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Sony DSC-S75 (none) Select a topic Reference: Datasheet DSC-S75 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, & Hardware 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments on DSC-S75 Review --------------------------------- 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: 02/9/2001

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 using a proprietary Imaging Resource test apparatus.

Sony DSC-S75 Zoom Timings
Operation	Time (secs)	Notes
Power On -> First shot	7.3	About average for telescoping-lens designs.
Shutdown	4.75	Also about average
Play to Record, first shot	1.5	Time until first shot is captured, from "instant review" mode. Quite fast.
Record to play (max/min res)	7.3/1.7	Images appear quickly as a low res version, then "fill-in" within a few seconds. Faster than average to first view, a bit slower than average to full res version.
Shutter lag, full autofocus	0.91	Slightly slower than normal, though much faster than earlier S70.
Shutter lag, manual focus	0.50	About average
Shutter lag, prefocus	0.20	A little better than average
Cycle Time, max/min resolution	3.4/3.3	A bit faster than average, drops to 2.3 secs with manual focus, low res.
Cycle time, continuous mode	0.97/1.03 fps	Moderately fast, burst of only two frames though. (Max/min res are the same.)

Overall, the S75 shows some improvement in shutter lag performance from the earlier S70, but is still slightly slower than average for cameras of its class. (We consider 0.8 second lag time to be the average among top-end prosumer cameras.) Lag time in manual focus is about average though, and prefocus lag is somewhat better than average (0.2 seconds, vs 0.3 for the average in its class). Cycle time from shot to shot is pretty good at 3.4 seconds. The camera doesn't appear to use an internal memory buffer to speed capture for the first few shots. The downside is that cycle time is only a little faster than average, but from a more positive perspective, that cycle time never gets slower than 3.4 seconds. Continuous mode provides a shot-to-shot interval of only 0.97 seconds, but only for the first two images captured.