Sony DSC-H5 Performance

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Sony DSC-H5 Performance

Timing and Performance

Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

Startup/Shutdown
Power on to first shot	2.3 seconds	Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy.
Shutdown	2.4 seconds	How long it takes to retract lens and stow in your pocket.
Buffer clearing time	4 seconds (Large/Fine JPEG, Five shots in continuous mode)	Worst case buffer clearing time. This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card. Some cameras won't retract their lenses and shut down until the buffer is cleared.
Mode switching
Play to Record, first shot	0.2 seconds	Time until first shot is captured
Record to play	2.4 seconds	Time to display a large/fine file immediately after capture
Display recorded image	0.5 second	Time to display a large/fine file already on the memory card.
Shutter response (Lag Time):
Full Autofocus Wide	0.51 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide angle position.
Full Autofocus Tele	0.99 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at telephoto position.
Continuous Autofocus	0.51 second	Typically no advantage to Continuous AF mode, and we have no way of reliably measuring performance with moving ones.
Manual Focus	0.51 second	Usually a bit faster than AF. In the case of the H5, brings telephoto shutter lag times down to the same level as wide angle ones.
Prefocused	0.011 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.
Full AF with Flash (Wide Angle)	0.75 second	When the flash is enabled, the need for a metering pulse often slows shutter response slightly.
Cycle time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large Fine JPEG	1.6 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots. This fast all the time with a Memory Stick PRO Duo card. (No limit due to buffer capacity.)
Single Shot mode 640x480 JPEG	1.47 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots. This fast all the time with a Memory Stick PRO Duo card. (No limit due to buffer capacity.)
Early shutter penalty?	No	Some cameras refuse to snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
Continuous mode Large Fine JPEG	0.91 second (1.1 frames per second); 5 shot buffer capacity; ~4.6 seconds to clear	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 5 shots. After buffer fill, a pause of 4.6 seconds, then back to 0.91 second/shot.
Continuous mode 640x480 JPEG	0.77 second (1.3 frames per second); No apparent limit	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots. No apparent buffer limit.
Multiburst mode (576x768 pixel sub-frames)	0.033 second (30 frames per second); 16 shots then wait a second or so.	Time per shot, averaged over 16 shots. In this mode, 16 low-resolution images are captured very rapidly and stored in a single full-size image. Frame rates of 7.5, 15, and 30 frames/second can be set via a menu option.
Flash recycling	17 seconds	Flash at maximum output. (This is very slow, but the H5's flash is much more powerful than average.)
Download speed
Windows Computer, USB 2.0	5,084 KBytes/sec	Typical Values: Less than 600=USB 1.1; 600-770=USB 2.0 Low; Greater than 770=USB 2.0 High

The Sony DSC-H5's performance ranges from quite fast to just average, though its flash recycling is markedly slow. Start-up time is reasonable considering the long lens, but not fast. Shutter lag at wide angle zoom settings is quite good, at telephoto zoom it's on the slow sided of average, but "prefocus" times (half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure) are blazingly fast, with a shutter delay of only 0.011 second. Shot-to-shot cycle times are a little better than average these days, at about 1.6 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and the camera captures frames continuously at this rate. Continuous-mode speed is on the slower side, at a bit over one frame/second, for up to five shots in succession. That said though, Multiburst mode captures 16 frames at up to 30 frames per second (0.33 second cycle time), albeit at a 576 x 768 resolution. The flash is quite slow to recycle at 17 seconds after a full-power shot, however. Connected to a computer, download speeds are exceptionally fast, so you won't feel a need for a separate card reader. Bottom line, the DSC-H5 is responsive enough for most family photo opportunities, but its standard continuous shooting mode is a bit slow for sports or wiggly kids, and shutter response at maximum telephoto is a little laggardly. Those issues aside, overall performance is pretty good.

Battery and Storage Capacity

Battery
Short battery life with standard AA alkaline cells, but much better life with NiMH rechargeables.

Operating Mode	Number of Shots
AA alkaline batteries Rear-panel LCD	50
AA alkaline batteries Eye-level viewfinder	60
AA NIMH rechargeable cells Rear-panel LCD	340
AA NIMH rechargeable cells Eye-level viewfinder	370

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H5 uses two AA batteries for power, and a pair of NiMH batteries and a charger are included with the camera. Though runtimes are increased with the NiMH batteries over alkalines, I strongly recommend picking up a spare set and keeping them freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings. (See our battery shootout page for information on actual measured capacities of various NiMH brands and capacity markings.)

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on either a fresh set of disposable batteries or a fully-charged rechargeable battery as appropriate), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The DSC-H5 accepts Memory Stick Duo cards, though no card is included; 32MB RAM is built into the camera.

Image Capacity with 32MB Internal Memory		Fine	Normal
3,072 x 2,304	Images	8	16
3,072 x 2,304	File Size	3.6 MB	1.8 MB
2,592 x 1,944	Images	11	22
2,592 x 1,944	File Size	2.6 MB	1.4 MB
2,048 x 1,536	Images	19	33
2,048 x 1,536	File Size	1.6 MB	906 KB
1,632 x 1,224	Images	30	57
1,632 x 1,224	File Size	1.0 MB	537 KB
640 x 480	Images	183	459
640 x 480	File Size	168 KB	67 KB