Digital Camera Home > Digital Camera Reviews > Sony Digital Cameras > Sony MVC-CD250

Sony MVC-CD250

Sony adds features, and brings the price down on a 2 megapixel CD Mavica!

<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>>
Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests
Review First Posted: 02/20/2002

Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time is to allow the autofocus and autoexposure mechanisms time to do their work, and can amount to a fairly long delay in some situations. Since this number is almost never reported on, and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, we now routinely measure it using an Imaging Resource proprietary test system.

Sony MVC-CD250 Timings

Operation Time (secs) Notes

Power On -> First shot 7.93 / 26.2
When the camera is already familiar with the disc, startup times are much faster; inserting an unknown disc requires the camera to scan through it to read its directory structure, thus taking much longer to start up.

Shutdown 0 Shutdown time is effectively zero, since
there's no lens to retract. If you're still recording an image though, it could take several seconds before the CD is ready to be removed. (If you've just shot a TIFF image, it will take 28 seconds before the disc stops spinning.)

Play to Record, first shot 0.78 Very fast.

Record to play (max/min res) 2.77/6.81 large/fine file size
0.88/4.75 small/basic file size
First time in each set is for switch to playback mode after camera has finished saving the image. The second (and longer) time is for immediate switch to playback right after shutter is tripped.

Shutter lag, full autofocus 0.99 Wide/ 0.8688 Tele Wide angle time is somewhat slow, tele time is average or better than average. (Very surprising, usually shutter lag is longer in tele than wide.)

Shutter lag, manual focus 0.58 A bit slower than average. (Average is about 0.5 seconds.)

Shutter lag, prefocus 0.14 A good bit faster than average. (Average is around 0.3 seconds.)

Cycle Time, max/min resolution 1.52 / 1.562 Excellent cycle times, thanks to big buffer. (Buffer holds 10-12 frames, depending on scene content.)

Cycle time, post buffer fill, max/min resolution 2.92 / 2.55
(28.2 seconds for TIFF) Even after buffer fill, cycle times remain excellent. TIFF is the obvious exception, requiring fully 28 seconds to write the huge file to the CD.

Cycle time, continuous mode 0.5 Bursts limited to 3 frames, but quite fast, at 2 frames/second.

Frame rate, multi-burst 7.5, 15, 30 Small (320-240) sub-pictures stored in single 1280x960 image as a mosaic. Frame rates are very high, my measurements match Sony's claims of 7.5, 15, 30 fps.

Thanks to a huge buffer memory, the CD250 is quite fast from shot to shot. Startup can be *very* long though, particularly if the CD is nearly full, with multiple sessions (finalize/initialize) on it. Unfortunately, there's no option for adjusting the power-saving automatic shutdown interval. (The camera shuts itself off automatically after 3 minutes of inactivity.) If you tend to shoot on & off over a long period of time, you may need to train yourself to periodically switch the camera into play and back again, or half-press the shutter button, to keep it from going to sleep on you. The other speed issue is autofocus: Shutter lag isn't horrible (well, not too bad anyway) at wide angle, although still longer than I'd like to see. At telephoto it's quite long though. One possible saving grace though, is that the prefocus shutter lag is very short. Overall, the huge buffer memory made the camera feel very responsive when I was shooting with it, but the shutter lag could be an issue if you'll need to deal with fast-paced action on a regular basis.

Reader Comments! --> Visit our discussion forum for the Sony MVC-CD250!

<<Exposure & Flash | Operation & User Interface>>

Follow Imaging Resource:

Photo of the Day from Daily Digital Photo

Today’s Photo of the Day

Enter your photo

Sony MVC-CD250 Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	7.93 / 26.2	When the camera is already familiar with the disc, startup times are much faster; inserting an unknown disc requires the camera to scan through it to read its directory structure, thus taking much longer to start up.
Shutdown	0	Shutdown time is effectively zero, since there's no lens to retract. If you're still recording an image though, it could take several seconds before the CD is ready to be removed. (If you've just shot a TIFF image, it will take 28 seconds before the disc stops spinning.)
Play to Record, first shot	0.78	Very fast.
Record to play (max/min res)	2.77/6.81 large/fine file size 0.88/4.75 small/basic file size	First time in each set is for switch to playback mode after camera has finished saving the image. The second (and longer) time is for immediate switch to playback right after shutter is tripped.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.99 Wide/ 0.8688 Tele	Wide angle time is somewhat slow, tele time is average or better than average. (Very surprising, usually shutter lag is longer in tele than wide.)
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.58	A bit slower than average. (Average is about 0.5 seconds.)
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.14	A good bit faster than average. (Average is around 0.3 seconds.)
Cycle Time, max/min resolution	1.52 / 1.562	Excellent cycle times, thanks to big buffer. (Buffer holds 10-12 frames, depending on scene content.)
Cycle time, post buffer fill, max/min resolution	2.92 / 2.55 (28.2 seconds for TIFF)	Even after buffer fill, cycle times remain excellent. TIFF is the obvious exception, requiring fully 28 seconds to write the huge file to the CD.
Cycle time, continuous mode	0.5	Bursts limited to 3 frames, but quite fast, at 2 frames/second.
Frame rate, multi-burst	7.5, 15, 30	Small (320-240) sub-pictures stored in single 1280x960 image as a mosaic. Frame rates are very high, my measurements match Sony's claims of 7.5, 15, 30 fps.