"Picky Details" for the Sony DSC-P51 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)
Timing
I measure both cycle times and shutter delay times, using a special test system
I built for the purpose. Here are the numbers I collected for the Sony DSC-P51:
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Average to slightly slower than average for a camera
with a non-telescoping lens.
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| Shutdown |
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Fairly fast, but slower than some cameras with non-telescoping
lenses.
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time until first shot is captured. Very fast.
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| Record to play |
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Time to display a large/fine file after capture. Quite
fast.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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About average |
| Shutter lag, manual focus |
0.61
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A bit slower than average. (Average is ~0.5) |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button.
Quite fast. (Average is ~0.3)
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
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Quite fast. First number is for large/fine files, second is for small/normal ones. There's either no buffer memory, or it has a capacity of more than 11 shots: There was no slowdown up to 11 shots. |
Overall, the P51 is pretty fast camera, fairly quick in startup and shutdown times, and very fast between shots, although shutter delay is only about average.While I didn't try to exercise it beyond an 11-shot series, it appears that there's either no buffer memory, or the buffer holds more than 11 large/fine shots. Whatever the case, up to at least the 11 shot limit I tested, there was no slowdown in the very fast 1.7 second shot to shot cycle time. Quite impressive.
File Download
The P51 is also very fast when it comes to downloading images from it
to a host computer. I clocked it at 629 KBytes/second on my aging Pentium
II workhorse, making it among the fastest cameras on the market in terms of
file transfer.
Power
Unlike most Sony digicams, the P51 (along with its siblings the P31 and
P71) uses two AA cells for its power source. This normally means rather short
run times, but Sony seems to have done an unusually good job of controlling
power consumption in these latest P-series cameras. Worst-case runtime is a
bit over two hours (!) with high-capacity NiMH batteries and the camera operating
in capture mode with the LCD left on. With the LCD off, capture-mode power drops
almost in half, yielding about three and a half hours of run time in that mode.
Playback time is excellent too, at right around four hours. Very good indeed,
but as always, I strongly recommend buying several sets of high-capacity
NiMH batteries and a good charger.
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(@4.2 volts) |
(2 1600mAh AAs) |
| Capture Mode, w/LCD |
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| Capture Mode, no LCD |
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| Half-pressed shutter w/LCD |
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| Half-pressed w/o LCD |
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| Memory Write (transient) |
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| Flash Recharge (transient) |
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| Image Playback |
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Overall, not too bad for a 2-battery camera. Get a set of high-capacity NiMH batteries and a good charger and you'll be able to shoot for quite a while on one charge. Click here to read a review of the battery charger I routinely recommend to readers.
Storage Capacity
Here's a table showing the number of images that can be stored on the included
16 MB Memory Stick, the corresponding file sizes, and the approximate compression
ratios.
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Resolution/Quality 16 MB Memory Stick |
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| Full Resolution 1600x1200 | Images (Avg size) |
16 970 KB |
30 525 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
6:1 | 11:1 | |
| XGA Resolution 1024x768 | Images (Avg size) |
640 KB |
344 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
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Images (Avg size) |
164 KB |
66 KB |
| Approx. Compression |
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