Web Analytics RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Prolonged Shutter Time Lag of K-5 and K-r (Vs K-7 and K-x)

Friday, July 08, 2011

Prolonged Shutter Time Lag of K-5 and K-r (Vs K-7 and K-x)

Imaging Resource (IR)'s K-r full review has been out (though it is a bit too late), here is the performance and timing measurement page:-

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/KR/KRA6.HTM

We can see that the shortest possible shutter/system time lag is in 97 milliseconds for the K-r.

Now, let's check the K-5 figures here, for what IR measured before, the best figure is of 92 milliseconds.

Well, if you are to compare the best figures of K-7 and K-x, in 74 and 82 milliseconds only, it can be noted that the shutter/system lags of both the K-5 and K-r are prolonged. In fact, the K-5 is even a bit worse than the K-x, and is not faster than the K-r by that much.

So, what causes this? Is this a measure to eliminate some of the severe shutter vibration and blur that were found and have been infamous for the K-7 and K-x?

P.S. This is my first Blog article that is edited and published with the new Blogger interface and tool at their trial test site of draft.blogger.com. It is easier to use and is more intelligent. I like it! Great job, Google! My thanks! :-D There are still quite some bugs exist, though, e.g., all posts are not displayed after publish of this article and sometimes drafted articles could not be saved. I hope Google will debug those soon!

Update (7-10):-

As per the suggestion of Blog reader Alex, I have summarised and tabulated some results of the DSLR system shutter lags, as measured by the IR for many different popular newer DSLRs, as below, for the sake of easier comparison:-

Rank
Make & Model
Shortest System Lag (in second)
Percentage Slower
(against the fastest as the base)
Fastest
Nikon D3S
0.043s
0%

Nikon D3X
0.045s
+4.7% (More Time)

Canon 1DS3
0.045s
+4.7%

Canon 1D4
0.049s
+14.0%

Nikon D7000
0.053s
+23.3%

Nikon D300s
0.053s
+23.3%

Canon 7D
0.061s
+41.9%

Canon 60D
0.063s
+46.5%

Nikon D90
0.067s
+55.8%

Pentax K-7
0.074s
+71.1%

Canon 5D2
0.082s
+90.7%

Pentax K-x
0.082s
+90.7%

Pentax K-5
0.092s
+114.0%

Canon 550D (T2i)
0.096s
+123.3%

Pentax K-r
0.097s
+125.6%
Slowest
Nikon D3100
0.117s
+172.1%

So, do you have a better/clearer picture now? ;-D


Related:-


Is the K10D Really Sluggish in Shutter Lag?

Comments (25)

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VladimirYo's avatar

VladimirYo · 714 weeks ago

Does you really care about 92 or 82 milliseconds?
3 replies · active 713 weeks ago
Michael A.'s avatar

Michael A. · 714 weeks ago

Computer testing software might but for the rest of us, not really believable anyone could tell the difference...
Anyone cares about SLR system responsiveness will care about the lag time, which should be as short as possible, which is highly desirable.
Michael A.'s avatar

Michael A. · 713 weeks ago

Now I have to learn how to recognize 0.039s difference. 168g lighter K-5 than D300s means one extra DA 21mm F3.2 Limited with filter in the bag. I'll take that any day....

Taking your time to nicely sum it up is appreciated!
OK, we all agree the K-5 is terrible, the lag is so high the Earth would complete several rotations around the Sun (or was it the other way around?) until it'll take the picture.
Next, let's compare it with the D300s; that's a Nikon, and by definition a decent camera. So it's no surprise it beats the K-5 at the "Pre-focused" test... but wait, all the other Lag time values are higher than for the Pentax!
<sarcasm>How could RiceHigh miss something like this?</sarcasm>
You care for 0.04 s lag ? That's not photgraphy, that's marketing.
1 reply · active 713 weeks ago
That's called engineering, not anything about marketing - those performance figures are unpublished.

Btw, 0.9Xs is nearly 1/10 of a second. Many things can happen/change within the time!
VladimirYo's avatar

VladimirYo · 713 weeks ago

How long usually signal from eye gous to brain than impuls go to arm than to finger and press the button?
3 replies · active 713 weeks ago
It's called the reaction time (of human): http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/reactiontime....

Just take the mean time of those 62 male students in the above research, which is in 0.1778s, do you still want to add yet another 0.1s on top of that?
Michael A.'s avatar

Michael A. · 713 weeks ago

1 out of 10 people tested react under 0.05, than 6 between 0.2-0.35. K-5 lags 0.092. (most react 2-3x slower than lag) Any questions? :o) ......
The Only question is that do you still want *more* delay?
Michael A.'s avatar

Michael A. · 713 weeks ago

Technically, no. But since our body can't really take advantage of this kind of perfection, engineering goes sadly down the drain and only "selling point" is left...
2 replies · active 713 weeks ago
Your logic is actually reversed. Since our body is not perfect, better engineering actually helps us to get more chance to take a better picture! Still Nope?
Michael A.'s avatar

Michael A. · 713 weeks ago

Now it sound as language barrier as with recent stain & oil need to spell it out. I agree that (technically) no, we do not need a greater lag of any kind.

But (also saying that) our body's reaction time somewhat cancels out advantage of (machine only) measurable (shutter/electronics) 0.039 lag differences between a Nikon D300s and K-5 for practical (real life usage) reasons.

BTW, better camera hardly makes us a better photographer, just merely gives us means of greater accessibility to achieve our intent to catch the moment. What's reversed about that? :o)
"As per the suggestion of Blog reader Alex" - what I said was to take a look also at other lag values, not just the shortest (pre-focused) one.
If you did that, you would be forced to admit that the K-5 is not so bad (as I've said, better than the D300 for all lag values but pre-focused).
But you're dishonest to the end.
6 replies · active 713 weeks ago
Camera system lag time means the shortest possible lag time but nothing else. What do you want to argue about, repeatedly and pointlessly?
So if a camera would have a lag of 0.0001 seconds when pre-focused (as per Imaging Resource test scenarios) but 10 minutes in every other situation, including when manually focusing - that would make it the fastest camera ever? I don't think so.
Your proposition is unrealistic.
VladimirYo's avatar

VladimirYo · 713 weeks ago

Your shortest time vill meke your photo more better AND MORE INTERESTING for you and people?
Is it the *fact* that many C and N DSLRs do perform better just so difficult to get accepted? Why being so uneasy?
Is it the *fact* that the K-5 do perform better than some C and N DSLRs in other tests than "pre-focused" just so difficult to get accepted? Why being so uneasy?
VladimirYo's avatar

VladimirYo · 713 weeks ago

You just playing words IMHO.
VladimirYo's avatar

VladimirYo · 713 weeks ago

Jim Radcliffe sad;
"The ability to 'see' the shot is more important than the gear used to capture it."
Like many people, I didn't think all that much about milisecond shutter lags till I thought of shooting lightning using a sensor in daylight. In such a situation, then the time lag would make a difference to the captured image
1 reply · active 706 weeks ago
For every really time-critical photo application, such tens of milliseconds do make a huge difference! After all, one will only know it if he needs it, enough said.

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