Good to slightly slow speed for a consumer camera.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3's performance ranges from good to a little slower than average, depending on what you're trying to do. Startup time is hindered a little by the long lens, but isn't terrible. Shutter response of 0.31 second is pretty good at wide angle, though a little sluggish at full telephoto, at 1.36 seconds. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a blazing lag time of only 0.008 second. Shot-to-shot cycle times are a little on the slow side as well, at about 1.67 seconds for large/fine JPEGs, though the camera appears to capture shots continuously in single-shot mode without having to stop and clear the buffer. Continuous mode is actually good, at 1.96 frames-per-second for about 11 large/fine JPEG frames. The flash takes 10 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, though, which is slower than average. Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are quite zippy, and fast enough that you shouldn't feel the need for a separate card reader. Overall, the DSC-H3 performs fairly well, with reasonably good continuous shooting times, though its standard lag time is a bit on the slow side. Still, the H3 should handle most average shooting situations fairly well.

Battery
Above average battery life for a Lithium-ion design.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Although battery life is above 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 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H3 accepts Sony Memory Stick DUO cards, and includes about 31MB of internal memory (no card is included).

We strongly recommend buying a large-capacity Memory Stick PRO DUO at least a 1GB card, preferably a 2-4GB one, to give yourself extra space for extended outings. (Check the shopping link above, cards are really cheap these days, so no reason to skimp.)