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Sony MVC-CD400

Sony expands its CD-equipped camera line, adding a four megapixel CCD, a huge buffer memory, Hologram Autofocus, and a standard hot shoe!

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Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests
Review First Posted: 2/20/2002

Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a delay or lag time before the shutter actually fires. This allows 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, I now routinely measure it using a custom test system I designed and built for the purpose.

Sony MVC-CD400 Timings

Operation Time (secs) Notes

Power On -> First shot 5.2/21 Startup time depends on state of disc. If camera has seen disc before and not many files, time is about 5 seconds. If disc if full and/or camera back has been opened since last power-up, time can be 21 seconds or longer.

Shutdown 4.1 Time required to retract lens. If writing TIFF file, could take up to 51 seconds to be ready to remove disc. (Normal JPEGs are much faster, generally would be done by the time the lens retracts.)

Play to Record, first shot 1.52 Pretty fast.

Record to play (max/min res) 1.28 - 7.09
0.87 - 5.00 Top numbers JPEG large/fine, bottom set JPEG small/normal. First number of each set is for switch after camera done processing an image. Second number is for immediate switch to play after snapping the shutter.

Shutter lag, full autofocus
(wide/tele) 0.901/1.499 First number for telephoto, second for wide angle. Rather slow. 0.9 seconds is slower than average, but within normal bounds. 1.5 seconds is quite slow

Shutter lag, manual focus 0.663 A bit slower than average. (Average is about 0.5 seconds.)

Shutter lag, prefocus 0.157 A good bit faster than average. (Average is around 0.3 seconds.)

Cycle Time 1.95/3.5 L/F
(~28 sec to clear buffer) Excellent cycle times(!) Buffer holds 6-8 frames in large/fine resolution mode, depending on subject, then cycle time stretches to about 3.5 secs. Buffer clears completely in about 28 seconds. Small/normal resolution cycles in about 2.2 seconds, buffer didn't fill after 20+ shots.

Cycle Time, TIFF 51.5 Quite slow. Camera controls locked out during TIFF disc writes.

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 CD400 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.

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Sony MVC-CD400 Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	5.2/21	Startup time depends on state of disc. If camera has seen disc before and not many files, time is about 5 seconds. If disc if full and/or camera back has been opened since last power-up, time can be 21 seconds or longer.
Shutdown	4.1	Time required to retract lens. If writing TIFF file, could take up to 51 seconds to be ready to remove disc. (Normal JPEGs are much faster, generally would be done by the time the lens retracts.)
Play to Record, first shot	1.52	Pretty fast.
Record to play (max/min res)	1.28 - 7.09 0.87 - 5.00	Top numbers JPEG large/fine, bottom set JPEG small/normal. First number of each set is for switch after camera done processing an image. Second number is for immediate switch to play after snapping the shutter.
Shutter lag, full autofocus (wide/tele)	0.901/1.499	First number for telephoto, second for wide angle. Rather slow. 0.9 seconds is slower than average, but within normal bounds. 1.5 seconds is quite slow
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.663	A bit slower than average. (Average is about 0.5 seconds.)
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.157	A good bit faster than average. (Average is around 0.3 seconds.)
Cycle Time	1.95/3.5 L/F (~28 sec to clear buffer)	Excellent cycle times(!) Buffer holds 6-8 frames in large/fine resolution mode, depending on subject, then cycle time stretches to about 3.5 secs. Buffer clears completely in about 28 seconds. Small/normal resolution cycles in about 2.2 seconds, buffer didn't fill after 20+ shots.
Cycle Time, TIFF	51.5	Quite slow. Camera controls locked out during TIFF disc writes.
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.