Good to average speed for a consumer camera.

The Sony DSC-H9's performance is generally above average. Startup and shutdown speeds are above average for a long zoom. Full AF shutter response at wide angle is well above average for a long zoom, at 0.49s, but drops to just above average at telephoto, at 0.99s. Prefocus shutter lag of 0.009s is excellent, making it great for photos of the kids if you remember to prefocus. Shot-to-shot cycle times and continuous-mode speeds are about average for a long zoom. The flash takes a long 12.5 seconds to recharge after a full-power shot, but packs quite a punch. Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are very fast. Bottom line, the DSC-H9 is responsive enough to handle most family photo opportunities

Battery
Slightly above average battery life for a Lithium-Ion design.

The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 uses a custom rechargeable Li-Ion battery for power, and ships with a charger. Although battery life is above average among Li-Ion designs, it's below average for the class of camera. You can save a bit of power by using the EVF instead of the large LCD to frame your shots, but we still 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-H9 accepts Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Pro Duo cards, and includes about 31MB of internal memory.

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity Memory Stick Pro Duo card at least a 1GB card, preferably a 2GB 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.)