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Fuji FinePix S2 Pro

Fuji updates their digital SLR with a 6 megapixel CCD, with the same excellent color...

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Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests
Review First Posted: 7/24/2002

Shutter Lag and Cycle Times

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This time allows 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 can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I now routinely measure it, using a custom test system I built for the purpose, accurate to 0.001 seconds.

Fuji S2 Pro Timings

Operation Time (secs)
Slow Card Time (secs)
Fast Card Notes

Power On -> First shot 1.3 -
About average, slower than some D-SLRs.

Shutdown 0-540 0-173
"Shutdown" can be zero if card isn't writing, as no lens retraction to wait for. Longest time shown is when camera is clearing buffer full of TIFF files, until card can be removed.

Play to Record, first shot 0.17 -
No more delay from play to record than minimum shutter lag in record mode. Very fast.

Record to play (max/min res) 4.5/1.0 2.1
Average review speed.

Shutter lag, full autofocus 0.22 - ? -
Will depend on lens being used, how far the focus has to traverse from prior shot. Time shown is minimum time with the 24-85 zoom I tested with. (Seems like a fairly fast AF system. although)

Shutter lag, manual focus 0.220 -
Average speed (1/2 the speed of the D100)

Shutter lag, prefocus 0.162 -
Slower than competing D-SLRs. (60% slower than D100)

Cycle time, large/fine files 0.59/3.54
(more tests pending) 0.59/1.58
Buffer is 7-9 frames long, then speed drops to second number shown. Fastest post-buffer-fill cycle time is with SmartMedia. (Faster than any CF card I tried.) Lexar 12x card was 3.44 sec, Mr. Flash (slow) card was.

Cycle time, small/basic files 0.59/1.23 -
Quite fast. Buffer capacity not affected by file size. (Same 7-9 shot capacity whether large or small image sizes.)

Cycle time, TIFF files 0.51/70.1
Buff clear 540(!) sec 0.59/28.5
Buff clear 173 sec
TIFF mode files are enormous (37 MB), take a long time to write. Buffer gives 0.59 sec cycle time for first 7-9 shots, but buffer clearing can be ineffably slow with a slow card. Faster card is up to 3x faster. (Couldn't measure post-buffer cycle time on SmartMedia card, because 128Meg max size was too small to exhaust the buffer.)

Cycle time, RAW files (test pending) (test pending)

Continuous mode, large files (test pending) 0.59/1.23
(1.69 fps)
2.88 frames/second for first 4-6 frames at max res, until buffer fills. Then takes time indicated by second number for buffer to clear. (Faster card is 1.8x as fast on buffer overruns.) Small/basic files show nearly identical behavior, but run length is 9 shots before buffer fills.

I had to cut short my performance testing of the S2 due to a business trip, but I'll try to come back and fill-in the blanks shortly. Even in my limited testing, two things were apparent. First, the S2 isn't as fast as the Nikon D100, particularly when it comes to shutter lag. While still drastically faster than any consumer-level digicam, the manual focus and prefocus shutter lag of the S2 Pro is fully 60% longer than that of the D100. Cycle times were somewhat longer as well. The second thing that became apparent is that memory cards can make a huge difference in the buffer-clearing speed of the S2. (Although if you stay within the limits of the 7-shot buffer, you won't see any performance difference with a faster card.) Interestingly, SmartMedia cards are by far the fastest, but their limited capacity could be an issue on a camera with the S2's file sizes. A fast Lexar card emptied the buffer fully 3x faster than a slow "Mr. Flash" card. The S2 also seems to be finicky about which cards it will work with: A 512 MB SimpleTech card that I've used as a standard "fast card" in many of my previous digicam tests wouldn't work at all in the S2.

I'll report more on timing and performance shortly...

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Fuji S2 Pro Timings
Operation	Time (secs) Slow Card	Time (secs) Fast Card	Notes
Power On -> First shot	1.3	-	About average, slower than some D-SLRs.
Shutdown	0-540	0-173	"Shutdown" can be zero if card isn't writing, as no lens retraction to wait for. Longest time shown is when camera is clearing buffer full of TIFF files, until card can be removed.
Play to Record, first shot	0.17	-	No more delay from play to record than minimum shutter lag in record mode. Very fast.
Record to play (max/min res)	4.5/1.0	2.1	Average review speed.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.22 - ?	-	Will depend on lens being used, how far the focus has to traverse from prior shot. Time shown is minimum time with the 24-85 zoom I tested with. (Seems like a fairly fast AF system. although)
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.220	-	Average speed (1/2 the speed of the D100)
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.162	-	Slower than competing D-SLRs. (60% slower than D100)
Cycle time, large/fine files	0.59/3.54 (more tests pending)	0.59/1.58	Buffer is 7-9 frames long, then speed drops to second number shown. Fastest post-buffer-fill cycle time is with SmartMedia. (Faster than any CF card I tried.) Lexar 12x card was 3.44 sec, Mr. Flash (slow) card was.
Cycle time, small/basic files	0.59/1.23	-	Quite fast. Buffer capacity not affected by file size. (Same 7-9 shot capacity whether large or small image sizes.)
Cycle time, TIFF files	0.51/70.1 Buff clear 540(!) sec	0.59/28.5 Buff clear 173 sec	TIFF mode files are enormous (37 MB), take a long time to write. Buffer gives 0.59 sec cycle time for first 7-9 shots, but buffer clearing can be ineffably slow with a slow card. Faster card is up to 3x faster. (Couldn't measure post-buffer cycle time on SmartMedia card, because 128Meg max size was too small to exhaust the buffer.)
Cycle time, RAW files	(test pending)	(test pending)
Continuous mode, large files	(test pending)	0.59/1.23 (1.69 fps)	2.88 frames/second for first 4-6 frames at max res, until buffer fills. Then takes time indicated by second number for buffer to clear. (Faster card is 1.8x as fast on buffer overruns.) Small/basic files show nearly identical behavior, but run length is 9 shots before buffer fills.