Sony Camera API: What state events should happen after calling actTakePicture

Question

Reading the Sony camera API reference it states that I should see the following events after calling actTakePicture:

Camera status: "IDLE" -> "StillCapturing" -> "StillSaving" -> "IDLE"

I never see the StillSaving event. For me it seems to go from IDLE --> StillCapture --> IDLE.

Also it seems that even though the camera gives an event of IDLE if I then call actTakePicture straight away there is a significant delay before the camera responds, suggesting that the camera itself is in some kind of busy state and not IDLE as the last event seemed to indicate.

Could anyone from Sony help and explain why I'm not seeing the StillSaving event and why there seems to be a significant delay when taking subsequent images even though the cameras last status is IDLE.

I've tried this with two cameras the QX10 and A5000.

Answer 1

The following status ("IDLE" -> "StillCapturing" -> "StillSaving" -> "IDLE") is typical sequence, but some cameras may skip “StillSaving” state. Regarding the delay, the camera needs to prepare for the next shot and the camera will start capturing as soon as possible. As you might expect the amount of light available, auto-focusing time, processor, storage speed, etc may additionally affect the time between shots.

Best Regards, Prem, Developer World team