Digital Photography Review
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| Legend | |
| Quickest | |
| Noticeably slower | |
| Action | Details | Time,
seconds (Hitachi CF) |
Time,
seconds (Viking CF) |
Time,
seconds (Microdrive) |
|
Power: Off to Record |
Lens extension | 6.1 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
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Power: Off to Play *1 |
Image displayed | 1.6 | 2.1 | 3.5 |
| Power: Record to Off | Lens extended | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Power: Play to Off *1 | Lens retracted | 1.6 | 1.6 | 2.5 |
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| Mode: Record to Play | Image displayed | 1.3 | 1.3 | 2.5 |
| Mode: Play to Record | Lens extended | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
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| Play: Magnify | 11 steps to 3.2x | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.3 |
| Rec: Thumbnail view | 3.9 | 3.7 | 4.5 | |
| Action | Details | Time, seconds |
| Zoom from Wide to Tele | Full zoom from 35 mm to 105 mm (3 x) | 2.8 |
| Auto Focus LAG | Half zoom, Normal AF *3 | 0.9 - 1.3 |
| Auto Focus LAG | Half zoom, Macro AF *3 | 1.1 - 2.1 |
| Shutter Release LAG | Using viewfinder | <0.1 |
| Shutter Release LAG | Using LCD monitor | 0.1 |
| Total LAG | *3 | ~1.0 |
| Off to Shot Taken | Using supplied 16 MB Hitachi CF card | 6.2 |
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| Shot to Shot | Same for LCD in review or preview modes (AF) | 2.6 |
| *1 | Approximately 2.2 seconds after the initial image is displayed it is replaced with a higher resolution image (which can be magnified). |
| *2 | AF is faster at wide angle than at telephoto (normal behaviour). |
| *3 | Depending on focus |
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
The QV-4000 has one continuous shooting mode, as there is no way to disable the LCD or turn off record view the QV-4000 can never shoot faster than about 0.7 fps (or one shot every 1.4 seconds).
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. Timings taken using a 256 MB Viking Type I CF card.
| Image Type | Approx. frames per sec | Time between frames | Max no. of frames |
Time between frames after max *1 |
| 2240 x 1680 Fine | 0.7 fps | ~1.38 sec | 6 | ~2.50 sec |
| 2240 x 1680 Normal | 0.6 fps | ~1.66 sec | 14 | ~2.30 sec |
| 1280 x 960 Normal | 0.5 fps | ~2.08 sec | - | ~2.08 sec |
| 640 x 480 Normal | 0.6 fps | ~1.66 sec | - | ~1.66 sec |
| *1 | Once the internal buffer is full the camera will only take a shot when there is space for a frame in the buffer, thus after the 'max no. of frames' is reached shooting slows to the time indicated. |
At 1280 x 960 or 640 x 480 and with a relatively quick CF card (such as the 256 MB Viking used in this test) you can continually shoot one frame every 2 or 1.6 seconds until the card is full.
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 viewfinder stopped blinking. 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 Hitachi Type I CF card (as supplied)
- 256 MB Viking Type I CF card
- 1 GB IBM Microdrive Type II CF card
| Image Type | Time
to store (seconds) |
Time
to full display *2 (seconds) |
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| Hitachi | Viking | Microdrive | Hitachi | Viking | Microdrive | |||
| 2240 x 1680 | TIFF *1 | 36.1 | 26.8 | 52.5 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 2.1 | |
| 2240 x 1680 | Fine | 5.2 | 4.2 | 7.1 | 2.5 | 2.3 | 2.8 | |
| 2240 x 1680 | Normal | 5.0 | 4.2 | 7.1 | 2.4 | 2.2 | 2.8 | |
| 1280 x 960 | Normal | 3.8 | 3.8 | 4.9 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 2.2 | |
| 640 x 480 | Normal | 2.6 | 2.6 | 3.6 | <1.0 | <1.0 | 1.0 | |
| *1 | The QV-4000 allows you to stop writing a TIFF file (cancel save) by simply pressing the DISP button. This is can be a big time saver if you intend shooting in TIFF mode. |
| *2 | The QV-4000 displays a lower quality version of the image almost immediately, it then loads the full image from the CF card in the background, once loaded the lower quality image is replaced, exposure information is displayed and the image can be magnified. This timing represents the amount of time it took the QV-4000 to load the 'full image' (this can be interrupted at any time by pressing the 4-way control button left or right). |
Despite the QV-4000's Microdrive compatibility it performed noticeably slower with the Microdrive than with normal flash cards. My advice would be to go for 256 MB CF flash cards for the best performance.
File Sizes
Here's a comparison of the average byte size at different image size / quality combinations.
| Image Type | File
size *1 (approx.) |
No.
on supplied 16 MB CF Card |
No.
on 1 GB Microdrive |
|
| 2240 x 1680 | TIFF | 11,028 KB | 1 | 87 |
| 2240 x 1680 | Fine JPEG | 1,300 KB | 7 | 513 |
| 2240 x 1680 | Normal JPEG | 1,100 KB | 10 | 733 |
| 1280 x 960 | Normal JPEG | 350 KB | 30 | 2102 |
| 640 x 480 | Normal JPEG | 90 KB | 103 | 7009 |
| *1 | All file sizes are an average of three files. As is the case with JPEG it's difficult to predict the size of an image because it will vary a fair amount depending on the content of the image (especially the amount of detail captured). For example, take a photograph of a fairly empty wall and you'll get a small JPEG, take a photograph of a bush with a lot of detail and you'll get a larger image. File sizes here are closer to the later, the larger size of file you should expect. |
Battery life
We ran the camera through our new battery life test. This test is designed to be fair and comparative to each camera and battery type:
- 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:
Kudos Casio, I don't know what you're doing but squeezing three and a half hours out of a set of NiMH AA's is amazing. As you can see the QV-4000 appears to have some of the best power management of any digital camera we've tested so far, lasting almost as long as Sony's Lithium-Ion powered DSC-S85. Excellent.
From:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/CasioQV4000/
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