Start-up/wake-up time of 10D and 300D

[harpoon]

I have always wanted to get a 10D until I had a chance to play with it in an electronics store in Japan. This store is very big and has nearly every digital cameras, including the like of Nikon D2H and Canon EOS 1D, on the shelf for everyone to try them out.

Anyways, after playing with both the Nikon and Canon models, I found a serious shortcoming on the 10D and 300D. After I flick the switch to ON, I needed to wait about 2.5 seconds for the camera to be functional on both 10D and 300D, but not on 1D, at least with the models sold in Japan. Same goes for waking-up from sleep (that is, swith is ON, but the camera falls into sleep after a period of no-action). The LCD display on the shoulder displays nothing but "EOS" during this 2.5 period.

Nikon's model, on the other hand, is function the moment you flick the switch on. In fact D70 claims a 0.2 second start-up time.

Those of you who have 10D, could you confirm this start-up time on the US model?

[CoolToolGuy]

It certainly is true for the Digital Rebel (Kiss Digital in Japan?). As I understand, Canon has reduced the startup time on the 1D MkII, and I think you may see the same improvement in the next generation of Canon DSLRs, rumored to be announced at Photokina in October. Stay tuned...

[Cadwell]

The 10D does take a small number of seconds to start up. I've never bothered to actually time it. It seems somewhat dependant on the media you have installed (faster with solid state CF cards than microdrives) but it doesn't make a huge difference. In any case for me the start up time is not sufficiently large to be an issue.

[iwatkins]

And of course a good photographer knows to switch the camera on, get it up to his eye and focused, 3.0 seconds before the shot of a lifetime comes along. Well, experience will teach this. ;)

Cheers

Ian

[slin100]

Yes, the 10D startup time is nothing to brag about. But it's not a serious shortcoming, either. Just leave the camera on and increase the auto-off timeout or disable it altogether. The camera consumes very little power when idle.

[roanjohn]

Start up time with my Rebel is very annoying!!! even on sleep mode, it starts up just as if you had switched the camera off!!!

In any case, it still is not a deal breaker...............just hoping for a faster start up time on the next generation with the DIGIC II processor.

Ro1

[Mark Kemp]

Allegedly my poor old D30 has an even longer start up time, in practice I have never really noticed it or had a problem - a couple of seconds is not that long! I find that my camera is on if it is not in my bag. It may have gone into sleep mode but it is quicker coming back from that mode anyway. The times when it is busy writing to flash can be more of a problem, but again not often and my mates D100 (Nikon) is no better, but I hear than 10Ds are faster.

[harpoon]

Thank you all for replying. This might be a deal breaker for me. I have a Minolta 7i. It has equally long start-up time. Many times I only found the camera asleep when I want to catch a shot. When it finally wakes up, the shot is already gone.

The bad thing about 7i is that when idling, it consumes a gread deal of power. So I cannot disable the sleep function. I think this is partly because the view finder has an optical sensor. When you raise the camera to you eye, the backlighting for the the viewfinder LCD lights up. Unfortunately, if you hang the camera on your neck, unless put into sleep, the camera will mistake your chest for your eyes and lights up the LCD backlighting as well.

10D's view finder is optical, so perhaps it consumes much less power when idling.

By the way, how long can the camera be standby with a fully charged battery?

[slin100]

I'm sure the 10D consumes much less power than the Minolta 7i when idle. The 10D's Li-Ion battery, the BP-511, was originally used on camcorders. It's a virtually tireless workhorse. You can get several hundred shots out of a fully charged battery.

As far as idle time is concerned, I don't have a link handy but I once read that someone left their camera on overnight and the battery was not exhausted.

Don't let the startup time be a deal breaker! The two seconds you would have saved with instant-on you will have spent finding the on switch. I'm not suggesting the on switch is hard to find, but you're better off leaving the camera on.

The great thing about the 10D is that it's a shoot-priority camera. As long as it's on, pushing the shutter button will always take a shot, even if the camera is in playback mode or displaying some menu.

[robertwgross]

The great thing about the 10D is that it's a shoot-priority camera. As long as it's on, pushing the shutter button will always take a shot, even if the camera is in playback mode or displaying some menu.

That means as long as it is On, and Awake.

What I do is to half-press my shutter button when I think I am getting close to a sudden subject. That just keeps it awake and ready for fast action.

---Bob Gross---

[samdring]

Thank you all for replying. This might be a deal breaker for me. I have a Minolta 7i. It has equally long start-up time. Many times I only found the camera asleep when I want to catch a shot. When it finally wakes up, the shot is already gone.

The bad thing about 7i is that when idling, it consumes a gread deal of power. So I cannot disable the sleep function. I think this is partly because the view finder has an optical sensor. When you raise the camera to you eye, the backlighting for the the viewfinder LCD lights up. Unfortunately, if you hang the camera on your neck, unless put into sleep, the camera will mistake your chest for your eyes and lights up the LCD backlighting as well.

10D's view finder is optical, so perhaps it consumes much less power when idling.

By the way, how long can the camera be standby with a fully charged battery?

Haven't tested your last point but I came from 7i to 10D and can assure you that diabling the sleep function gives fast enough response - massive difference twixt 10D and 7i - go for it

[karusel]

The startup time of my 10D doesn't bother me. In those few rare occasions that I've had an action going on and the camera was off... well, while it was starting up, I took off the lense cap, looked through the OVF searched for target, and by that time it was already operational. Buying a Nikon because of shorter startup time would mean that you're probably a few cans short of a sixpack... :lol:

[Jim_T]

Startup time doesn't bother me either..

It takes me longer to dig the camera out of my camera bag and remove the lens cap.. Once the camera is out of the bag and I'm carrying it or using it.. I leave it on. My auto power off is set to 30 mins.. It doesn't make any real difference in battery life..

[harpoon]

The startup time of my 10D doesn't bother me. In those few rare occasions that I've had an action going on and the camera was off... well, while it was starting up, I took off the lense cap, looked through the OVF searched for target, and by that time it was already operational. Buying a Nikon because of shorter startup time would mean that you're probably a few cans short of a sixpack... :lol:

Oh, sixpack is nothing. 15 pints of Guinesses may make a small dent. :wink:

Thanks for the comment. But believe it or not, I rarely use lens caps. The first thing I do when getting a new lens is to put on the UV filter. After that, I leave the lens cap off and just keep the UV filter clean by wiping it with a lens tissue. The filter has no AR coating so it is very resistant to wiping. I know I am kind of abrasive to my equipments.

[John Pelafigue]

Harpoon, that is the opposite of what you should be doing. A filter can affect AF and image clarity, both.

[harpoon]

Harpoon, that is the opposite of what you should be doing. A filter can affect AF and image clarity, both.

A UV filter without AR coating gives more reflection, say about 5% per surface. Unless there is some significant defects or lack of parallelity, I don't see how it can degrade image quality that much.

As for AF, the glass filter has practically zero bi-refringence. With good parallelity, there should be near zero wave front distoration. Shouldn't affect AF either.

[ron chappel]

Like most others i'll say the startup/wakeup time is definitely annoying at times but is easy to cope with
Both the 10D and 300D will have a massively improved idle time compared to the minolta

I see your options as...
a)Buy the better nikon but pay more for lenses
b)Buy a 10D or 300D and use it in idle mode most of the time
c)Wait until photokina in october(?) to see if canon bring out improved versions

[vvizard]

I also wen't from Minolta 7i to 10D. And believe me, you wil never, ever ever! Miss the 7i =D That is of course unless you like slooow AF, useless viewfinders, and noisy pictures ;) Startup-times didn't bother me on 7i or 10D, but ISO-noise, AF-speed, battery-drain while idling sure did.. I've never missed shot because of startup-times on the 10D (at least none I can remember). I have it auto-power off in 2 minutes, although I guess I'll change that to 30 after reading this thread.. If at an event shooting, I just regularly half-press the shutter to be sure it's ready for shooting as soon as I see a possible "shoot-worthy" situation.

I'm also (at least one of the) guy(s) who left the 10D on over-night without problems. Had been out and shot "justsomeducks" and had one bar left on the battery. Picked it up next day to go shoot a dragrace, and found out I forgot to turn it off :/ Well, still had one bar left of the battery, and I think I managed to get 150-200 RAW pictures out of it before it died. (I brought a spare battery anyway, so I was home safe anyway). It's a great cam when it comes to battery-life, and with danger of repeating myself, you won't regret changing a 7i for it ;)

[Olegis]

I set my 10D to power off after 30 minutes - this way it's almost always on and ready to action 8) The battery drain isn't really an issue here, especially if you carry one or more spare batteries ...

[harpoon]

Thank you every one for the reply.

One more thing that bugs me on the 10D. 10D has 7 focus boxes in the view finder. When the camera achieves focus on one of the boxes, that box turns red. It appeared to me however that sometimes the box turns red even without having anything in focus. I don't know if anyone else observed this or there is something wrong with the setup of the sample camera.......