Sony CyberShot DSC-P50Sony develops an affordable, full-featured 2.1-megapixel compact digicam with great picture quality!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 4/4/2001 |
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.
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| Power On -> First shot |
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About average.
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| Shutdown |
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Pretty fast. (Effectively instant, since there's no need to retract lens.)
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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VERY fast, no delay beyond shutter lag.
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| Record to play (max/min res) |
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A bit better than average.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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A bit faster than average. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus |
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Also a bit faster than average. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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A little better than average
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
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Faster than average, little difference between high/low resolution settings. |
Overall, the DSC-P50 was a surprisingly fast camera, a welcome feature. (Just because you don't feel the need for a 3-megapixel camera, it shouldn't mean that you're penalized on features and performance!) Essentially all timing parameters were noticeably faster than average, when compared to competing models we've tested. Shutter lag tested slightly slower than the 1.3 megapixel P30, possibly due to slower data retrieval from the larger sensor during the autofocus operation. Shot-to-shot speed is also pretty quick, although perhaps a bit slower than what you'd want for shooting fast-paced action, like team sports. Still, the very quick 0.2-second shutter delay -- when the camera is prefocused by half-pressing and holding the shutter button -- is very nice!
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