DSC-F88: A Review of One of Sony's Latest 5MP Digicams

The Timing Tests

* NOTE: For all of our time tests, we reset the camera to its factory default settings and used the highest resolution and quality setting. The camera was set to Auto mode. A 256MB Sony Memory Stick Pro was used.

Before reading our results, please refer to our Testing Procedures page.

Startup Time

The startup time is recorded from the moment that the power button is pushed to the moment the shutter sounds. The F88 was set to record in Auto mode. All camera sounds were disabled for this test.

Startup time (seconds)

1.73

Because there is no protrusion of the lens, the camera is able to shoot its first image after just 1.73 sec. This is an incredible time for a compact digicam.

Shutter Lag

To record shutter lag, we perform two tests. For the first test, we pre-focus the lens and measure the amount of time it takes the camera to take a picture after the shutter button is pressed. The second test measures the time it takes for the camera to take a picture after we press the shutter button without pre-focusing. Each test is performed 3 times and the results are averaged. For more information regarding our testing procedures, please refer to our Testing Procedures page.

With Pre-focus (seconds)	Without Pre-focus (seconds)
.08	.41

We were very impressed with the F88's shutter lag times. When we pre-focused the camera, it took just 0.08 sec. to take a picture after fully pressing the shutter button. Without focusing the camera first, the F88 had a lag time of just 0.41 sec. This is a very fast time for a compact digicam. In short, shutter lag is not a concern on the F88.

Write Times

We recorded 4 different write times with a 256MB Sony Memory Stick Pro: Single Shot, Shot to Shot, Shot to Shot w/Flash, and Shot to Shot w/Buffer Full (to next burst).

Single Shot - The time it takes for a single picture to be completely written to the flash card (the time the "activity light" is on).
Shot To Shot (STS) - The time until the second shot is able to be taken after the first (shutter to shutter).
Shot To Shot w/Flash - The time it takes for the camera to take two pictures with the flash starting from the moment the first flash is fired to the moment the second is fired.
Shot To Shot w/Buffer Full (to next burst) - The time between taking the last shot of a 9-shot burst to the moment the first frame of the next burst is taken.

We set the camera to the highest resolution and quality setting and ran 4 tests. We performed each test three times and averaged the results.

2592x1944, Fine, Avg. file size = 2.1 MB
Single Shot	Shot To Shot	Shot To Shot w/Flash	Shot to Shot w/Buffer Full (to next burst)
0.81	1.46	6.92	8.25

The F88 is able to write a single image at the highest resolution and quality in 0.81 sec. The Shot to Shot time is very fast at 1.46 sec., while the Shot to Shot w/Flash time is considerably slower, at nearly 7 seconds. Burst mode on the F88 is capable of taking 9 frames at the rate of approximately 1 fps before filling the internal buffer. It takes the camera 8.25 seconds to clear the buffer for the next burst. Overall, we were impressed with the F88's write times. Considering that it is such a small camera, we were surprised by its 9 image buffer size. The only downside is the slow flash-recycle time.