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Buy Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3 inch LCD (Black)

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List Price: $349.95 ; you save 7%
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The new Lumix ZS3 features 10.1-megapixels, a 25mm ultra-wide angle lens and 12x optical zoom, which means that 2x optical zoom added to the award-winning TZ-series cameras, but reduced its size. The ZS3 also features a Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens and High Definition (HD) video recording capabilities, known as AVCHD Lite.

ZS3 is the world’s first digital camera to record HD video recording function “AVCHD Lite. “Compared to the conventional Motion JPEG, AVCHD Lite allows longer shots with stunning high-definition visual and audio quality. This combined with a well thought out interface, a dedicated movie record button on the back of the camera panel covers, makes the ZS3 a hybrid model that performs well for both still and moving image capture.

ZS3 also extends the popular Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto (iA) mode with the addition of face detection – a feature that remembers faces from previous recordings. When a registered face appears in the frame, the camera focus and exposure priority to be beautiful to bear. With face recognition, when a familiar face is recorded many times, the camera requires users to register for the face. Once registered, if the face appears again in the frame, the camera display the name given to that person and prioritize the focus and exposure so that the registered face is bright and sharp.

New this year to the ZS series, iA mode is also available in movie mode. The system automatically selects the most appropriate scene mode and helps correct handshake, focus and clarity problems – making iA mode, your one-stop solution for capturing beautiful still and moving images. In Movie Mode, the ZS3, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) helps prevent handshake when using high-powered zoom. Face Detection automatically detects a face in the frame and adjusts focus, exposure, contrast and skin tone so perfectly clear. Intelligent Exposure continuously monitors the ambient light and adjusts exposure if circumstances change to prevent blown highlights and blocked shadows. And Intelligent Scene Selector automatically switches between Normal, Portrait, Macro, Landscape and Low Light modes depending on the situation in order to optimize the visual quality.

The power of imaging Lumix has evolved with the Venus Engine HD, which has two CPUs to provide about 2.4x CPU and support for AVCHD Lite and HDMI output. It integrates all the advanced features and camera operations with high performance and low power consumption. In image processing, its luminance noise and color noise separately before and after the signal decreased. This is further refined by separating the noise two-dimensional high frequency and low frequency noise. Then the circuits effectively reduce only the low frequency noise to the unwanted noise to a minimum and help produce beautiful, sharp still and moving images.

Playing with the ZS series is simple. Plug the camera’s SD memory card into the VIERA HDTVs ImageViewer SD Card slot for a photo slideshow. Or connect the camera via an optional mini HDMI cable, the DMW-HDC2, a Panasonic VIERA HDTV VIERA Link equipped and using the TV remote control to mixed slideshows of photos and videos to arrival. The ZS3 features a 3-inch high resolution 460,000-dot Intelligent LCD with wide viewing angle, improving visibility during recording and playback.

Other features of the Lumix ZS3 include:

• Increased Scene modes for both still and moving image shooting – optimized for a variety of situations. There are 26 scene modes for still images and 17 for moving images (Portrait, Soft Skin, Transform, Self-portrait, landscape, low light, Food, Party, Candlelight, Sunset, High Sensitivity, Beach, Snow, Aerial photo, Pin Hole, Film Grain and Underwater)
• Two new My Scene settings allows users to use their two most frequently used scene modes for the institution, and with a simple switch, access to a scene.
• New Panorama Assist Scene mode allows users to shoot some photos of a consistent, vertically or horizontally, according to them a guide that overlaps the screen. Then using those pictures and the bundled Panorama Maker software allows users to create dramatic panoramic images.
• High-Speed Burst (Speed Priority), consisting of about fires. 10 shots per second.
• Menus are clearer and easier to navigate the Display Format option.
• Macro Zoom function allows users to pull subjects closer to dramatic close-up shots with the 3x digital zoom wide angle.
• Supplied software: The latest version of PHOTOfunSTUDIO 3.0 HD Edition allows users to view, edit and archive fixed content with more ease and pleasure. Still and moving images can be transferred to the computer via a USB cable for viewing and archiving. Using PHOTOfunSTUDIO HD Edition 3.0 users can edit and remove unwanted parts of video clips recorded in AVCHD Lite. Content recorded in AVCHD Lite can be directly burned to a DVD disc or the software can convert the content into MPEG2 format. The software also features the Face Recognition function, which detects faces in images recorded, stored on the computer, making organizing and archiving pictures with a certain person a lot easier. Moreover, moving images are uploaded directly to YouTube.

Product Features

• 10.1-megapixel resolution captures enough detail for poster-size prints
• 12x Optical Image Stabilizer MEGA stablilized zoom, 25mm ultra-wide angle lens
• Capture video in HD “AVCHD Lite” format
• Intelligent Auto (iA) mode, Face Recognition Function
• Capture images to SD / SDHC memory cards (not included)

Customer Review

3rd time’s a charm- a standing “O” for the ZS3!, April 28, 2009
By  Michael J. Christensen (Elk Grove Village, IL United States)

I have owned two prior digital cameras- the first was a Canon that took good pictures, but was too bulky to pocket around and required AA batteries to power it. The second was a Sony CyberShot DSC-W150 that took crappy, blurry pictures in low light. Needless to say, I felt an upgrade was in order.

So I’m going on an east coast trip next month. My buddy and I are avid baseball fans. One problem: as we do not always have great seats, taking close-up pictures of ballplayers is a real pain with 99% of the compact point and shoots out there. This is because the camera’s size will only allow it 5X optical zoom. You can combine this with digital zooming, but I don’t need to tell you how terrible and pixilated this looks. Thus my conundrum. So I really wanted a compact, pocketable camera with a long range optical lens, without having to lug around an expensive digital SLR.

Enter the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3. When I read the specs on it, I was in awe. 10 megapixel, 12X OPTICAL zoom. Here’s the sweetest part about the zoom- if you planning to use smaller prints (i.e. 4X6), you can quickly adjust the camera’s Megapixel (MP) count from 10 to 7, 5, and 3 to yield maximum OPTICAL zooms of 14.3, 17.1, and 21.4 respectably, without much loss of detail on such prints. I wish Panasonic would have allowed the camera to adjust the MP count automatically as you zoom, but it’s not too much trouble to change the MP settings manually from the quick menu.

Another great feature: the camera’s screen is beautiful at 460,000 pixels, twice the count as the rival Canon Powershot SX200 IS (more on that camera later). From the moment you view your first picture, you’ll quickly notice how much sharper photos look on this camera. It’s a nice convenience to view photos on the camera in a manner closer to the quality that will actually be seen when you’re viewing them on the computer (and ultimately printing them).

I also want to give Panasonic kudos for the build quality and compactness of this camera. The ZS3 is a replacement for the popular TZ5 model, which was 9MP and 10X Optical Zoom. So they increased the resolution, and added a wider range lens, and REDUCED the size by .4 cubic inches. Specifications aside, I was more than pleased that this camera will comfortably fit inside my jeans pocket. It’s a bit bulkier than an ultracompact for sure, but not objectionably so. Note that the SX200 is a full 2.0 cubic inches thicker, another reason I passed on the Canon. Here’s a few more reasons the Canon falls short: the Canon has a cheesy looking popup flash that sticks out at the top of the camera, whether you’re using flash or not (bad design decision). It has less rated battery life than the Lumix. Also, when shooting video, the Canon does NOT allow you to use optical zooming.

Photo quality on the Lumix is excellent, although I’ve only snapped samples around my place so far. However, I’ve taken quite a few pictures at low light, and at maximum zoom levels to try to get a bad shot. So far, there’s none to be found. I’ll put this through its paces more when I travel next month, but I’m extremely pleased so far. As for video shooting, I’ve sampled it a bit, and it seems pretty solid. The camera gives you the choice of shooting video in its touted AVCHD Lite format (ideal for watching it on your TV in HD with an optional mini to standard HDMI cable), or JPEG if you prefer to email video clips to friends. This year’s model also added stereo sound on video playback versus last year’s monaural effort. One thing I found a bit strange, was the incredibly slow zooming when shooting video. I guess Panasonic was trying to give the user a more controlled, deliberate zoom, but unlike the snappy photo zooming, it’s a bit slow for my liking.

Some other minor quibbles: The dial that controls the shooting mode is extremely loose. If you lightly rub it against anything (a camera bag, your pocket), there’s a good chance it will shift. When you turn the camera on, it will digitally tell you what mode you’re in, but it’s still annoying when it happens by accident. Second, when making a quick zoom on an object, it will appear blurry on the camera’s screen until the shutter button is pressed. There are modes to continually focus the object when zooming, but this drains the camera’s battery life more rapidly. It would be nice if this feature was incorporated automatically without any such sacrifice.

Also, I’m not a huge fan of the included PhotofunStudio software bundled with this camera, as there are other, more compelling programs to view, edit, and print photos (I like Canon’s Zoombrowser program better). Finally, this is not the camera to buy if you’re into manual controls. There’s a ton of preset scenes that can be used (nighttime, portrait, baby, sunset, food, etc.), and you can adjust items like flash, white balance, and max ISO level, but this is meant to be a simple point and shoot for casual photographers. Note that the Lumix has an intelligent auto mode (IA) that will analyze the shooting conditions and pick the right scene, flash, and exposure without any adjustments by the user. This camera screams simplicity, but there’s enough tweaking on the Normal and Scene modes to keep the vast majority of amateur photographers happy.

Regardless of these nitpicks, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 is an awesome camera, unbeatable for those that want the best of both worlds- a great zoom lens and compact body. It’s a bit pricey at $399, but you’re getting quite a lot of camera for your hard earned dollars. I have no doubt that my third digital camera is a terrific buy and a long-term staple for my travels.

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Oh my goodness, what a camera!, March 28, 2009
By  Michael McKee “mystic cowboy” (Port Townsend, WA United States)

I have a pro friend who got a review copy of this for a couple of days. He let me use it for one of them, as he hasn’t shot with a point and shoot in a long time. I ordered my own within the first hour. What a camera. The zoom on this baby is amazing. It has a true wide angle and a long reach. Photos on both ends of the reach are sharp and have good color and saturation. I almost drooled when I printed out the samples. They are flat out the best point and shoot jpegs that I’ve had the pleasure of taking. Raw files would be nice but aren’t available, nor is much in the way of manual exposure control. As a bit of a control freak, I thought that would be a problem but honestly, Panasonic’s smart mode selection is brilliant at getting good, sharp exposures. Focusing is fast, even in low light. Flash seems fine, neither superior nor awful. I took 400 images and a short movie on my first outing and the battery still had some juice. It also has fast and accurate face detection. Holding the camera in my hand, pointing it in the general direction of people on the street without being obvious got consistently good focus. Oh, the image stabilization works very well, too.

The camera is just small enough to fit in a shirt pocket but unless you’re wearing heavy denim it’s just to heavy to be comfortable there. It slips fine in a vest pocket or jacket, though. Point and shoots have definitely improved in low light performance since I bought my last one. I got perfectly usable shots at 400 ISO. A little noise touch up and they print fine at 11×14. At 1600 ISO you can still get a usable Flickr sized image, again with a run through a noise processor like Noise Ninja.

It has a new video mode that uses half the memory of the normal mov files that it also supports. But finding where they are on the card is a bit of a treasure hunt the first time. They are also a pain to process. I ran a conversion program to turn them into H.264 format. That makes editing much easier. Do that first thing. You can even run the optical zoom while shooting movies, though focus can be a bit slow. Videos are much better than those from the Flip that is all I own for movies.

Great zoom, great photos, great lens, reasonable size, scary accurate automatic mode switching, wow!. If it had a bit more manual control it might be better, then again, I’ve got a few hundred really nice images. So no complaints.

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Excellent zoom and features, chose this over the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS, April 14, 2009
By  Helldiver (Toronto, Canada)

Although I have a Nikon D80 DSLR, I needed a more compact point and shoot camera replacement for my aging Canon S60 with dying batteries. After reading a couple of reviews and a visit to a local camera store I decided to choose the ZS3 over the competing Canon SX200 IS with very similar features. Although the Canon is more familiar to me and has more manual features, the compact size of the Panasonic with better battery life, robust video functions and the fact that it’s still made in Japan (versus the Canon which is now manufactured in China) edged out the Canon for me personally (you may want to try both to decide for yourself). So far I have been very happy with this versatile camera – screen is big and bright, facial recognition is neat, zoom is remarkable for a camera of its size and the video quality is excellent for a camera. Only downside is that like the camera store employee said – the autofocus motors inside the Panasonics do seem to be quite loud – i.e. if you are aiming the camera around randomly you can hear the motors whirling away as it refocuses at different potential targets. I enjoyed this purchase and I would recommend this camera to anyone who is looking for a easy-to-use, high quality point and shoot with 12x optical zoom.

You  may also want to read this, Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 10 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD

Buy Nikon Coolpix L20 10MP Digital Camera with 3.6 Optical Zoom and 3 inch LCD (Deep Red)

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List Price: $101.29
Best Price: $66.48
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Available in other color choices
Black, Navy blue

Capture and share your favorite memories with the new Nikon Coolpix L20 and its effective 10.0 megapixels, 3.6x zoom and a bright, high-resolution 3.0-inch LCD screen. Motion Detection Technology automatically detects subject movement and adjusts the object’s shutter speed and ISO to compensate for camera shake and to minimize camera shake. The camera’s Easy Auto mode with Scene Auto Selector simplifies your photography experience by camera automatically selects the best setting for great photos every time. Nikon Smart system combines four different technologies portrait, the red-eye fix is seen, faces, fire the shutter when your subject smiles and warn you if they blink, you get great portraits.

Product Features

• 10.0-megapixel resolution for stunning prints as large as 16 x 20 cm
• 3.6x optical Zoom-Nikkor lens gets you close to the action
• Large, bright 3.0-inch LCD with high resolution makes it easy to look at them and share pictures
• Motion Detection Technology automatically controls the shutter speed and ISO settings for camera shake and subject movement to compensate for
• Adjusts up to ISO 1600 to keep shooting even in lower light
• Easy Auto mode, Scene Auto Selector simplifies your photography experience by the camera automatically selects the best settings for great pictures obtained

Nikon’s Smart Portrait System

• In-Camera Red-Eye Fix automatically fixes most instances of red-eye in the camera. You may never see red-eye again
• Enhanced Face-Priority AF – Nikon’s face-finding technology that automatically focuses on up to 12 faces
• Smile Mode automatically releases the shutter when your subject smiles
• Blink Warning displays a warning message, should the camera detect your subject has blinked
• D-Lighting rescues dark or backlit images by improving brightness and detail where needed

Customer Review, May 15, 2009

Excellent features, price and quality photographs!, May 15, 2009
By  Savvy shopper “Andi B” (Washington, NJ United States)

I recently purchase the Nikon Coolpix L20 after lots of shopping.

I have used only Olympus cameras only up to now.

This time I wanted a smaller pocket sized camera, that still took the AA batteries, and that still gave great photos with all the features I was used to.
This camera fit the bill!

It takes 2 AA batteries, inexpensive SD memory cards and yet still delivers fantastic photos.

I have already tried all the features, and was completly happy.
I love using the different scene settings, and could not live without the video feature.
Both still and video capture worked well in both bright light and low light.
The sound playback via the camera is hard to distinquish (live music), but fine once uploaded.
I didn’t really require the smile feature, but tried it out on my 3 year old, and was blown away….it really works!
The blink feature is also quite ingenious. The camera actually asks you if your subject blinked when they do, but not when they don’t. This is particularly handy when taking photos of children. I would have loved this feature when I was still my daughter’s yearbook photographer.

What can I say, fabulous price and awesome quality!!!
Definately worth the money.

Comparibly priced camera’s that we have used, produce grainy shots…..but have not found this with this camera at all.
I would recommend this camera to anyone!

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Unless you need a really long-lens telephoto and billboard sized prints, this is the perfect camera for every use, April 9, 2009
By  C. Scanlon “least helpful reviewer”

This is a professional camera capable of crystal clear prints worthy of publication or gallery display, up to 16×20.

And it is incredibly inexpensive for a camera of such value.

Ok, so its 3.6 optical zoom won’t pick sand off an eagle’s beak at a thousand yards. Okay, so it won’t blow up to billboard size without loss of definition. In the real world however and everyday use this is a fine and professional level camera that will do a far better job than you expected. Better than a cell-phone.

Disguised as a point and shoot. That’s what makes it very effective; people are not intimidated by it. You can get right up to them, and it looks like any other camera. Yet, it is more.

In fact, the generous three inch LCD screen means you do not have to hold it to your face. There is no optical viewfinder in any case. So you can hold it at your hip and glance down at it to compose, and snap shots while engaging the subject in small talk comfortably. I have done this effectively with Tarahumara Indian children in northern Chihuahua who normally run quickly from any camera. It works, and came out great. And that large LCD screen has a high-contrast, anti-reflection coating which keeps it clear even in strong sunlight.

This camera is an improvement over the earlier, wonderful Coolpix, such as the great 8 megapix Nikon Coolpix L18 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Ruby Red) mainly because it has ten megapix capability. The earlier accessories such as the AC adapter, the Nikon EH-65A AC Adapter, are transferable if you have a long shoot to do in one place (like a schoolful of children, which I have done) or other reason to go off-battery. Nevertheless, a pair of Energizer® e²® “AA” Lithium Batteries For digital cameras, portable audio players, and more last in here last forever.

Your old Coolpix camera pouch also still fits; use it and protect your investment. I like the Rokinon Compact Digital Camera Padded Carrying Case for Canon Powershot, Casio Exilim, Fuji Finepix, (GE) General Electric, Kodak EasyShare, Nikon Coolpix, Olympus FE Stylus, Panasonic Lumix, Pentax Optio, Sony CyberShot and Samsung Digital Cameras.

Also new here, aside from the greater megapixels, is the new Expeed image processing system specially fine-tuned for the Coolpix series “to render natural-looking pictures of incredible quality and quick response” as if the earlier system of digital processing was not fine enough! Amateur enthusiasts will find their photos reaching a new magnitude of quality; even the professional will leave his camera bag and lenses at home (okay, so she might miss her long lens, but macro here gets in to two inches).

The ISO settings are phenomenal, stretching from 64 ISO all the way out to 1600. Over twenty years ago when I was doing photo-journalism in Nicaragua, we used 64 for our slide film and 1600 was just coming on the horizon, very grainy but with a special charm for low light situations, like oil lamp, etc. Here you can do very low light and candlelight (if you do not mind some grain effect), and in fact there are special pre-sets which employ the faster ISO’s effectively.

This is another expansion over the prior Coolpix L series. You can choose instead of Auto (with own its user-selected options) to use the pre-set “Scene” selections quickly and efficiently. The Scene modes now include: Portrait, Night Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Party, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dusk/Dawn, Night Landscape, Museum, Fireworks Show, Close Up, Copy, Back Light, Panorama Assist, Food. Food is one of the new ones, and you food photo-journalists might want to try it very inexpensively yet quite well here. The rest of the modes you can figure how they are set from the title and how you might apply their settings to similar situations; know that the Nikon impression of party might be much more sedate and candle-lit than the Animal House idea. This is not cheating, to use pre-sets; this is using the tool that you have in the way it was designed. Cheating would be setting this to its auto-scene setting in which it selects the Scene mode according to
prevailing conditions, automatically. Yes, this can do it.

The panorama assist is great. You can take a series of photos in a row in either of four directions (left to right, up and down, etc.) overlapping by one third (I really appreciate the rule of thirds grid which you can bring up on the LCD, keeping the camera straight and well composed), and then unite them with the included software into one long (or tall) file. I had reason to do this the other day at a long new school. Things do not build vertical out here in the desert, but there is plenty of room for horizontal, and a special Cinerama style long photo framing. In fact you could line up your whole town along the sidewalk standing and take one long photo of everyone in town. Just find printer and paper!

With the built in macro mode you can jump right into that cactus blossom from two inches away and have perfect focus. Take a photo of that baby’s toes and blow them up to 16×20. Come in close to that ant stealing cracker crumbs on your picnic. This strength of macro was recently unimaginable, and yet here you have this power within a humble, tiny and inexpensive package.

What I really love and appreciate is the SDHC compliancy. I can use as standard memory card a regular Sandisk 4GB Secure Digital SD HC Memory Card (SDSDB-4096, BULK, No Reader) and have room for 500 shots at maximum resolution. You can truly, as we used to say a quarter century ago “shoot a roll; keep a shot.” Take all of the shots you can, and then pick one out to use and delete the rest. For someone who used to burn through boxes of film (at 36 shots each max) and then do the darkroom processing all night, and then find a free way to get more, this is like living in another, finer dimension. Of course, you can put even larger SD HC memory cards in here and if you ever do fill one up and have nothing more to put in there and no time to delete, this camera comes with a generous 20MB internal memory on hand.

You can hook it up to the USB port of a computer directly and use the included software, or simply pop out the SD card and plug it into a reader and into the computer. Whatever works for you, although I do not like opening and closing the battery/card hatch too much. It is very strong and durable, but in the olden days I had a habit of snapping such things and putting them back together with duct tape. This one looks remarkably resilient nevertheless and has stood up to me.

Speaking of shooting a roll to get the one picture, have you ever taken a shot to discover your subject blinked? This camera lets you know. Yes, this camera sees when your subject blinks, and lets you know, using the Smart Portrait system. It also automatically fixes your red-eye special. You’ll never see red eye again. It finds faces, and automatically focuses on them, up to a dozen at a time. It can also snap the shutter automatically when someone finally dares to smile. And the D-lighting will save those details otherwise lost in darkness.

As you can see, this camera does everything for you but serve as photo agency selling your work to Vogue or GQ. A great camera at a small price. What can go wrong?

The most amazing thing for me, of course, an old still shooter, is that this tiny camera is also a video camera, with built in mike, and a built in speaker for playback. You can make movies with this at two different resolutions, either for television playback at 640×480 or laptop at 320×240 (good for e-mailing). These home movies are truly sharp, with the same excellent back to front focus as the photos, and surprisingly high quality sound. The length of the movie is limited only to the size of your SDHC card; you could easily go for feature length! Using .AVI files, it can easily be edited as well.

Of course, this camera comes with the standard sized screw input for mounting on a tripod. I have used it on my Targus 66-inch heavy-duty tripod. Looks a little small up there, but it works great. You will really appreciate the steadiness a tripod always brings, and the freedom, no less with this great camera, which so thoughtfully has a tripod screw-in.

Hey, for the same price, this is way better than a cell phone!

Too bad this one is so, well, red!

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Decent Starter Camera, June 5, 2009
By  Jerry D. Finley (Asheville, NC)
 
I bought this camera for my wife when her Olympus Stylus 300 had run it’s life expectancy. May it rest in peace. The Nikon Coolpix is relatively easy to use.. has lots of decent features and the price was killer, but.. picture quality isn’t as good as her late Olympus or the Canon Sureshot we also use. However.. It is worth the money. In hindsight I wish I’d spent $50-90 more and got another Canon Sureshot. The picture difference is noticeable. Me thinks this Nikon would be perfect for a child or teen learning to use a camera and NOT seeking hi-end results. My 2 doubloons.

 
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