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Olympus Stylus 1 Performance

Timing and Performance

Excellent performance for a long-zoom compact.

Startup/Play to Record/Buffer Clearing

Power on
to first shot
~1.3 seconds

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

Play to Record,
first shot
~0.6 second

Time until first shot is captured.

Buffer clearing time
3 seconds
after 40 L/F JPEGs*
7 seconds
after 32 RAW files*
10 seconds
after 26 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 Stylus 1 takes about 1.3 seconds to power on and take a shot, which is quite fast for a long zoom. The Stylus 1 takes only 0.6 second to switch from Play to Record mode and take a shot, also quite fast. Buffer clearing is pretty fast with a fast card, considering the deep buffers.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus Wide
0.270 second

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

Full Autofocus Tele
0.322 second

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

Full Autofocus
Flash enabled
0.404 second

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

Prefocused
0.040 second

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

Full autofocus shutter lag is very good at 0.27 second at wide angle and 0.32 second at telephoto. Enabling the flash increases shutter lag to 0.40 second, also good. Prefocused shutter lag is a fast 0.040 second.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Fine JPEG
0.42 second

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

Single Shot mode
RAW
0.44 second

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

Single Shot mode
RAW + L/F JPEG
0.40 second

Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 6 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
0.12 second (8.14 frames per second);
40+ frames total;
3 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 40 shots, with no signs of slowing.

Continuous mode
RAW
0.12 second (8.12 frames per second);
32 frames total;
7 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer of 32 shots, then slows to an average of 0.3 or 3.4fps when buffer is full.

Continuous mode
RAW + L/F JPEG
0.12 second (8.02 frames per second);
26 frames total;
10 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer of 26 shots, then slows to an average of 0.5 or 2.0fps when buffer is full.

Flash recycling
3.4 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.

Cycle times are excellent, capturing a Large/Fine JPEG every 0.42 second, a RAW file every 0.44 second and a RAW+L/F JPEG pair every 0.40 second in single-shot mode.

The Olympus Stylus 1's full resolution continuous mode performance is very good, capturing large/fine JPEGs at 8.1 frames per second, RAW files at 8.1 frames per second and RAW+L/F JPEG files at 8.0 frames per second.

Buffer depths and clearing times are excellent. In JPEG mode, there is no apparent buffer limit, and the buffer cleared in just 3 seconds after 40 frames. In RAW mode, buffer depth is 32 frames with 7 seconds to clear, and RAW+JPEG mode has a buffer depth of 26 frames with 10 seconds to clear, all using a fast 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card.

The Olympus Stylus 1's built-in flash recycles in about 3.4 seconds after a full-power discharge, which is good.

 

Download Speed

Windows Computer, USB 2.0
10,373 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 reasonably fast. Note that we used fast 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, so slower cards may result in slower download speeds.

Bottom line, the Olympus Stylus 1's timing performance is excellent all around.

Battery Life

Above average battery life.

Operating Mode
Number of Shots
Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery,
(CIPA standard)
410

The Olympus Stylus 1's battery life has a CIPA rating of 410 shots per charge, which is slightly above average for its class. (Note that Olympus doesn't state if that's with the LCD or EVF.)

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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