Timing & Performance
Panasonic has made much of the performance enhancements offered by its Venus II processor, and the FZ3 seems to bear out many of the claims. It feels very responsive indeed in use - certainly better than we might expect from an 'entry level' super zoom. The only slightly disappointing results are those for power up and power down, which are mostly taken up with the extending and retracting of that big 12x zoom. Once the camera is powered up it is able to keep up with all the action (save for the occasional focus hunting when using the long end of the zoom in low light).
Timing Notes
All times calculated as an average of three operations.
Unless otherwise stated all timings were made on a 2016 x 1512 Fine JPEG
image (approx. 1,300 KB per image). The media used for these tests was
a 512MB SanDisk Extreme (aka Ultra II)
SD card.
| Action |
Details |
Time,
secs |
|
Power: Off to Record
|
|
3.8 |
| Power: Off to Play |
Image
displayed |
1.2 |
| Power: Record to Off |
All activity ceased |
4.6 |
| Power: Play to Off |
When buffer is empty |
2.1 |
 |
| Record Review |
Image
displayed |
~0,5 |
| Mode: Record to
Play |
|
1.0 |
| Mode: Play to Record |
Lens already extended |
~0.8 |
| Mode: Play to Record |
Lens not extended |
~3.8 |
|
| Play: Magnify |
To
full magnification (16x) |
~0.7 |
| Play: Image to Image |
Time to display each saved image |
~0.3 |
| Play: Thumbnail view |
3
x 3 thumbnails |
0.9 |
| Action |
Details |
Time,
seconds |
| Zoom from Wide to
Tele |
35
to 420 mm (12 x) |
2.1 |
| Half-press Lag (0->S1) |
Wide
angle |
~0.7 |
| Half-press Lag (0->S1) |
Telephoto |
~1.3 |
| Half to Full-press
Lag (S1->S2) |
LCD live view |
0.15 |
| Half to Full-press Lag (S1->S2) |
Viewfinder |
0.15 |
| Full-press Lag (0->S2) |
LCD live view, wide angle |
~1.0 |
| Off to Shot Taken |
LCD live view |
~4.6 |
| Shot to Shot |
Flash off |
1.6 |
| Shot to Shot |
Flash on |
1.8 |
Lag Timing Definitions
Half-press Lag (0->S1)
Many digital camera users prime the AF and AE systems on their camera
by half-pressing the shutter release. This is the amount of time between
a half-press of the shutter release and the camera indicating an auto
focus & auto exposure lock on the LCD monitor / viewfinder (ready
to shoot).
|
(Prime AF/AE) |
Half to Full-press Lag (S1->S2)
The amount of time it takes from a full depression of the shutter
release button (assuming you have already primed the camera with a
half-press) to the image being taken.
|
(Take shot, AF/AE primed) |
Full-press Lag (0->S2)
The amount of time it takes from a full depression of the shutter
release button (without performing a half-press of the shutter release
beforehand) to the image being taken. This is more representative
of the use of the camera in a spur of the moment 'point and shoot'
situation.
|
(Take shot, AF/AE not primed) |
Continuous mode
The tables below show the results of our continuous shooting test, indicating
the actual frame rate along with maximum number of frames and how long
you would have to wait after taking the maximum number of frames before
you could take another shot. Media used for these tests was a 512MB SanDisk Extreme (aka Ultra II)
SD card. Shutter speed was kept above 1/200 sec during these tests.
Continuous drive mode
In burst mode the FZ3 shows a brief review image for each frame taken, but the live preview does not work between frames. There are three continuous drive modes; High (H), Low (L) and No Limit (∞).
| Image Type |
Mode |
Avg. frames
per sec |
Frames in a
burst *1 |
After
burst *2
|
| 2016 x 1512 JPEG Fine |
Continuous H |
3.9 fps |
7 |
1.5 - 2.9s pause*3 |
| 2016 x 1512 JPEG Fine |
Continuous L |
2.2 fps |
7 |
1.5 - 1.8s pause*3 |
| 2016 x 1512 JPEG Fine |
Continuous ∞ |
2.2 fps |
limited by card capacity |
n/a |
| 2016 x 1512 JPEG Standard |
Continuous H |
3.8 fps |
13 |
1.5 - 1.8s pause*3 |
| 2016 x 1535 JPEG Standard |
Continuous L |
2.0 fps |
13 |
1.5 - 1.8s pause*3 |
| 2016 x 1535 JPEG Standard |
Continuous ∞ |
2.2 fps |
limited by card capacity |
n/a |
| 1600 x 1200 JPEG Fine |
Continuous H |
3.9 fps |
7 |
1.5s pause *3 |
| 1600 x 1200 JPEG Fine |
Continuous L |
2.0 fps |
7 |
1.8s pause *3 |
| 1600 x 1200 JPEG Fine |
Continuous ∞ |
2.2 fps |
limited by card capacity |
n/a |
| *1 |
In a single "burst" (finger held down on shutter release). |
| *2 |
In H and L mode continuous shooting stops when the buffer is full (7 or 13 frames according to the file size/quality setting. This is the delay before the next burst |
| *2 |
The delay of around one and a half seconds is mainly down to the need to refocus before the next burst. By switching the focus trigger to the focus button you can reduce this to ~0.7s. |
Pretty impressive stuff for a compact in this class. We failed to get quite the 4.0 frames per second quoted by Panasonic, but 3.9fps is not far off. The buffer clears very quickly, and most of the delay between bursts is due to the fact that you cannot just hold down the shutter and wait - you have to take your finger off the shutter and press it again. This means waiting for the camera to refocus. By moving the focus trigger to the alternative (delete) button you can avoid this refocusing and reduce the time between bursts to just over half a second. If you want to take a really long burst with no pauses you can always switch to the 'no limit' mode (which averages around 2.2 frames per second).
File Write / Display and Sizes
Timings shown below are the time taken for the camera
to process and "flush" the image out to the storage card, the
timer was started as soon as the shutter release was pressed and stopped
when activity indicator went
out. This means the timings also include the camera's processing time and
as such are more representative of the actual time to "complete the
task". The media used for these tests was a 512MB SanDisk Extreme (aka Ultra II)
SD card. .
| Image Type |
Time
to store
(secs) |
|
File
size *1
(approx.) |
Images
on a *2
512MB Card |
| 2016 x 1512 TIFF |
~2.1 |
~0.6 |
8,497 KB *3 |
50 |
| 2016 x 1512 JPEG Fine |
~0.7 |
~0.6 |
1,317 KB |
312 |
| 2016 x 1512 JPEG Standard |
~0.7 |
~0.6 |
680 KB |
606 |
| 1600 x 1200 JPEG Fine |
~0.7 |
~0.6 |
851 KB |
507 |
| 1280 x 960 JPEG Fine |
~0.7 |
~0.6 |
524 KB |
524 |
| *1 |
All
file sizes are an average of three files. As is the case with JPEG
it's difficult to predict the size of an image because it will vary
a fair amount depending on the content of the image (detail and noise). |
| *2 |
Camera estimation. |
| *3 |
All TIFF files are 8,497KB, and each is saved with a 650K (std quality) JPEG |
With write times averaging around 0.7 seconds for a 3MP Fine JPEG the FZ3 is pretty fast - approximately 1800KB/s, and it's nice to see the very fast write times for TIFF files (8.5MB in just over two seconds). Very impressive stuff, and proof that the Venus II engine is more than mere hype.
|
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