Panasonic DMC-FZ35 Performance

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Panasonic FZ35 Performance

Timing and Performance

Generally faster than average for a long-zoom, but sluggish in some areas.

Startup/Shutdown
Power on to first shot	2.0 seconds	Time it takes for LCD to turn on and lens to deploy and capture a picture.
Shutdown	2.3 seconds	How long it takes to retract lens.
Buffer clearing time	2 seconds (After Large/Fine JPEG)	Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card. Some cameras won't retract their lenses and shut down until the buffer is cleared.
	3.5 seconds (After RAW Image)
	4 seconds (After RAW + JPEG)

Better than average times for a long-zoom here.

Mode switching
Play to Record, first shot	0.9 second	Time until first shot is captured.
Record to play	2.4 seconds	Time to display a large/fine JPEG immediately after capture.
Display recorded image	0.6 second	Time to display a large/fine JPEG already on the memory card.

Mode switching times are about average.

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Full Autofocus Wide	0.335 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide-angle position.
Full Autofocus Wide High-Speed AF mode	0.307 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide-angle position.
Full Autofocus Tele	0.354 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at telephoto position.
Full Autofocus Wide Flash enabled	0.495 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, zoom lens at wide-angle position, with flash enabled.
Prefocused	0.125 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.
Continuous AF	0.391 second	This mode usually shows no speed increase with our static subject; we have no way to measure performance with moving subjects.
Manual Focus	0.226 second	For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused."

Shutter response is also better than average for a long-zoom at both wide-angle and telephoto, at 0.34s and 0.35s respectively. Switching to High-speed AF mode was a bit faster at 0.31s. Enabling the flash didn't add too much lag time, at 0.495 second. "Prefocusing" the camera by half-pressing and holding down the shutter button before the final exposure results in a lag time of 0.125 second, which is slower than average, but still pretty fast. Continuous AF didn't result in an improvement versus single AF at 0.39 second, but manual focus reduced shutter lag to 0.23 second.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large Fine JPEG	1.54 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots.
Single Shot mode RAW	3.40 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots.
Single Shot mode RAW + Standard JPEG	3.99 seconds	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots.
Early shutter penalty?	YES	Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
Continuous mode Large Fine JPEG	0.43 second (2.33 frames per second); 3 frames total; 2 seconds to clear	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length or 20 shots, whichever came first.
Continuous mode RAW	n/a	Burst mode not supported.
Continuous mode RAW + Standard JPEG	n/a	Burst mode not supported.
Flash recycling	4.3 seconds	Flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme III 8 GB SDHC memory card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity also affects cycle times and burst mode performance, with higher ISOs generally increasing cycle times and reducing burst performance.

Shot-to-shot cycle times are good for large/fine JPEGs, at about 1.54 seconds, and the camera appears to capture frames continuously at this rate. (That is, given a fast enough memory card, it doesn't have to pause every few frames to wait for the card to catch up.) RAW and RAW+JPEG are much slower, at about 3.4 and 4 seconds respectively. Continuous burst mode at full resolution is rather sluggish for its class these days, at only 2.3 frames-per-second for 3 frames, and this slows to 1.3 frames-per-second at ISO 200. However, the FZ35 does offer a high-speed "Speed Priority" burst mode that is rated up to 10 frames-per-second at 3MP (4:3), 2.5MP (3:2) or 2MP (16:9) sizes, though we didn't test that. Burst mode is not supported for RAW or RAW+JPEG files. The flash takes about 4.3 seconds to recycle, which is better than average.

Download Speed
Windows Computer, USB 2.0	6,777 KBytes/sec	Typical Values: Less than 600=USB 1.1; 600-769=USB 2.0 Low; Above 770=USB 2.0 High

Connected to a computer or printer with USB 2.0, download speeds are pretty good.

Overall, the Panasonic FZ35 performs better than most all-in-ones in terms of startup and AF speed, but slower than average in continuous mode. The FZ35 should do fine for most situations, though, and if you're willing to shoot at lower resolution, the Panasonic FZ35 can be useful for fast action shots.

Battery and Storage Capacity

Battery
Very good battery life.

Operating Mode	Battery Life
Still Image Capture (LCD or EVF, based on CIPA standard)	470 shots
Movie Capture (AVCHD Lite [SH] or MJPEG [HD]) (LCD or EVF, Maximum/Typical)	150 / 80 mins
Playback (LCD or EVF)	480 mins

The Panasonic FZ35 uses a custom 7.2v, 710mAh lithium-ion battery pack, and ships with a charger. Though battery life is very good, we recommend you pick up a spare battery for extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on Panasonic's standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))

Storage
The Panasonic FZ35 accepts SDHC/SD memory cards, and has about 40MB of usable internal memory.

Image Capacity with 40MB Internal Memory		Fine	Standard	RAW
4,000 x 3,000	Images	5	11	2
4,000 x 3,000	File Size	6.9 MB	3.6 MB	14.8 MB
3,264 x 2,448	Images	8	15	--
3,264 x 2,448	File Size	4.9 MB	2.5 MB	--
2,560 x 1,920	Images	11	22	--
2,560 x 1,920	File Size	3.4 MB	1.8 MB	--
2,048 x 1,536	Images	24	46	--
2,048 x 1,536	File Size	1.6 MB	855 KB	--
1,600 x 1,200	Images	37	71	--
1,600 x 1,200	File Size	1.1 MB	559 KB	--
640 x 480	Images	173	243	--
640 x 480	File Size	230 KB	164 KB	--

We strongly recommend buying a large capacity SD/SDHC memory card. (These days, 4GB is a good trade-off between cost and capacity.) You might consider larger if you plan on shooting lots of RAW images or HD video.