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Olympus TG-6 Performance


Timing and Performance

Very good to excellent performance for its class.

Startup/Play to Record

Power on
to first shot
~0.9 second

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.

Startup to first shot time was quite quick for a compact camera at about 0.9 second, and faster than the TG-5's 1.3 seconds. Play to Record mode switching was also faster at about 0.6 second vs 0.7 second for the TG-5.

 

Shutter Response (Lag Time)

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Wide Angle
0.148 second

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

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Telephoto
0.177 second

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

Full Autofocus
Center-area AF
Flash enabled
0.294 second

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

Manual Focus
0.081 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
0.043 second

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

The Olympus TG-6's full autofocus shutter lag when shooting the same target multiple times was very fast for a rugged compact camera. The TG-6's full AF shutter lag clocked in at about 0.15 second at wide angle using center AF mode. Full AF shutter lag was just a bit slower at full telephoto at about 0.18 second, though that's still fast. Enabling the flash raised shutter lag to 0.29 seconds, to account for the metering preflash. Manual focus shutter lag was pretty quick at about 81 milliseconds, and prefocused shutter lag was fast at 43 milliseconds. Apart from AF lag with flash enabled, all of these times are slightly faster than the TG-5.

 

Cycle Time (shot to shot)

Single Shot mode
Large Super Fine JPEG
0.38 second

Average time per shot.

Single Shot mode
RAW + LSF JPEG
0.38 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 High
LSF JPEG
0.05 second
(20.0 fps);
27 frames total;
4.2 seconds
to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 27 frame buffer, then slows down to 0.21s or 4.7 fps when buffer is full with a lot of variation.

Sequential High
RAW
0.05 second
(20.0 fps);
18 frames total;
4.5 seconds
to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 18 frame buffer, then slows down to 0.29s or 3.5 fps when buffer is full with a lot of variation.

Sequential High
RAW + LSF JPEG
0.05 second
(20.0 fps);
15 frames total;
6.1 seconds
to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 15 frame buffer, then slows down to 0.45s or 2.2 fps when buffer is full with a lot of variation.

Sequential Low
LSF JPEG
0.20 second
(5.0 fps);
Unlimited;
0.5 second
to clear*

Time per shot, with no apparent limit other than available card capacity.

Sequential Low
RAW
0.20 second
(5.0 fps);
34 frames total;
5.0 seconds
to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 34 frame buffer, then slows down to 0.32s or 3.2 fps when buffer is full with a lot of variation.

Sequential Low
RAW + LSF JPEG
0.20 second
(5.0 fps);
22 frames total;
7.7 seconds
to clear*

Time per shot, averaged over 22 frame buffer, then slows down to 0.44s or 2.3 fps when buffer is full with a lot of variation.

Flash recycling
4.7 seconds

Flash at maximum output.

*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a 64GB Lexar Pro 2000x UHS-II SDXC 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 fast in single shot mode, at about 0.4 second for Large/Super Fine JPEGs or RAW+LSF 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-6's full-res Sequential High shooting mode (which uses an electronic shutter) was very fast at 20 frames per second (a 10 fps option is also available), and best quality JPEG buffer depth was 27 frames compared to 21 frames for its predecessor. Like the TG-5, the TG-6 supports bust RAW capture. Buffer depths of course were less than JPEGs at 18 RAW and 15 RAW+JPEG frames, but that's still not bad, and improved over the TG-5's 15 and 11 frames respectively. In Sequential Low mode which uses the mechanical shutter, the TG-6 shoots at 5.0 fps. JPEG buffer depth was unlimited at this speed, while RAW and RAW+JPEG buffers increased to 34 and 22 frames respectively, also improved over the TG-5.

The TG-6 also offers a Pro Capture mode at 10 fps which begins to take photos as soon as you half-press the shutter release but discards them except for up to 4 frames just before fully pressing the shutter, and of course it keeps the ones captured while the shutter is fully depressed. This helps capture fleeting moments that would be difficult to react in time for.

Buffer clearing was pretty swift with our Lexar Pro 2000x UHS-II card, taking at most 7.7 seconds after max-length bursts of RAW+JPEG frames, and you can adjust settings and take additional shots while it's clearing, though you can't view just-shot images until after they are flushed to the card.

The built-in flash took an average of 4.7 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge which is a bit on the slow side.

 

Bottom line, the Olympus TG-6's performance is very good to excellent for its class, with many slight to moderate improvements over its predecessor.

Battery

Battery Life
Good battery life.

Operating Mode Number of Shots
Still Capture
(CIPA standard, LCD Monitor)
340

The Olympus TG-6 uses a custom LI-92B rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power (the same as the TG-5 and TG-4) and the battery is charged in-camera via the USB port. CIPA battery life is the same as the TG-5 which is good for its class, at 340 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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