Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200Konica Minolta trims a little and adds a little relative to their top-end A2 model, delivering a strong contender in the 8-megapixel derby.<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 8:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 12/22/2004 |
Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a digital camera, there's usually a delay or lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time allows the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms to do their work and can amount to a significant delay in some situations. Likewise, the delay from shot to shot can vary greatly, and is also important to the picture-taking experience. Since these numbers are rarely reported by manufacturers or reviewers (and even more rarely, reported with accuracy), I routinely measure both shutter lag and cycle times using an electronic test setup I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled timing, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Konica Minolta DiMAGE A200:
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(secs) |
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| Power On -> First shot | |
Fairly fast.
(Lens doesn't have to telescope out.) |
| Shutdown | |
First time is simple shutdown,
second time is worst-case buffer-clearing time. First time is quite fast,
due to no need for lens to retract. Second is rather long, but note that
it corresponds to saving five 8-megapixel RAW images to the memory card
before shutdown. |
| Play to Record, first shot | |
Time until
first shot is captured. Fairly fast. |
| Record to play | |
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. First time is somewhat slow, second is
very fast. |
| Shutter lag, full autofocus | |
First time is at full wide-angle, second is full telephoto. Both times are faster than average, particularly for a camera with a long-ratio zoom lens. |
| Shutter lag, continuous autofocus | 0.61 |
As is usually the case, continuous AF mode doesn't help lag time at all, at least with stationary subjects. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus | 0.34 |
Reasonably fast. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus | |
Time to capture, after half-pressing
shutter button. Very fast. |
| Cycle Time, max/min resolution JPEG files | 2.53 / |
First number is for large/fine files, second number is time for "TV" mode (640x480) images. Times are averages. In large/fine mode, shoots 11 frames this fast, then slows to about 4 seconds per shot, and clears the buffer in 15 seconds. In TV mode, shoots this fast indefinitely, clearing the buffer after each shot. Reasonable speed for an 8-megapixel camera, good buffer depth. (A good bit slower than the DiMAGE A2 though.) |
| Cycle Time, RAW | 5.23 | Times are averages. Shoots 5 frames this fast, then slows to 8.74 seconds per shot, and clears the buffer in 24 seconds with a Lexar 80x CF card. Not bad for a RAW mode, but much slower than was the A2 model. (The A200's buffering doesn't seem to make nearly as much of a difference as did the A2's.) Clearing times with slower CF cards would be longer. |
| Cycle Time, RAW + JPEG | 10.40 | Times are averages, measured with a Lexar 80x CF card. (Times with slower memory cards would be longer.) Apparently no buffering at all, each shot takes this long to complete, camera finishes writing to the card ~10-11 seconds after the last shot was taken. Still not the slowest RAW mode I've seen on an 8-megapixel camera, but this is slow enough that it won't be useful for much other than landscapes and still lifes. Because there's no buffering involved here, a slower CF card will directly affect your cycle time in this mode. |
| Cycle Time, continuous High mode, max/min resolution / RAW | 0.43 (2.33 fps) |
Times are averages. Cycle time is 0.51 seconds for five frames, regardless of resolution. Buffer clears in 13 seconds for large/fine images, 8 seconds for lowest resolution files, and 37 seconds for RAW files, all with a Lexar 80x CF card. (Slower cards will clear more slowly.) Good speed, reasonable buffer clearing times. (Note that the viewfinder blanks out while shooting in this mode.) |
| Cycle Time, continuous Low mode, max/min resolution / RAW | 0.51 (1.95 fps) |
Times are averages. Cycle time is 0.51 seconds for five frames, regardless of resolution. Buffer clears in 12 seconds for large/fine images, 7 seconds for lowest resolution files, and 37 seconds for RAW files, all with a Lexar 80x CF card. (Note that the viewfinder remains "live" in this mode.) |
| Cycle Time, Ultra High Speed mode | 0.10 (10 fps) |
Camera captures forty 640 x 480 pixel images at 10 frames/second. Buffer clears in 13 seconds. Very fast, and 640x480 resolution is good. |
Very good shutter lag, average cycle times. With shutter lag that ranged
from 0.61 - 0.63 second in full autofocus mode, and down to 0.097 second when
"prefocused" (by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button
before the shot itself), the Konica Minolta A200 is pretty quick on the draw,
particularly for a long-zoom model. Shot to shot it was only average, at 2.53
seconds between frames for up to 11 large/fine JPEGs. RAW-mode speed is better
than average at 5.23 seconds/frame, but the buffer memory helps only slightly
there. In continuous mode, cycle time is very good, at 0.51 second for up to
five frames, which translates to 1.96 frames/second. The buffer clears in 12-15
seconds when shooting large/fine JPEGS to a Lexar 80x CF card. Times are all
a fair bit slower than on the A2, particularly RAW-mode cycle times. Also as
on the A2 though, shooting in RAW+JPEG mode is completely unbuffered, although
the A200's cycle time of 10.4 seoconds in this mode is quite a bit better than
that of the A2. Overall, a nicely responsive digicam, well-suited for the amateur
sports shooter.
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