Timings & File Sizes

Not too many surprises here, mostly the 995 performs the same as the 990, maybe just slightly faster. Two things became apparent for their potential to cause delay, first of all is zoom startup position, power up times gained an extra 3 seconds if the lens startup position is at full wide (either set to that or as the "last position"). This is because the camera "parks" the lens somewhere near full tele at power down, thus at power up it has to fully zoom to reach the requested zoom position.

Secondly is the delay brought about by using an IBM Microdrive. We've noted in other reviews the fact that the Microdrive's "spin up" and accesses times often have a detrimental effect on performance, the same appears to be true with the 995.

Start up times are almost doubled using the Microdrive (vs. the supplied SanDisk flash card) as are power down, mode change and thumbnail views. The amount of delay caused by using the Microdrive does seem to be significantly greater than we have seen from other digital cameras and it can only lead us to believe that the 995 isn't properly "prepared" (as IBM would put it) to use the Microdrive. This then supports Nikon's position that the 995 "does NOT support IBM Microdrive".

Timing Notes: All times calculated as an average of three operations. Unless otherwise stated all timings were made on a 2048 x 1536 FINE JPEG image (approx. 1.0 MB per image).

The media used for these tests were:

• 16 MB SanDisk Type I CompactFlash card (as supplied in European Kit)
• 320 MB Lexar Pro 12x Type I CompactFlash card
• 1 GB IBM Microdrive Type II CompactFlash card

Action	Details	Time, seconds (SanDisk CF)	Time, seconds (Lexar 12x CF)	Time, seconds (Microdrive)
Power: Off to Record	Zoom @ tele	4.0	4.1	6.3
Power: Off to Record	Zoom @ wide	6.9	7.4	9.0
Power: Off to Play		2.6	3.0	6.3
Power: Record to Off	Zoom @ tele	2.1	1.9	1.9
Power: Record to Off	Zoom @ wide	3.8	3.5	3.6
Power: Play to Off		1.2	1.2	1.9
Mode: Record to Play		1.8	1.3	3.4
Mode: Play to Record		2.2	2.2	2.6
Play: Magnify to x6.0	25 steps	4.4	4.3	4.8
Rec: Thumbnail view 2 x 2		1.5	1.1	2.6
Rec: Thumbnail view 3 x 3		3.1	2.0	4.8

Action	Details	Time, seconds
Zoom from Wide to Tele	Full zoom from 38 mm to 152 mm (4x)	3.4
Auto Focus LAG	Normal AF *1	0.8 - 1.7
Auto Focus LAG	Macro AF *1	0.9 - 3.0
Shutter Release LAG	Using viewfinder	<0.1
Shutter Release LAG	Using LCD monitor	0.1
Total LAG		>1.0
Off to Shot Taken	Using supplied 16 MB SanDisk CF card, zoom at half	5.6
Shot to Shot	Same for LCD in review or preview modes	2.6

Auto Focus LAG is (roughly) the amount of time it takes the camera to autofocus (a half-press and hold of the shutter release button), this timing is normally the most variable as its affected by the subject matter, current focus position, still or moving subject etc. This timing is an average.

Shutter Release LAG is the amount of time it takes to take the shot after autofocus, this timing assumes you have already focused (half-pressed the shutter release) and now press the shutter release button all the way down to take the shot. This timing is an average.

Total LAG is the total time it takes (not just the two above added together) if you haven't pre-focused, that is no finger touching the shutter release button, press it all the way down in one movement, this new timing is how long it'd take if you were in one of those spur-of-the-moment situations. This timing is an average.

Continuous modes

As with the 990, the 995 offers a wide range of different continuous (or burst) shooting modes, everything from full 3 megapixel continuous shooting down to 320 x 240 ultra high speed bursts.

The table below shows the results of our continuous shooting test, indicating the actual frame rate along with maximum number of frames and how long you would have to wait after taking the maximum number of frames before you could take another shot.

The 995 does appear to be very slightly faster than the 990 (a whole 0.2 fps in most cases) however this is to the detriment of the maximum number of frames, for example the 990 can shoot 44 frames in a VGA seq. and 80 frames at Ultra HS.

Continuous mode Flush Timing

The timings above represent the speed of the camera and its internal buffer, however the speed of the Compact Flash card will also have an impact on shooting continuously, it defines how long we must wait before the ENTIRE "burst" of frames are written away to the card (flushed). During the flush process (which happens in the background, you can still take a shot as long as there is space in the internal buffer) certain camera operations are blocked; such as playback and entering the menu.

Not surprisingly Lexar's excellent Pro 12x Compact Flash card performs the best, it's almost twice as fast as the supplied Nikon badged SanDisk card and the Microdrive. Not exactly 12x faster though!

File Flush / Display Timing

Timings shown below are the time taken for the camera to process and "flush" the image out to the Compact Flash card, the timer was started as soon as the shutter release was pressed (shutter click was heard) and stopped when activity indicator LED beside the storage compartment went out. This means the timings also include the cameras processing time and as such are more representative of the actual time to "complete the task".

The media used for these tests were:

• 16 MB SanDisk Type I CompactFlash card (as supplied in European Kit)
• 320 MB Lexar Pro 12x Type I CompactFlash card
• 1 GB IBM Microdrive Type II CompactFlash card

File Sizes

Here's a comparison of the average byte size of each of different image size / quality combinations.

Battery life

As you will have already read (assuming you're not skipping through this review!), the 995 doesn't take AA batteries like the 990, instead it is supplied with the Nikon EN-EL1 Lithium-Ion battery. One of our major concerns was how well this apparently low power battery (just 4.8 Wh) would last. To test this in a fair and comparative manner we devised a simple routine designed to stress battery life:

• Take 4 shots without flash
• Wait 2 minutes (50% of the time powering the camera off)
• Take 1 shot with flash
• Wait 1 minute
• Repeat

This test routine was carried out on five different cameras simultaneously. All batteries had been fully discharged and recharged before the test and all cameras were reset to their factory default settings. Here are the results:

Amazingly, despite its relatively low power rating the 995's EN-EL1 lasted just as long as the best set of AA NiMH around (GP's excellent 1600 mAh's), it didn't (as we'd expected) last as long as Canon's BP-511 (in the G1) or Sony's excellent NP-FM50 (in the DSC-S75).

It is clear however that either the EN-EL1 provides more power than it's specification reveals or that Nikon have made some power efficiency changes to the 995. All told 2 hours and 30 minutes of shooting totalling over 250 shots is an excellent performance from such a small, lightweight battery. Kudos Nikon.