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Subject Topic: Compact Flash speed? Post Reply Post New Topic
Message posted by steiner on May-28-2005 at 10:03am
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May-21-2004
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Hi All.  I have a Nikon 8700 and it was taking 15- 16 seconds to generate a photo in 'Hi' resolution (23.5MB Tiff) mode using the card the camera came with (a 4X Lexar 256MB).

I just purchased a 1 Gig SanDisk Ultra II card hoping that it would improve a poor situation.  Sadly it hasn't...it now takes 14 - 15 seconds...I've saved all of 1 second! 

Is anyone familiar with this camera and if you are - is this normal performance?  Is there any other way I can decrease the time necessary to capture a high res photo?

As it stands, it's almost impossible for me to take an effective VR in crowded areas using anything over medium quality. 

Hope you can help

Steiner


Message posted by smooth on May-28-2005 at 10:27am
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November-23-2002
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Steiner,

I believe you can continue shooting with the CP8700 before the card has finished writing the previous image. (Still seems a long time to write one image!)

Have you checked for a firmware upgrade?

Also you are probably better off to use .nef (RAW) format over .tiff if your camera supports it although you will then need to convert and correct with a RAW converting program like Photoshops RAW plug-in or Nikon's Nikonview software.

Regards, Smooth


Message posted by steiner on May-28-2005 at 10:39am
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May-21-2004
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Hi Smooth

Thanks for the feedback.  Yes, I can take RAW images but it's only about 1 second faster.  Re. firmware upgrades, I can try it.  Is there a url you can point me to?

Thanks


Message posted by smooth on May-28-2005 at 11:10am
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Check this page it offers the firmware upgrade for the Nikon Coolpix 8700 to version 1.3

Regards, Smooth


Message posted by steiner on May-28-2005 at 11:30am
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May-21-2004
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Thanks Smooth, I've updated the firmware but no improvement in speed unfortunately. 

Could someone with an 8700 please time your RAW and HI images and let me know how long it takes for you?

Thanks in advance


Message posted by johnfl68 on May-28-2005 at 3:22pm
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According to Digital Phtography Review, for the 8700 your times seem about correct. As Smooth said, you should be able to take pictures faster than the 15 seconds because of the cameras internal memory, they say about 7.6 seconds before next shot for TIFF HI:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikoncp8700/page11.asp

3264 x 2448 TIFF HI
15.6 seconds to write      
1.0 seconds to display
23,520 KB file size

Respectable write times considering the larger file sizes involved. We estimated camera's Compact Flash interface throughput to be between 1 - 1.5 MB/sec for a good card like this Ultra II. This is notably faster than the Coolpix 5700 which took longer to process and write smaller files.

Message posted by steiner on May-29-2005 at 8:53am
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Thanks for the feedback John.  Looks like I'll need to update the camera itself if I ever want to get faster results.  Something for the future.

Cheers


Message posted by 360texas on May-29-2005 at 9:25am
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This is correct.  You may have a superfast CF.  However, the write time to the CF is governed by the camera.

We use a Lexar Professional 80x with write acceleration 1GB with both of our Canon 20d or Canon 350d.  Our Canon Repr said that both cameras will only write at 40x speed and the CF card will outlast either camera life. 

Next generation cameras will write at 80x.

How long does it take to write to to this Lexar card?  I can hold the shutter release down, and it will rapid fire 1 per second 8mb RAW image.

Now if I could only take panorama images that fast.

OH did you know that your 1 Gig SanDisk Ultra II card is rated faster than my 1GB Lexar CF ?

Dave



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Message posted by steiner on May-29-2005 at 11:58am
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Hi Dave

No I didn't - almost adds insult to injury! 


Message posted by Gen. Lee on May-29-2005 at 3:47pm
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May-15-2005
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I just did a  speend test with my coolpix 5000 and Lexar Pro 80 WA 80 x card.

15 seconds on HI setting. And you can't shoot until the image has finished writing.

Lets think about this for a moment.

If the cameras CF throuput is 1 to 1.5 mb a second then if you shoot on a setting that produces a image in this size you will get a 1 - 1.5 sec write time. If you shoot an image at a  higher setting that is say 4 megs than the write time will be about 4 to 6 seconds.

If you want to shoot crowd scenes or scenes where there is likly to be stuff moving around then you will have to shoot at a smaller image size so the camera can write and shoot quickly. You have to do whatever you gotta do to get the shot. But it is not necessary to shoot everything at the highes possible quality.

This becomes a matter "skill" with the camera. In crowd scenes you must plan the seam placement ahead of time and plan the order of shots. I have done this a lot. To get a good set I sometimes have to take multiple shots. I have taken many panos on Bourban street in new orleans and I have had to take up to 10 or so 2 shot hemi sets to get a good finished image.I usually put the seam on something like a verticl column or area will there will not be moving things. Even if a person walks across the seam when I shoot I can take that person out in photoshop becasue the solid column or wall is there to clone onto. TIME...Also you may have to stand there for over an hour or more waiting for the perfect time to shoot. I have done this too. This is the case inside bars and clubs. You just have to keep shooting until you get a hemi set you know will work.

TIP - When I am shooting crowd scenes like at conventions or on bourbon street I usually have one or two assistants with me....ie drinking buddies LOL. Anyway I will plan the seam placements. Then I will get my assistants to stand near these points. When I am ready to shoot I signal them and they will kind of stop the flow of people by blocking there path or ask them to smile and point at the camera. Most people become interested and will stand there instead of moving. Again this sometimes take a few attempts but it does work. When I am by myself well then  its up to the "photo gods in the sky" as to whethere I get the shot or not.

Below is a link to images shot with an old Nikon coolpix 950 + FC-E8 on FINE setting. I get an image of about 750 kb. It take about 3 second to write to a 8x lexar card. As you can see the sharpness/quality is definitly acceptable. This is only a 1.2 megapixel camera!http://66.118.155.203/roebuck/282_snowdrift/360_living_room_1.html

I will dig up the old bourbon street crowd shot to show you what can be done with this setting and post it here.

In my opinion is not necessary to shoot everything at the highest possible quality. The final image quality is determined by the quality of your exposure(not the size of the image) and your workflow. Mostly your  workflow. Your final panos will be displayed at a max of  96 dpi no matter how many pixels are in the image. Computer moniters can only display between 72 and 96 dpi. So even if it is a full screen or small 400 x 400 it will still be displayed at 72 - 96 dpi. All those pixels from a RAW or HI image are just being wasted. So the point here is you must make a good exposure and process this in your workflow correctly to get a very good final pano. I think the most important thing in getting a lower qualty image to be sharp is to start with a good exposure that has good tonal range regardless of the quality setting. If you have to color correct to get good tonal range this is defintily going to effect the final image.

What I am trying to say here is you can get a very good quality pano from a lower setting IF you shoot a correct e


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