Good speed for a consumer camera.

The DSC-W50's performance was quite good here, with a quick start up time of 1.7 seconds, a very fast shutter response when the lens is set to its wide angle position, and a better than average response at telephoto as well. If you "prefocus" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure, it's extremely fast, with a shutter delay of only 0.012 second, among the fastest on the market. Shot to shot cycle times are very good as well, at about 1.27 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and it clears the buffer after each shot. Continuous-mode speed is where the camera slows down a bit, with its 0.70-second frame time and corresponding 1.43 frame rate. If you want to track really fast action though, the W50's Multi-Burst mode can capture 16 small (704-528 pixels, stored in a single large-size frame on the memory card) at either 7.5, 15, or 30 frames/second -- great for studying golf/tennis swings, etc. The flash takes about six seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, about average for this class of camera. Connected to a computer, download speeds are so fast that we had a hard time believing the numbers we were seeing, but repeated tests gave similar results. Bottom line, the DSC-W50 is quite responsive, if a little lacking in its Continuous mode. (* Note - These timings were collected with a 2GB Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo memory card. Slower cards could result in shorter run lengths in continuous mode and longer buffer clearing times.)

Battery
Surprisingly good battery life for a small camera.

The Sony Cyber-shot W50 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power. 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.

We normally always recommend picking up a spare battery and keeping it freshly charged and on-hand for long outings, but the W50's battery life is good enough that few users are likely to feel the need for a second battery.

Storage
No card is included with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W50, although it accepts Memory Stick Duo cards; 32MB RAM is built into the camera.

The Sony Power-shot DSC-W50 stores its photos on Memory Stick Duo memory cards or in approximately 32MB of internal memory, and no card is included with the camera. (We strongly recommend buying at least a 256MB card, preferably a 512MB one, to give yourself enough space for extended outings.)