Samsung EX2F Performance

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Samsung EX2F Performance

Timing and Performance

Generally good speed for an enthusiast compact camera, though sluggish mode switching.

Startup/Shutdown
Power on to first shot	~1.7 seconds	Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy and capture a picture.
Shutdown	~1.4 seconds	How long it takes to retract lens.
Buffer clearing time	1 second (after 20 LSF JPEGs)* 7 seconds (after 6 RAW files)* 9 seconds (after 3 RAW+JPEG frames)*	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. Buffer clearing is pretty good with a fast card.

Mode Switching
Play to Record, first shot	1.0 second	Time until first shot is captured.
Record to Play	2.4 seconds	Time to display a large super fine JPEG file immediately after capture.
Display recorded image	0.7 second	Time to display a large super fine JPEG file already on the memory card.

Mode switching performance was a little sluggish. Play to Record requires two presses of the shutter, and Record to Play has a pre-press penalty meaning if you press Play too soon after taking a shot, it takes longer.

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Center Area AF	0.380 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at medium position.
Wide Area AF	0.406 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at medium position.
Full Autofocus Flash enabled	0.790 second	Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at medium position.
Manual Focus	0.205 second	Time to capture while forcing flash to fire, zoom lens at wide angle position.
Prefocused	0.130 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

Full autofocus shutter response using center area AF is good at 0.38 second. Wide area AF was a bit slower at 0.41 second, but still good. Enabling the flash increases lag quite a bit to 0.79 second, due to the preflash metering involved. Manual focus shutter lag is fairly quick at 0.21 second, though we've seen faster in this class. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of 0.130 second, which is slower than average for a digicam, but still reasonably quick.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large Super Fine JPEG	1.20 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 1 second to clear.*
Single Shot mode RAW	1.82 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 6 shots, 7 seconds to clear.*
Single Shot mode RAW + LSF JPEG	1.55 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 3 shots, 9 seconds to clear.*
Early shutter penalty?	YES	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 H mode Large Super Fine JPEG	0.10 second (10.1 frames per second); 9 frames total; 9 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 9 frames.
Continuous mode RAW	N/A	RAW files not supported in continuous modes.
Continuous mode RAW + LSF JPEG	N/A	RAW files not supported in continuous modes.
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 okay, at 1.2 seconds for large Super Fine JPEGs, 1.8 seconds for RAW, and 1.6 seconds for RAW + LSF JPEGs.

The Samsung EX2F's high-speed continuous mode is quite fast at just over 10 frames-per-second, but only supports JPEGs. Buffer depth is limited at 9 frames, however you may do slightly better since our target is designed to be difficult to compress. (Samsung says up to 10 frames.) There are also 5 and 3 fps continuous modes, however we did not test those.

The flash took 5.3 seconds to recharge after a full-power discharge, which isn't bad for a compact.

Download Speed
Windows Computer, USB 2.0	6,463 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 were reasonably fast. Note that we used a pretty fast 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, so slower cards may result in slower download speeds.

Bottom line, the Samsung EX2F's timing performance is mixed. Startup was average, mode switching below average, autofocus good, single-shot cycle time average, and burst mode very fast. However raw files aren't supported in continuous mode, and JPEG burst depth is limited to 9 or 10 frames.

Battery Life

Battery
Slightly below average battery life for a lithium-ion compact.

Operating Mode	Number of Shots
Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery, (CIPA standard)	260

The Samsung EX2F uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Battery life is a bit blow average for a compact, 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))