Sony CyberShot DSC-P30Sony develops an affordable, full-featured 1.3-megapixel compact digicam with great picture quality!<<Exposure & Flash :(Previous) | (Next): Operation & User Interface>> Page 7:Shutter Lag & Cycle Time TestsReview First Posted: 4/9/2001 |
Shutter Lag/Cycle Times
When you press the shutter release on a camera, there's usually a lag time before the shutter actually fires. This time is to allow 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 almost never reported on, and can significantly affect the picture taking experience, we now routinely measure it.
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| Power On -> First shot |
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About average.
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| Shutdown |
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Pretty fast. (Effectively instant, since there's no need to retract lens.)
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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VERY fast, no delay beyond shutter lag.
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| Record to play (max/min res) |
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Pretty fast.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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Fairly fast. |
| Shutter lag, manual focus |
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Also a bit faster than average. |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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A little better than average
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
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Faster than average, no difference between high/low resolution settings. |
Overall, the DSC-P30 was a surprisingly fast camera, a welcome feature. (Just because you don't feel the need for a 3-megapixel camera, it shouldn't mean that you're penalized on features and performance!) Essentially all timing parameters were noticeably faster than average, when compared to competing models we've tested. Shot-to-shot speed is also pretty quick, although perhaps a bit slower than what you'd want for shooting fast-paced action, like team sports. Still, the very quick 0.2-second shutter delay -- when the camera is prefocused by half-pressing and holding the shutter button -- is very nice!
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