Long Exposure Render times...Compact Digitals

[Mr Yuck]

When you take a ~15 second exposure, how long does it take for your camera to render it? It takes mine a good 15 seconds, so it takes about 30 seconds for me to take a 15 second exposure, this is on my A510.

How long does yours take and what camera is it?

I'm considering handing this A510 down to my parents and picking out something new, I'm wondering if the A540 or another Canon A-Series is any faster. (Lookin to spend <$150)

I'm not interested in the A610 or A620 because of the plexiglass lenses.

[another view]

My Coolpix 5000 takes longer to save an image than the exposure time but I rarely go over a one second shot with it due to noise. Actually it takes over twice as long as the shot with the noise reduction on because it takes a second equal exposure with the shutter closed to figure out what is and is not noise. My DSLR seems to always write at about the same speed whether 1/500 or 15 seconds (which is fairly slow being an older model) because it's in RAW mode most of the time.

The 5000 is pretty old too considering the life of a digital camera and I know the newer ones are better considering noise - but I'd recommend a DSLR with exposures that long. You're putting a fair amount of work into a shot like that and you'll get a much better image - plus the write speed is much faster. The worst thing about these long exposures is how they eat thru batteries...

[Mr Yuck]

I shoot continuously, with an LCD for 2 hours at a time, without any battery troubles, I dont even need to carry spare batteries most of the time. My A510 takes great night shots, little noise. It just takes forever.

I forgot to add that I wont buy anything that's not Canon, and I dont have $800 to spend on a DSLR...after lenses and other equipment, I'll have more money into my camera equipment than my car, not good considering I'm a poor student, and I prefer a compact digital because I'm pretty dang active with my camera, I would kill a DSLR on bike rides.

I'm thinking of trying an A540 or similar and returning it if it doesnt meet my needs. The A510 uses the old Digic processor, A540 uses DIGIC II, which is supposedly faster.


Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

[SmartWombat]

Most cameras will take longer to render a long exposure shot, because the noise reduction program takes about as long as the original exposure to filter the image.
I found exactly the same on my Minolta A1 and A2 with noise reduction turned on.

[Dylan8i]

my canon s1 is takes at least 15 seconds to render the 15 sec exposure, might be a bit longer.

[freygr]

My old Olympus C-3030 took long exposures and saved fast. I've never had a camera that took for ever to save. There was a long shutter delay with the old Olympus but at the time it was avrage.

[MrParts]

My little Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N1 is pretty quick. It processes in about half the time spent shooting the image.

[livin4lax09]

the noise reduction feature takes a black exposure of the same time that you took your exposure for, then renders them together to help get rid of some of the noise. apparently. I read it somewhere.

[Canuck935]

^^ Bingo!

lalalala I have to add more characters cuz "^^Bingo!" is too short of a message.

[etrig]

When you take a ~15 second exposure, how long does it take for your camera to render it? It takes mine a good 15 seconds, so it takes about 30 seconds for me to take a 15 second exposure, this is on my A510.

How long does yours take and what camera is it?

I'm considering handing this A510 down to my parents and picking out something new, I'm wondering if the A540 or another Canon A-Series is any faster. (Lookin to spend <$150)

I'm not interested in the A610 or A620 because of the plexiglass lenses.

Hi,
I have a A530 and just checked it. It's about a 30 second wait from pushing the shutter to when it shows on the LCD. I'm not sure if there is a difference in the 540 or the other A series.
trig