HX100 flash cycle time

I am considering going from a H5 to a HX100. I need info on flash cycle time. I could not find that in the specs.

Details:
I have a H5 and a HX5V.

The H5:
I am very happy with the H5 except for two areas:
1. Video indoors is dim unless you have very bright lights.

2. The flash cycle time is 16 seconds and I have young kids. Their patience is probably about 5 seconds.

The HX5V:

The HX5V has good indoor video but has not great image quality and has significant distortion of people in the rear if I'm focussing on a kid near me. The people in the background seem to sort of bend toward the upper left or right corner. This is all the more pronounced if I'm taking the picture from about 5 feet height and pointing at a 2.5 feet tall kid just a few feet away. I have looked online and people seem to say the camera does some correction in software for distortion. I wonder if that fails if objects are at different distances and the camera is not pointing horizontal.

My hope for the HX100:

My hope is that the HX100 will be all that my H5 was, +good low light video + great flash cycle time and low distortion. Sort of the best of the H5 + HX5V.

Am I mistaken ?

Thanks.

-Dreamscape.

I'll have to test it to see how the recycle time is but so far it hasn't been an issue. I have two little girls running around and I have had to wait for the flash to recycle but it hasn't been too long as yet.

I have an older Canon A520 that takes forever to charge the flash so I know what it is like. It is highly dependent on the lighting conditions as well. In complete darkness it is obviously going to take a little longer because the flash has probably fired at full strength.
I will try it tonight and let you know my results.

Thanks

--
Sam

'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it... albeit probably in colour the second time around.'

Personally, I thought the recycle times were a bit long on the hx100v but it does depend on the lighting conditions and strength of the flash. I don't have any actual times. And the low light video is pretty good. I'm thoroughly impressed with the video.

No matter what, the HX100V will have better numbers in these two categories over the HX5V.

If you do try it tonight, please let me know of two things:

1. How long it takes to charge (i.e, the indicator says charge complete and ready)

(As you said before, this will vary depending on how much flash energy was previously used.)

2. If you try to take a shot before it is done charging fully, will it not let you take a shot (in P mode with flash forced on) or will it take a shot with whatever flash energy it can muster.

Thanks.

-Kalyan.

doGoodDreamscape said:

If you do try it tonight, please let me know of two things:

1. How long it takes to charge (i.e, the indicator says charge complete and ready)

(As you said before, this will vary depending on how much flash energy was previously used.)

Click to expand...

In a moderately lit area on my desk at work there was no gap between shots except for the camera to black out the screen, store the image, and refocus. There was no red flash warning on the LCD stopping me from taking another shot.

When I took a photo in near darkness below my desk I did see the red flash charge warning on the LCD but by the time it refocused in the dark for the next shot it was ready to go again. I don't think there is a flash burst setting on the camera but I will check on that ... I know that some cameras have that ability.

doGoodDreamscape said:

2. If you try to take a shot before it is done charging fully, will it not let you take a shot (in P mode with flash forced on) or will it take a shot with whatever flash energy it can muster.

Click to expand...

I am pretty sure that it stopped me from retaking a shot when I tried the one under my desk but it went out pretty quick and I wasn't sure if I was really being stopped or whether it was just trying to achieve focus in the dark with the AF Illuminator.

I will try again later with some real subjects to see what kind of delay and whether it stops any more shots until it is ready. I would think that it would force you to wait until the flash is ready if you have it set for forced flash. I know on my DSLRs I can set it to shutter release priority that will override anything (including focusing) so that the shutter always fires if you are pressing down. I don't know if that is something you can set on this camera though.

doGoodDreamscape said:

Thanks.

-Kalyan.

Click to expand...

--
Sam

'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it... albeit probably in colour the second time around.'

SamTruax said:

I am pretty sure that it stopped me from retaking a shot when I tried the one ... "under my desk" ..... but it went out pretty quick and I wasn't sure if I was really being stopped or whether it was just trying to achieve focus in the dark with the AF Illuminator.

Click to expand...

Sam .... the wording just struck me as a bit funny, the "double entendre" and all ...... LOL
You don't think by chance that the "XXX" mode kicked in?

Why do you think I didn't post the photos?

--
Sam

'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it... albeit probably in colour the second time around.'