Timings & File Sizes

Overall the S602Z is fast for a consumer (prosumer?) level digital camera. Again, as we always find with cameras which have an extending lens the slowest possible function is power-up which in the case of the S602Z was a fairly respectable 4.3 seconds. Once powered up the camera feels quick, doesn't hold you up at any time. It's dual AF system is definitely one of the fastest around, the external AF sensor getting the approximate focus point and then fine tuning it using a normal CCD contrast-detect AF. Shooting at wide angle focus times are extremely quick, and even at full telephoto (6x) the S602Z is focusing faster than most 3x digital cameras.

Timing Notes: All times calculated as an average of three operations. Unless otherwise stated all timings were made on a 2832 x 2128 (6 MP) FINE JPEG image (approx. 2.2 MB per image).

The media used for these tests were:

• 128 MB TwinMOS SmartMedia card
• 256 MB Viking Type I CompactFlash card
• 1 GB IBM Microdrive Type II CompactFlash card

Action	Details	Time, seconds (TwinMOS SM)	Time, seconds (Viking CF)	Time, seconds (Microdrive) *2
Power: Off to Record		4.3	4.3	4.3
Power: Off to Play	Image shown	3.1	3.2	4.2
Power: Record to Off	Lens out	5.0	5.0	5.0
Power: Play to Off	Lens in	1.5	1.5	1.5
Mode: Record to Play	Lens out	2.4	3.3	4.0
Mode: Play to Record	Lens out	1.6	1.6	1.6
Play: Magnify to x18.0		8.0	8.0	8.0
Rec: Thumbnail view 3 x 3		0.5	0.5	2.0

Action	Details	Time, seconds
Zoom from Wide to Tele	Full zoom from 35 mm to 210 mm (6x)	2.2
Auto Focus LAG	Wide angle (35 mm)	0.3 - 1.0
Auto Focus LAG	Telephoto (210 mm)	0.8 - 2.8 *1
Shutter Release LAG	Using Electronic viewfinder	0.2
Shutter Release LAG	Using LCD monitor	0.2
Total LAG	Wide angle (35 mm)	0.9
Off to Shot Taken	Using 256 MB Viking Type I CF card	4.7
Shot to Shot	Record "post view" enabled, Auto Focus	3.0
Shot to Shot	Record "post view" disabled, Auto Focus	1.6
Shot to Shot	Record "post view" disabled, Manual Focus	1.2

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 S602Z offers three main continuous shooting modes: 5 fps 5 frames - shoot at a super-fast 5 frames per second for a maximum of 5 frames in any resolution. "Last 5" 5 fps - shoot at 5 fps up to 25 frames, camera stores the last 5 frames. 1.8 fps 40 frames at 1 MP - shoot at 1.8 fps for up to 40 frames but only in 1 MP mode (1280 x 960) and only in Auto Exposure mode.

Probably the most interesting of the above is the new "Last 5" mode which could be very useful for tracking a moving subject and then releasing the shutter release just AFTER the action, that way you're more likely to capture the exact moment. Note that from a speed and buffering point of view the normal 5 fps and "Last 5" 5 fps modes are the same.

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 Compact Flash Type I card. Camera set to aperture priority, ISO 200, shutter speeds were greater than 1/250 sec.

At five frames per second the S602Z is one of the fastest shooters out there, unfortunately it's all over rather quickly (just a second in fact) which does raise questions about exactly how useful a high shooting speed is if you can't select slower options (a menu option for 5, 3, 2 or 1 fps?). The other side of this is that the S602Z doesn't "background buffer" a burst of frames, you must wait for ALL the images to be written away before you can take the next shot.

File Flush / Display Timing

Timings shown below are the time taken for the camera to process and "flush" the image out to the storage 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 (and control of certain camera settings were returned). 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:

• 128 MB TwinMOS SmartMedia card
• 256 MB Viking Type I CompactFlash card
• 1 GB IBM Microdrive Type II CompactFlash card

With consistency some Microdrive functions took almost exactly 0.7 seconds longer than a CF Type I card, this short delay can be attributed to the spin-up time of the Microdrive's HD. Although in some cases the SmartMedia card did perform very slightly better than Compact Flash there is very little difference between the performance of the different media types in a real life situation.

File Sizes

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

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

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:

I think it's fairly clear to see that Fujifilm's decision to switch from the NP-80 to four AA batteries was well justified. Battery life has been extended by an hour and is in fact one of the best performances we've seen from a camera which takes AA batteries.