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Olympus TG-4 Performance


Timing and Performance

Generally good performance for its class.

Startup/Play to Record

Power on
to first shot
~1.0 second

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

Play to Record,
first shot
~0.7 second

Time until first shot is captured.

Startup to first shot time was faster than average for its class. Play to Record mode switching was quite fast.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Wide Angle
0.257 second

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

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Telephoto
0.161 second

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

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Flash enabled
0.323 second

Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at medium focal length.

Manual Focus
0.096 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
0.032 second

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

The Olympus TG-4's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was pretty fast for a compact camera. The TG-4's full AF shutter lag clocked in at about 0.26 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF shutter lag was even faster at full telephoto, at only about 0.16 second. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.32 seconds, to account for the metering preflash. Manual focus shutter lag was pretty quick at 96 milliseconds, and prefocused shutter lag was very fast at only 32 milliseconds.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Fine JPEG
0.51 second

Average time per shot.

Single Shot mode
RAW + LF JPEG
0.59 second

Average time per shot.

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.

Sequential mode
Large Fine JPEG
0.20 second
(5.06 fps);
100 frames total;
4 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 100 frames.

Sequential mode
RAW
N/A

RAW not supported in burst mode.

Sequential mode
RAW + LF JPEG
N/A

RAW not supported in burst mode.

Hi-Speed2 mode
3MP JPEGs
0.02 second
(60.6 fps);
100 frames total;
10 seconds to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over buffer size of 100 frames.

Flash recycling
~1.8 seconds

Flash at maximum output.

*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec 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 were very good in single shot mode, at about 0.5 second for Large/Fine JPEGs and 0.6 second for RAW+JPEG files. We no longer test just RAW file cycle time in single-shot mode, as it's usually somewhere in between JPEG and RAW+JPEG.

The Olympus TG-4's full-res Sequential shooting mode burst rate was fair at 5 frames per second, and buffer depth was excellent at 100 frames. The TG-4 does not however support shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG files in Sequential mode. The fastest "High-Speed2" burst mode shoots 3-megapixel JPEGs at almost 61 fps, also for 100 frames. A 3-megapixel "High-Speed1" mode is also available which is rated at 15 fps, however we did not test that mode in the lab.

Buffer clearing was pretty swift with our 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, taking only 4 seconds to clear after 100 large/fine JPEGs. That increased to 10 seconds in Hi-Speed2 mode.

The built-in flash took an average of 1.8 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge which is fast, but recycle times were very irregular, ranging from 0.6 to 3.6 seconds.

 

Bottom line, the Olympus TG-4's performance was generally good for its class with fast AF, low shutter lag and a decent 5 fps full-res burst speed when shooting JPEGs. Shooting RAW files is however not possible in Sequential mode. That's a bit disappointing, but at least the TG-4 can capture RAW files in single shot mode, a first for a compact waterproof/tough camera.

Battery

Battery Life
Very good battery life.

Operating Mode Number of Shots
Still Capture
(CIPA standard, LCD Monitor)
380

The Olympus TG-4 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and the battery is charged in-camera via the USB port. CIPA battery life is very good for its class, at 380 shots per charge. Still, we recommend you pick up a spare battery 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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