"it took upwards of 15 seconds before I could even view the first image on the LCD"
"I mean, really: 15 seconds of nothing but a black LCD? (For what it's worth, in the 14-megapixel, 7 frames/second Sony A33, this "dead time" is a much more reasonable ~5 seconds.)"
all quotes are from "http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/AA55/AA55A.HTM"
Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card. Some cameras won't shut down until the buffer is cleared.
Continuous Hi mode Large Fine JPEG
0.17 second (6.02 frames per second); 39 frames total; 15 seconds to clear
Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme III 8GB SDHC memory card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times.