Average to excellent speed for a consumer camera.

The Lumix DMC-FZ7's performance ranges from quite fast to about average, depending on what you're trying to do. It starts up fairly quickly considering its large 12x optical zoom lens, which extends forward on power-up. Shutter response is pretty good at both wide angle and telephoto, though "prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure, results in a super-speedy time of only 0.017 second. Shot to shot cycle times are excellent, at about 0.83 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, and it can capture shots continuously in single-shot mode without having to stop and clear the buffer. Continuous-mode speed is also quite good, at both high and low speed settings, and an Infinite option captures frames at the slower 0.44-second rate without any limitation (apart from card capacity) on the number of files. The flash takes about four seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, better than average. Connected to a computer, download speeds are fast enough that you probably won't feel a need for a separate card reader, although they aren't as fast as those from cameras with a true High-Speed USB 2.0 interface. Bottom line, the DMC-FZ7 is a responsive camera, suitable for a wide range of shooting conditions from sporting events to family gatherings.

Battery
Very good battery life with both the EVF and LCD.

The Lumix DMC-FZ7 uses a custom rechargeable LiIon battery for power. The table above shows maximum run times based on our power measurements and the rated performance of its battery. In practice, with the camera "sleeping" between periods of use, we found we could shoot for a surprisingly long time on a single battery charge.

Storage
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 stores images on SD/MMC memory cards, and comes with a 16MB starter card.

We strongly recommend buying at least a 256MB card, preferably a 512MB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (The included 16 MB card is just about useless for a camera of this resolution.)