Timing & Performance
Performance-wise the Pro815 is something of a curate's egg - good in parts, not so good in others. In fact, overall the timings are broadly in line with what we'd expect from a camera in this class (comparable to, for instance, the Panasonic FZ30). Unfortunately there are a couple of key areas where the Pro815 lags seriously behind the competition, most crucially shutter lag (the delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken), which at 0.25 seconds is long enough to cause serious issues if you shoot anything that moves. The focusing - especially as you move up the zoom range - is also slow, and can hunt excessively in low light. Finally the shot-to-shot time in Raw mode is an agonizing 16 or 17 seconds.
Timing Notes
All times calculated as an average of three operations.
Unless otherwise stated all timings were made on a 3264 x 2448 Super Fine JPEG
image (approx. 3,500 KB per image). The media used for these tests was
a 4.0 GB SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash card.
| Action |
Details |
Time,
secs |
|
Power: Off to Record
|
|
1.3 |
| Power: Off to Play |
Image
displayed |
5.1 *1 |
| Power: Record to Off |
All activity ceased |
1.5 |
| Power: Play to Off |
When buffer is empty |
1.5 |
 |
| Record Review |
Image
displayed |
~1.0 |
| Mode: Record to
Play |
|
1.1 *2 |
| Mode: Play to Record |
|
~1.0 |
|
| Play: Magnify |
To
full magnification (10x) |
~4.0 |
| Play: Image to Image |
Time to display each saved image |
~0.4 |
| Play: Thumbnail view |
2
x 2 thumbnails |
0.7 |
| Play: Thumbnail view |
3 x 3 thumbnails |
1.4 |
| Play: Thumbnail view |
4 x 4 thumbnails |
2.5 |
| Play: Thumbnail view |
5 x 5 thumbnails |
4.5 |
| Action |
Details |
Time,
seconds |
| Half-press Lag (0->S1) |
Wide
angle |
~0.5 - 0.7 *3 |
| Half-press Lag (0->S1) |
Telephoto |
~1.0 - 1.7 *3 |
| Half to Full-press
Lag (S1->S2) |
LCD live view or EVF |
~0.25 |
| Full-press Lag (0->S2) |
LCD live view, wide angle |
~0.9 |
| Off to Shot Taken |
LCD live view |
~2.4 |
| Shot to Shot |
Flash off |
1.8 *4 |
| Shot to Shot |
Flash on (red-eye reduction off) |
2.3 |
| Shot to Shot |
Flash on (red-eye reduction on) |
2.5 |
| *1 |
There is a delay of around 3.5 seconds when pressing the play button to power up in play mode (presumably to prevent accidental activation). |
| *2 |
Around 2.0 seconds if ISO 400 used (noise reduction). |
| *3 |
In good light the average times are 0.5 sec (wide), 1.0 sec (tele).The focus takes a lot longer in low light or with difficult subjects, when it can hunt, especially at the long end of the zoom. |
| *4 |
If you switch to manual focus this drops to around 1.3 seconds. |
Lag Timing Definitions
Half-press Lag (0->S1)
Many digital camera users prime the AF and AE systems on their camera
by half-pressing the shutter release. This is the amount of time between
a half-press of the shutter release and the camera indicating an auto
focus & auto exposure lock on the LCD monitor / viewfinder (ready
to shoot).
|
(Prime AF/AE) |
Half to Full-press Lag (S1->S2)
The amount of time it takes from a full depression of the shutter
release button (assuming you have already primed the camera with a
half-press) to the image being taken.
|
(Take shot, AF/AE primed) |
Full-press Lag (0->S2)
The amount of time it takes from a full depression of the shutter
release button (without performing a half-press of the shutter release
beforehand) to the image being taken. This is more representative
of the use of the camera in a spur of the moment 'point and shoot'
situation.
|
(Take shot, AF/AE not primed) |
Continuous mode
The tables below show 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. Media used for these tests was a 4.0 GB SanDisk Ultra II CompactFlash card. Shutter speed was kept above 1/200 sec during these tests.
Continuous drive mode
In standard continuous mode the Pro815 shows a brief preview image for each frame taken (and refocuses between frames too), but the live preview does not work between frames in High Speed mode. There are three continuous drive modes; Continuous (C), High Speed (HS) and Ultra High Speed (UHS). The UHS mode averages around 10 frames per second, but is limited to a 1 megapixel and 30 shots maximum. Burst mode cannot be used with TIFF or Raw images.
| Image Type |
Mode |
Avg. frames
per sec |
Frames in a
burst *1 |
After
burst *3
|
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Super Fine |
Continuous |
0.56 fps *2 |
unlimited |
n/a |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Fine |
Continuous |
0.53 fps *2 |
unlimited |
n/a |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Normal |
Continuous |
0.55 fps *2 |
unlimited |
n/a |
| 2400 x 1800 JPEG Super Fine |
Continuous |
0.51 fps *2 |
unlimited |
n/a |
| 1632 x 1244 JPEG Super Fine |
Continuous |
0.53 fps *2 |
unlimited |
n/a |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Super Fine |
High Speed |
2.2 fps |
11 |
~ 0.5 fps |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Fine |
High Speed |
2.0 fps |
13 |
~ 0.8 fps |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Normal |
High Speed |
2.3 fps |
13 |
~ 0.5 fps |
| 2400 x 1800 JPEG Super Fine |
High Speed |
2.4 fps |
11 |
~ 0.8 fps |
| 1632 x 1244 JPEG Super Fine |
High Speed |
2.3 fps |
13 |
~ 1.2 fps |
| *1 |
In a single "burst" (finger held down on shutter release). |
| *2 |
As the Pro815 refocuses between each shot in continuous mode by default, the shooting speed is dependant on how quickly it focuses. If you switch to manual focus or continuous AF, continuous shooting speeds up to around 1.0 frames per second. |
| *3 |
In high speed mode the Pro815 keeps shooting as long as you keep your finger held down on the shutter release, but at a much lower rate. It takes around 20 seconds to completely clear the buffer at the highest quality setting, after which you can take another full speed burst. |
Continuous shooting performance isn't too bad (as long as you switch to High Speed mode), though we failed to achieve the 2.5 fps quoted by Samsung in the Pro815 literature.
File Write / Display and Sizes
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 and stopped
when activity indicator went
out. This means the timings also include the camera's processing time and
as such are more representative of the actual time to "complete the
task". The media used for these tests was a 512MB SanDisk Extreme (aka Ultra II)
SD card. .
| Image Type |
Time
to store
(secs) |
|
File
size *1
(approx.) |
Images
on a *2
256 MB Card |
| 3264 x 2448 RAW |
~15.9 |
~0.25 *3 |
16,000 KB |
15 |
| 3264 x 2448 TIFF |
~25.0 |
~0.25 *3 |
23.520 KB |
10 |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Super Fine |
~3.8 |
~0.4 |
3,480 KB |
61 |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Fine |
~2.8 |
~0.3 |
1,920 KB |
117 |
| 3264 x 2448 JPEG Normal |
~2.4 |
~0.3 |
1,320 KB |
169 |
| 2400 x 1800 JPEG Super Fine |
~2.5 |
~0.3 |
1,980 KB |
109 |
| 1632 x 1244 JPEG Super Fine |
~1.7 |
~0.3 |
895 KB |
216 |
| *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 (detail and noise). |
| *2 |
Camera estimation. |
| *3 |
The Pro815 uses the embedded JPEG for display. You cannot magnify raw or tiff images. |
Write speeds are certainly on the slow side (around 1MB/sec at best), but unless you're shooting in Raw or TIFF mode you're unlikely to notice thanks to a fairly generous buffer.
|
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