Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

Start up is fair considering the 7x zoom lens, which extends forward on power-up. Shutdown and buffer clearing are a little faster than average.

Mode switching is above average, except for displaying recorded images, which is on the slow side of average.

Shutter response is very good at both wide angle and telephoto, at 0.161s and 0.391s respectively. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a blistering lag time of only 0.008 second. (Among the fastest on the market.)

Shot-to-shot cycle times are on the slow side of average, at about 2.87 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and the camera captured a maximum of 7 shots in single-shot mode before slowing down to clear the buffer. Continuous mode is slower than average, at 0.55 frames-per-second for over 20 large/fine JPEG frames, though performance picks up to 1.51 frames per second at the lowest resolution setting. The flash takes 3.61 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, which is pretty good.

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are quite zippy.

Bottom line, the Exilim EX-V8 is quite responsive in the areas you'll need it most, though its continuous speed may not be fast enough at the largest resolution for fast action.

Battery
Slightly below average battery life for a Lithium-ion design.

The Casio Exilim EX-V8 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Although battery life is close to 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 Casio Exilim EX-V8 accepts SD/MMC memory cards, and includes about 12MB of internal memory.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SDHC or SD memory card at least a 1GB card, preferably a 4GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings and video. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)