Digital Cameras - Picky Details of the Olympus D-590 Zoom Digital Camera

Digital Camera Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Olympus Digital Cameras > Olympus D-590 Zoom

"Picky Details" for the Olympus D-590 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)

Timing

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required for the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is rarely reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Olympus D-590:

Olympus D-590 Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	2.7	LCD turns on and lens extends forward. About average.
Shutdown	3.1 - 11	First time is time to retract lens, second time is worst-case buffer-clearing time. About average.
Play to Record, first shot	0.3	Time until first shot is captured. Quite fast.
Record to play	5.4 / 1.2	First time is that required to display a large/fine file immediately after capture, second time is that needed to display a large/fine file that has already been processed and stored on the memory card. On the slow side, particularly for images just shot.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.88 / 0.84	First time is at full wide-angle, second is full telephoto. Average.
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.098	Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button. Very fast.
Cycle Time, max/min resolution	2.00 / 1.97	First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for "TV" mode (640x480) images. Times are averages. In large/fine mode, shoots five frames this fast, then slows to about 2.7 seconds per shot. In TV mode, continues at this rate indefinitely. Buffer clears in 7.5 seconds in large/fine mode, and almost immediately in TV mode. Average for its price range.
Cycle Time, continuous mode, max/min resolution	0.92 / 0.90 (1.09 / 1.11 fps)	First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for "TV" mode (640x480) images. Times are averages. In large/fine mode, shoots 3 frames this fast, then slows to about 3 seconds per shot. In TV mode, continues at this rate indefinitely. Buffer clears in 8 seconds in large/fine mode, and 2 seconds in TV mode. Average to a little slower than average for its price range.

Average performance for both shutter lag and cycle time. The word that best describes the Olympus D-590's performance is "average." It's solidly in the middle of the range for most parameters, with a shutter lag that ranges from 0.84-0.88 second in full autofocus mode, and cycle times on the order of two seconds. Startup and shutdown times are also typical of cameras in its class.

Power

The Olympus D-590 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power. Here are the power consumption numbers I measured for it in various operating modes, along with the corresponding projected run times.

Operating Mode	Power (@4.8 volts on the external power terminal)	Est. Minutes (3.7v, 1230mAh LiIon cell)
Capture Mode	471 mA	121
Half-pressed shutter	463 mA	123
Memory Write (transient)	479 mA	n/a
Flash Recharge (transient)	1115 mA	n/a
Image Playback	235 mA	242

Generally good battery life. With a worst-case run time of just over two hours in capture mode, the Olympus D-590 does better than most compact digital cameras. If you plan on any extended outings with it, I do still recommend purchasing a second battery, but for casual use, the included battery will probably be sufficient.

Storage Capacity

The Olympus D-590 stores its photos on xD memory cards, and a 16 MB card is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a 64 MB card, preferably a 128 MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included 16 MB card at each size/quality setting.

Image Capacity vs Resolution/Quality 16 MB Memory Card		Fine	Normal
2272 x 1704	Images (Avg size)	5 2.8 MB	16 962 KB
2272 x 1704	Approx. Compression	4:1	12:1
2048 x 1536	Images (Avg size)	20 785 KB	-
2048 x 1536	Approx. Compression	12:1	-
1600 x 1200	Images (Avg size)	24 642 KB	-
1600 x 1200	Approx. Compression	9:1	-
1280 x 960	Images (Avg size)	38 417 KB	-
1280 x 960	Approx. Compression	9:1	-
1024 x 768	Images (Avg size)	58 272 KB	-
1024 x 768	Approx. Compression	9:1	-
640 x 480	Images (Avg size)	90 176 KB	-
640 x 480	Approx. Compression	5:1	-

Download Speed

The Olympus D-590 connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked it at 505 KBytes/second, a decent if not exceptional speed. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)

D-590 Review
D-590 Test Images
D-590 Specifications
D-590 "Picky Details"
Up to Imaging Resource digital cameras area

Reader Comments!
Questions, comments or controversy on this article? Click this link to see what other Imaging Resource readers have had to say about Olympus D-590 Zoom, or add comments of your own!