Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

Startup and shutdown times are above average, with good buffer clearing.

Mode switching times are a bit on the slow side of average.

Shutter response is better than average at both wide angle and telephoto, at 0.31s and 0.39s respectively, and "prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of only 0.088 second. Very good.

Shot-to-shot cycle times are good, at about 1.41 seconds for large JPEGs, and the camera does capture frames continuously at this rate. (That is, given a fast enough memory card, it doesn't have to pause every few frames to wait for the card to catch up.) The DSC-W130's Continuous modes perform about average, capturing 20 large frames at 1.94 frames per second with no signs of slowing down. Times are the same at the lowest resolution as well. The flash takes 4.9 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, also good.

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are very good.

Bottom line, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W130 is fast enough for most average situations, and should handle wiggly kids and sporting events fairly well also in its Continuous mode.

Battery
Above average battery life for a lithium-ion design.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W130 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Although battery life is above average, we recommend you pick up a spare battery and keep it freshly charged and on-hand for extended outings.

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 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W130 accepts Memory Stick Pro Duo memory cards, and includes about 15MB of internal memory. The table below shows the approximate capacity of the internal memory at different resolution settings. (The Sony W130 does not have a compression level option.)

We strongly recommend buying a large-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duo at least a 1 or 2GB card, preferably a 4GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (We recommend the PRO version of the Memory Stick Duo, because it supports non-stop video as well as longer sequences of continuous still-image shooting.) (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)