Panasonic FZ2500 Performance

Generally very good performance for its class, though buffer clearing is sluggish.

Startup time was good for its class. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot was very quick.

The Panasonic FZ2500's autofocus speeds were excellent in our tests, especially for a camera that uses contrast detection only. The FZ2500 produced full-autofocus shutter lag (with the subject at a fixed distance) of 0.103 second at full wide angle and 0.0.098 second at full telephoto using 1-area (center) AF. That's faster than most DSLRs. Enabling the flash increased lag to 0.453 second, though, to account for preflash metering.

When manually focused, the FZ2500's lag time was 0.129 second, which is odd as that's a bit slower than with autofocus. The FZ2500's prefocused shutter lag time of only 0.039 second was very quick.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Single-shot cycle times were pretty fast, ranging between 0.45 second for best quality JPEGs to 0.68 second for RAW+JPEG, however there was a pre-press penalty (if you press the shutter release too soon after taking a shot, the camera will ignore it and you have to press again to take another shot).

Continuous High Speed "H" mode burst rate was fast at 11.4 frames per second for best quality JPEGs, almost matching Panasonic's 12 fps spec with AFS (focus locked at the first frame). When shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG files, the frame rate reduced to about 10.6 or 10.7 fps, though that's still quite fast. We also tested "H" mode using the electronic shutter, and got very similar results to those above taken with the mechanical shutter. With continuous autofocus enabled, the top frame rate drops to 7 fps according to Panasonic, however we do not test with continuous AF in the lab.

In Continuous High Speed "H" mode full-resolution buffer depths were very generous for Large/Fine JPEGs at 100 frames. When shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG files buffer sizes dropped to 35 and 32 frames respectively, though that's still pretty good.

Buffer clearing was however sluggish with a fast UHS-I card, ranging from 13 seconds after a max-length burst of best quality JPEGs to 32 seconds after a max-length burst of RAW+JPEG files, but you can continue shooting (at a much slower rate; see table above) or change settings while the buffer is clearing. However, you can't view just-shot images until the buffer is flushed to the card.

Flash recycling after full-power discharge took an average of 4.7 seconds which is a bit on the slow side, but the flash appears to be reasonably powerful.

Bottom line: Except for buffer clearing, the Panasonic FZ2500's performance is very good to excellent for its class. Startup and mode switching are fast, autofocus speeds are quick, and prefocused shutter lag is low. Burst performance is excellent and buffer depths are good, however buffer clearing is sluggish with a fast UHS-I card and the FZ2500 unfortunately doesn't support faster UHS-II cards.

Fair battery life for its class.

The Panasonic FZ2500 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with a single battery and a dedicated battery charger. The CIPA-rated 350 shots per charge when using the LCD and 270 shots when using the EVF is fair for its class, but we definitely recommend getting a second battery for your FZ2500 if you plan any extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), 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))