"Picky Details" for the Sony DSC-P31 digital camera
(Timing, Power, and Storage Info)
Timing
I measure both cycle times and shutter delay times, using a special test system
I built for the purpose. Here are the numbers I collected for the Sony DSC-P31:
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| Power On -> First shot |
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Average to slightly slower than average for a camera
with a non-telescoping lens.
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| Shutdown |
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Fairly fast, but slower than some cameras with non-telescoping
lenses.
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| Play to Record, first shot |
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Time until first shot is captured. Very fast.
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| Record to play |
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Time to display a large/fine file after capture. Quite
fast.
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| Shutter lag, full autofocus |
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About average |
| Shutter lag, manual focus |
0.59
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A bit slower than average. (Average is ~0.5) |
| Shutter lag, prefocus |
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Time to capture, after half-pressing shutter button.
Quite fast. (Average is ~0.3)
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| Cycle Time, max/min resolution |
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Quite fast. First number is for large/fine files, second is for small/normal ones. (Yes, for some reason, the camera seems to cycle slightly slower with small files than with large ones.) There's either no buffer memory, or it has a capacity of more than 10 shots: There was no slowdown up to 10 shots. |
Overall, the P31 is pretty fast camera, fairly quick in startup and shutdown times, and very fast between shots, although shutter delay is only about average.While I didn't try to exercise it beyond an 10-shot series, it appears that there's either no buffer memory, or the buffer holds more than 10 large/fine shots. Whatever the case, up to at least the 10 shot limit I tested, there was no slowdown in the very fast 1.8 second shot to shot cycle time. Quite impressive.
File Download
The P31 is also very fast when it comes to downloading images from it
to a host computer. I clocked it at 640 KBytes/second on my aging Pentium
II workhorse, making it among the fastest cameras on the market in terms of
file transfer.
Power
Unlike most Sony digicams, the P31 (along with its siblings the P51 and
P71) uses two AA cells for its power source. This normally means rather short
run times, but Sony seems to have done an unusually good job of controlling
power consumption in these latest P-series cameras. Worst-case runtime is about
an hour and forty minutes, with high-capacity NiMH batteries and the camera
operating in capture mode with the LCD left on. With the LCD off, capture-mode
power drops almost in half, yielding roughly 3.3 hours of run time in that mode.
Playback time is excellent too, at something over 2 hours. Very good indeed,
but as always, I strongly recommend buying several sets of high-capacity
NiMH batteries and a good charger.
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(@4.2 volts) |
(2 1600mAh AAs) |
| Capture Mode, w/LCD |
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| Capture Mode, no LCD |
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| Half-pressed shutter w/LCD |
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| Half-pressed w/o LCD |
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| Memory Write (transient) |
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| Flash Recharge (transient) |
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| Image Playback |
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Overall, not too bad for a 2-battery camera. Get a set of high-capacity NiMH batteries and a good charger and you'll be able to shoot for quite a while on one charge. Click here to read a review of the battery charger I routinely recommend to readers.
Storage Capacity
Argh! I knew I was forgetting something as I rushed to get the evaluation
sample of this camera back to Sony in time for the PMS 2002 show! (Along with
the P51 and P71 as well) - I neglected to check the storage capacity vs file
size/quality settings! I'll try to remember to do this when I get a full production
unit back in a little while. (No promises, but I'll try...)
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