"Picky Details" for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P150 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)

Timing

When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time or delay before the shutter actually fires. This corresponds to the time required for 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 rarely reported on (and even more rarely reported accurately), and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, I routinely measure both shutter delay and shot to shot cycle times for all cameras I test, using a test system I designed and built for the purpose. (Crystal-controlled, with a resolution of 0.001 second.) Here are the numbers I collected for the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P150:

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P150 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power. Its custom power connector prevented me from measuring its power drain directly, but Sony's InfoLITHIUM battery technology is very accurate when predicting remaining battery life. The numbers in the table below were what the camera displayed as remaining run time with a fully-charged battery.

Thanks to Sony's InfoLithium battery technology, the P150 shows really excellent battery life compared to other compact digicams (actually, it's very good compared to any size digicam), with 181 minutes projected runtime in capture mode with the LCD on, and 389 minutes in playback mode. As always though, I still recommend purchasing a second battery along with the camera, but with the P150, this is much less of a consideration than it normally is.

Storage Capacity

The Sony Cyber-shot stores its photos on Memory Stick / Memory Stick PRO memory cards, and a 32 MB card is included with the camera. (I strongly recommend buying at least a 128 MB card, preferably a 256 MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings.) The chart below shows how many images can be stored on the included 32 MB card at each size/quality setting.