Who makes the fastest super-zoom camerea?

I was about to purchase the FZ20 till I saw the lag times/write speeds.
This is just unacceptable to me; I can deal with a slow start-up, but
having to wait sereval seconds between shots is a deal breaker. Much of
the photos I'll be done while mountain biking with friends... imagine
getting a picture of one friend, but missing the next one because the dang
camera wasn't ready :-(

Anyway, it's a shame because the FZ20 looks to be a great deal in all
other respects.

So, who makes the fastest acting (shutter lag & write speeds) P & S or am
I limiting myself to a DSLR?
--
Slack

Slack wrote:
I was about to purchase the FZ20 till I saw the lag times/write
speeds. This is just unacceptable to me; I can deal with a slow
start-up, but having to wait sereval seconds between shots is a deal
breaker. Much of the photos I'll be done while mountain biking with
friends... imagine getting a picture of one friend, but missing the
next one because the dang camera wasn't ready :-(

Anyway, it's a shame because the FZ20 looks to be a great deal in all
other respects.

So, who makes the fastest acting (shutter lag & write speeds) P & S
or am I limiting myself to a DSLR?

I don't know that "seeing" lag times and write speed is all that useful
in gauging the real-world performance of a digital camera. In 2003 I
took a series of a couple dozen photos of racing cars as they entered
the track, one after another. According to the EXIF data they were as
little as two seconds apart, averaging something right under three
seconds. I don't remember having to wait for the camera to prepare
itself. The buffer seemed to be emptying itself fast enough to accept
another image by the time I was ready to give it one.

That was "old" technology: Nikon Coolpix 5700. I reckon you could find
lag time and write speed data on that one. Whatever it is, one picture
every three seconds or so is about all you're going to be ready to take,
your own self.

Have a look at the difference in bulk between a CoolPix 8700 (close to
the same size as a CP5700) and a 20D Canon. Lotsa weight difference,
too.

Comparison of the 20D with 24-70 (38.4-112 equiv) and CP8700 with
35-280mm equivalent zoom range:

http://www.fototime.com/C898491FBD2A2CB/orig.jpg front
http://www.fototime.com/A71907824F117BA/orig.jpg top
http://www.fototime.com/4DED1BD0306F225/orig.jpg rear
http://www.fototime.com/CBF8735023E6ED7/orig.jpg Left


--
Frank ess

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 16:27:16 -0800, Frank ess wrote:

Slack wrote:
I was about to purchase the FZ20 till I saw the lag times/write
speeds. This is just unacceptable to me; I can deal with a slow
start-up, but having to wait sereval seconds between shots is a deal
breaker. Much of the photos I'll be done while mountain biking with
friends... imagine getting a picture of one friend, but missing the
next one because the dang camera wasn't ready :-(

Anyway, it's a shame because the FZ20 looks to be a great deal in all
other respects.

So, who makes the fastest acting (shutter lag & write speeds) P & S
or am I limiting myself to a DSLR?

I don't know that "seeing" lag times and write speed is all that useful
in gauging the real-world performance of a digital camera. In 2003 I
took a series of a couple dozen photos of racing cars as they entered
the track, one after another. According to the EXIF data they were as
little as two seconds apart, averaging something right under three
seconds. I don't remember having to wait for the camera to prepare
itself. The buffer seemed to be emptying itself fast enough to accept
another image by the time I was ready to give it one.

That was "old" technology: Nikon Coolpix 5700. I reckon you could find
lag time and write speed data on that one. Whatever it is, one picture
every three seconds or so is about all you're going to be ready to take,
your own self.

Have a look at the difference in bulk between a CoolPix 8700 (close to
the same size as a CP5700) and a 20D Canon. Lotsa weight difference,
too.

Comparison of the 20D with 24-70 (38.4-112 equiv) and CP8700 with
35-280mm equivalent zoom range:

http://www.fototime.com/C898491FBD2A2CB/orig.jpg front
http://www.fototime.com/A71907824F117BA/orig.jpg top
http://www.fototime.com/4DED1BD0306F225/orig.jpg rear
http://www.fototime.com/CBF8735023E6ED7/orig.jpg Left


Hmmm... maybe I'm being unrealistic with my expectations.

Thanks for the comparison; the 20d looks like a monster, albeit a
beautiful monster. I haven't seen the 20d in person, but I have played
with Nikon's d70. I really liked the feel and it fit my hand like a glove.
--
Slack

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 14:51:54 -0800, Slack
wrote:

I was about to purchase the FZ20 till I saw the lag times/write speeds.
This is just unacceptable to me; I can deal with a slow start-up, but
having to wait sereval seconds between shots is a deal breaker. Much of
the photos I'll be done while mountain biking with friends... imagine
getting a picture of one friend, but missing the next one because the dang
camera wasn't ready :-(

Anyway, it's a shame because the FZ20 looks to be a great deal in all
other respects.

So, who makes the fastest acting (shutter lag & write speeds) P & S or am
I limiting myself to a DSLR?

Stick one of the Ultra speed SD cards in the FZ20 and lag time
shouldn't be an issue. Burst mode set to High Speed can capture jpg
images at 3 per second with a max of 4 or 7 images depending on the
image quality selected. At Low Speed it can capture images at 2 per
second with a max of 4 or 7 images depending on the image quality
selected. When Burst Mode is set to Infinity it can capture images at
roughly two per second up to the capacity limit of the memory card.
Using a 512 meg SD card capturing JPG's in Fine mode, the capacity of
the card will be about 205 images. You can also combine Panning Mode
with Burst mode if you are standing beside a bike trail or road and
want to take pictures of friends as they approach and bike past you.

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 18:43:41 -0800, wrote:

Stick one of the Ultra speed SD cards in the FZ20 and lag time
shouldn't be an issue. Burst mode set to High Speed can capture jpg
images at 3 per second with a max of 4 or 7 images depending on the
image quality selected. At Low Speed it can capture images at 2 per
second with a max of 4 or 7 images depending on the image quality
selected. When Burst Mode is set to Infinity it can capture images at
roughly two per second up to the capacity limit of the memory card.
Using a 512 meg SD card capturing JPG's in Fine mode, the capacity of
the card will be about 205 images. You can also combine Panning Mode
with Burst mode if you are standing beside a bike trail or road and
want to take pictures of friends as they approach and bike past you.


Thank you very much.
--
Slack

"Slack" wrote in message news:1110754100.593cb9c7cd5232290643072c87def614@t eranews...
I was about to purchase the FZ20 till I saw the lag times/write speeds.
This is just unacceptable to me; I can deal with a slow start-up, but
having to wait sereval seconds between shots is a deal breaker. Much of
the photos I'll be done while mountain biking with friends... imagine
getting a picture of one friend, but missing the next one because the dang
camera wasn't ready :-(

Anyway, it's a shame because the FZ20 looks to be a great deal in all
other respects.

I recently went down to the local airport to shoot jets landing. I captured a 737 wizzing
past at about 130 knotts. In burts mode I got about 12 frames with good focus. I use
the FZ20 with the Sandisk UltraII cards and never have to wait for the camera to write
before I am ready to take another shot.

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 19:43:19 -0800, Ken wrote:


"Slack" wrote in message
news:1110754100.593cb9c7cd5232290643072c87def614@t eranews...
I was about to purchase the FZ20 till I saw the lag times/write speeds.
This is just unacceptable to me; I can deal with a slow start-up, but
having to wait sereval seconds between shots is a deal breaker. Much of
the photos I'll be done while mountain biking with friends... imagine
getting a picture of one friend, but missing the next one because the
dang
camera wasn't ready :-(

Anyway, it's a shame because the FZ20 looks to be a great deal in all
other respects.

I recently went down to the local airport to shoot jets landing. I
captured a 737 wizzing
past at about 130 knotts. In burts mode I got about 12 frames with good
focus. I use
the FZ20 with the Sandisk UltraII cards and never have to wait for the
camera to write
before I am ready to take another shot.


Cool, that pretty much settles it for me. I bought a FZ15 for one of the
managers at my work... I didn't get to play with it much, but I really
liked it.
--
Slack

Strange comment - see
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz20/page4.asp and the extract
he

"With write times averaging around 2.5 seconds for a 14MB TIFF the FZ20
is very fast indeed for a 'compact' digital camera - approximately
5700KB/s, and JPEGs - whatever the size or quality setting - are saved
in a second or under (most of this time will be taken up by the
processing). Very impressive stuff, and proof that the Venus II engine
is more than mere hype."

wrote:
Strange comment - see
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz20/page4.asp and the
extract he

"With write times averaging around 2.5 seconds for a 14MB TIFF the
FZ20 is very fast indeed for a 'compact' digital camera -
approximately 5700KB/s, and JPEGs - whatever the size or quality
setting - are saved in a second or under (most of this time will be
taken up by the processing). Very impressive stuff, and proof that
the Venus II engine is more than mere hype."

Well, on the Nikon 5700, saving a RAW file (which has more information
than the TIFF) takes tens of seconds, but it's not quite comparing the
same thing. The TIFF file has (if I am correct) only the same 8-bit
information as the JPEG files, albeit without the lossy compression. The
RAW files typically have the 12-bit data right off the sensor....

Most well-designed cameras in this class have sufficient buffering that
for up about to a couple of shots per second, writing the files to the
memory card isn't an issue. I would still recommend buying the faster
cards if you can afford the small price uplift. We use Kingmax Platinum
"60X" and haven't seen any card-writing delays.

Cheers,
David