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Canon PowerShot S110 Performance


Timing and Performance

Some performance improvements over the S100, but still no speed demon.

Startup/Shutdown

Power on
to first shot
~2.3 seconds

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

Shutdown
~2.0 seconds

How long it takes to retract lens.

Buffer clearing time
1 second
(after 20 L/F JPEGs)*
2 seconds
(after 20 Raw files)*
5 seconds
(after 10 L/F JPEGs in HQ burst mode)*

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.

About average startup and shutdown times here for a compact camera, similar to the S100. Buffer clearing is pretty speedy with a fast card.

 

Mode Switching

Play to Record,
first shot
1.5 seconds

Time until first shot is captured.

Record to Play
3.1 seconds

Time to display a large/fine JPEG file immediately after capture.

Display
recorded image
1.6 seconds

Time to display a large/fine JPEG file already on the memory card.

Mode switching performance is a little sluggish, particularly Record to Play.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus Wide
0.484 second

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

Full Autofocus Tele
0.528 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
0.498 second
This mode usually shows no speed increase with our static subject; we have no way to measure performance with moving subjects.
Manual Focus
0.326 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
0.078 second

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

Full autofocus shutter response in the default AF mode is a bit slower than average at both wide angle and full telephoto, at 0.48 and 0.53 second respectively. However, these results are a bit faster than its predecessor, the S100, which tested at 0.57 second. Enabling the flash increases lag quite a bit to 0.67 second, due to the preflash metering involved. Continuous AF shutter lag is about 0.50s while manual focus improves to 0.33s. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of 0.078 second. That's pretty quick, but a touch slow for a digicam, and slightly slower than the S100's 0.071 second lag.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode
Large Fine JPEG
2.15 seconds

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

Single Shot mode
RAW
2.78 seconds

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 3 seconds to clear.*

Single Shot mode
RAW + L/F JPEG
2.96 seconds

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 3 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 Fine JPEG
0.55 second (1.82 frames per second);
20+ frames total;
1 second to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, with no signs of slowing.

Continuous mode
RAW
0.95 second (1.06 frames per second);
20+ frames total;
2 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, with no signs of slowing.

Continuous mode
RAW + L/F JPEG
1.06 second (0.94 frames per second);
20+ frames total;
2 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, with no signs of slowing.

HQ Burst mode
Large Fine JPEG
0.10 second (10.0 frames per second);
10 frames total;
5 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 10 shots.

Flash recycling
5.3 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.

Shot-to-shot cycle times are sluggish, at 2.2 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, 2.8 seconds for RAW, and 3.0 seconds for RAW + L/F JPEGs. These results are only a sight improvement over the S100 which ranged from 2.3 to 3.1 seconds.

The PowerShot S110's standard Continuous mode is actually a bit slower than the S100's, and slow for its class. The S110 captured large/fine JPEGs at 1.82 frames per second (versus 2.35 fps for the S100), though the S110 seems to be able to capture frames continuously at this rate. The burst rate dropped to 1.06 frames per second when capturing RAW files (1.29 fps for the S100), but again with apparently no buffer limit. RAW + L/F JPEG mode is even slower, at 1.06 fps (1.1 fps for the S100). The S110's High-Speed HQ Burst mode is quite fast, though, capturing 10 full-resolution JPEGs in one second. Note that RAW capture is not supported in High-Speed HQ Burst mode.

The S110's flash took 5.3 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge; not bad, and quite a bit faster than the S100's 7.5 seconds.

 

Download Speed

Windows Computer, USB 2.0
8,950 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, download speeds are 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 PowerShot S110's timing performance is mixed. Timing was generally similar to the S100 which was no speed demon, with minor improvements in some cases, along with some slower numbers as well.

Battery Life

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

Operating Mode Number of Shots
Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery,
(CIPA standard)
200

The Canon PowerShot S110 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Battery life is pretty short (same as the S100's), 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 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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