"Picky Details" for the Olympus SP-350 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 Olympus SP-350:

Power

The Olympus SP-350 uses two AA batteries for power, and ordinary alkaline batteries are included with the camera.
(NOTE: We found the Olympus SP-350 to be very finicky about battery voltage, to the point that it would run for only a very short time on NiMH rechargeable cells. If you're considering it, you'll need to factor in the cost of single-use alkaline batteries over the life of the camera.)

Storage Capacity

The Olympus SP-350 stores its photos on xD memory cards or in approximately 25MB of internal memory, and no 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 internal memory at each size/quality setting.

Download Speed

The Olympus SP-350 connects to a host computer via a USB interface. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked it at 2138 KBytes/second. (Cameras with slow USB interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)