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Sony DSC-S70 Sony makes a compact 3.3 megapixel digicam with full movie/sound capability and a razor-sharp Zeiss lens! Select a topic 13. Reference: Datasheet 14. DSC-S70 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests Review First Posted: 5/5/2000

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 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.

The DSC-S70 was a bit slower than average for shots taken with full autofocus enabled, with a shutter lag of 1.53 seconds. This dropped to 1.15 seconds for shots taken in manual focus mode, and to only 0.22 seconds for shots in which the lens was prefocused by half-pressing the shutter button prior to the exposure itself. The auto- and manual-focus times are on the high side of average, but the prefocused delay is quite a bit faster than most digicams we've tested.

Shot to shot, the S70 shows a fairly fast cycle time for a 3 megapixel camera, able to take successive pictures as quickly as once every 3.7 seconds in maximum-resolution mode, and every 3.6 seconds at minimum resolution. As noted in the main text of the review, the cycle time for images shot in Text mode is quite long, due to the processing required to convert the full-color camera image into the 1-bit GIF format. We measured the cycle time for Text mode at 39 seconds for a full-resolution image, and about 7 seconds at minimum resolution.The Text-mode files are so compact though, that the wait could easily be worth it if you need to capture large amounts of textual information.

With its telescoping lens design, the S70 is a bit slower from startup to first picture, with a delay of 6.7 seconds (still far from the slowest we've seen). Likewise, shutdown takes 5.1 seconds before you can affix the lens cover and stow the camera in a pocket. Switching from Record to Play mode is very fast, at 0.8 seconds, while the time from Play to Record is rather variable. If you switch back to Record fairly quickly after entering Play mode, you can get back there in 2.6 seconds. Most of the time though, the lens will retract after you enter Play mode (Note to Sony - why?), which means it will then take 6.7 seconds to get back to picture taking when you return to Record mode.