Sloooow Write to Card Speeds

[IainUK]

Hi

What is it about slow write speeds on small compacts?! My wife has a Sony that is agonisingly slow, my parents use an Olympus that is also slow - are call compacts the same?

At the moment, if I borrow on of their cameras, you frame the shot and.........wait......by the time the shutter release happens the subject has packed up and gone home!

I use an EOS 350D so I don't have this issue :D and loads of people with compacts ask me if they need to go to an SLR for write speed, Is there a Canon compact that is quick? Any ideas?

Thanks, Iain

[jfrancho]

That isn't a slow write time. It's a slow exposure and focus lock time. The camera doesn't write the data until the capture is made. That is one advantage of a DSLR - fast AE/focus lock.

[Franko515]

I have no such problems with my S3 IS ;)

[Moppie]

Write speeds etc, are all a matter of buffer size and processor speed in relation to file size.

Smaller cheaper cameras have smaller cheaper processors and buffers, if they are asked to handle very high resolution shots (say 6 or 7 Megapixels) then they are going to take a little while to handle them and write them to the card.
AF and AE times are determined by the same limitations, but they tend to be IMO and eperiance more accurate than SLR based systems which have to use sperate sensors in the viewfinder while most compacts use the image sensor.
Given the proccessor speeds used in an SLR, combined with USM drives on lens etc, a Compact could focus just as fast. The problem is it would then be the size of an SLR and have similar power requirments, all of which defeats the purpose of having a compact in the first place.

Not all compacts are slow though, none of my A series cameras have had any problems, and my A80 will out shoot a 300D when it comes to continous shooting, and will clear the buffer much quicker.
Infact if we shot untill the card was full it would out shoot your 350D, as after its intialy burst of 5-7 shots it is able to clear the buffer while it writes to it. Your 350D, from my experiance, will fill up the buffer and stop shooting untill its clear again.

In low light my A80 would focus faster, and more accuratly than a 20D with a 24-70 F2.8 on it. Of course in anything with good light the 20D was considerably faster, and could focus and shoot twice before the A80 could fire once.
But then the A80 weighs about as much as the Canon Kit lens, and costs about the same amount.

[jfrancho]

Canon's A-series are very nice cameras, I bought my parents an A85 and it smokes, and my buddy has an A95, but in no way could either keep up with my 20D in low light. In fact, for much of the live event work that I do, it wouldn't even be able to achieve focus lock by the time the 20D had fired off 20 shots or so. You don't even max out the buffer until about 24 shots in hi-qual .jpg mode. Modern (made within the past 18 months or so) have become very fast, and are great tools (I wouldn't be without my S500 Elph, even if it does weigh more than a kit lens :)), but the claims above seem to be hyperbolic.

[Moppie]

The problem with the 20D is needs a much higher contrast subject to focus on than the A series does. For example my A80 would focus on light shadows on a monotone wall the would confuse the 20D.
Its purly accidemic though, how often do you shoot light shadows on a monotone wall?
In more than 99.9% of shooting situations a good DSLR will kill a compact in terms of AF and AE speeds, but then thats why they cost severals times as much, and its why they come in bigger bodies, and require bigger batteries that don't last as long.

Its a bit like comparing a Honda NSX with a Honda Civic, both made by the same manufactor, and use the same basic engerineering and design princables, they are even designed by the same people. But they are worlds apart in terms of cost and performance.

[jfrancho]

You're probably right, low contrast performance is always better with advanced "think and shoots' (I think we both agree this is a better term for A- and G- series cams). I wonder if the focusing logic grabs a "best guess" by splitting the difference and relying on the relative ly greater DOF to gain speed.

As far as the Civic/NSX go, the Civic should toast an NSX in a tight autocross run. And good luck getting in and out of the local grocery without drawing a crowd delay in the NSX. Always use the right tool for the job.