was still a fairly fast 5.85 fps.) But with RAW files continuous mode slowed down dramatically. With just RAW files, the framerate was 1.80 fps and with RAW+ L/SF JPEGs, the framerate reduced further to 1.64 fps.

Buffer lengths were excellent. Bursts of large/super fine JPEGs slowed after 5 frames, however the post-buffer-full rate of 9.28 fps is still excellent. When shooting RAW files, buffer length was 39 frames, and for RAW+JPEG, it was 37 frames, but keep in mind the much slower framerates. Buffer clearing was surprisingly fast with our 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, ranging from just under 2 seconds after a burst of RAW or RAW+JPEG frames, to 3 seconds after a burst of L/SF JPEGs.

The Canon PowerShot G16's flash recycled in about 2.5 seconds after a full-power discharge, which is very good.

 

Download Speed

Windows Computer, USB 2.0
12,993 KBytes/sec*

Typical Values:
Less than 600=USB 1.1;
600-769=USB 2.0 Low;
Above 770=USB 2.0 High

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, the Canon PowerShot G16's download speeds were quite fast. Note that we used fast 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, so slower cards may result in slower download speeds.

Bottom line, the Canon G16's timing performance is much improved over the G15's, though continuous mode with RAW files is quite sluggish.

Battery Life

Above average battery life.

Operating Mode
Number of Shots
Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery,
(CIPA standard, OVF)
770
Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery,
(CIPA standard, LCD Monitor)
360

The Canon G16's battery life has a CIPA rating of 770 shots per charge with the LCD off, and about 360 shots with it on, which is good for its class. And there's an ECO mode which increases battery life to 480 shots by dimming the LCD when not in use.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), 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))

 

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