Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3 inch LCD (Black): Customer Reviews & Product Details

This camera performs often like my Canon 40D. It still suffers from point and shoot syndrome with shutter lag causing blur. The video is excellent. The zoom is excellent. Actions shots came out nicely in daylight. Low light requires alot of high ISO. Battery is very good but buy a spare and keep it handy. I only wish it had manual controls. For my wife and daughter holding the camera the icon based scene selector is great though.

First of all, this camera takes great indoor and outdoor shots. I took it to several places with completely different lighting conditions and I have great pictures from both.

A few cons:
1) Bulky, but zoom more than makes up for it.
2) Button placement is really strange to me. You have to move your entire hand, not just your finger to reach zoom controls from the button that takes the picture. I couldn't hold the camera comfortably and press the button.
3) No viewfinder means you're taking pictures blindly if there is any sun, but they still come out great usually.
4) Battery lasts about a day so don't forget to charge it.

I bought this camera about a year ago and was so happy with it then. I love the zoom capabilities and OMG the picture quality is fantastic to me. The ability to take HD movies really shine on a HD TV and makes the need for a separate video camera non-existent. The camera is a bit heavy but given all its functions and zoom abilities that is to be expected. It is easy to use but I do wish the selection knob was not so as easy to move, it needed a better indent when selecting a particular shooting mode to avoid it moving out out that mode accidentally.

Happy a year ago, happy now but envious of the newer cameras with even more zoom capabilities in the same weight/size package...lol.

This camera is great, but the quality of pictures is too good. My pictures show every flaw on my face which I used to be able to hide with my old camera, which was a 7mb. Iam very impressed, but would not recommend it to someone who has skin issues. Wonderful for kids, pets, and landscapes!

I've been researching compact high/super zooms ever since I purchased my DSC-T9 (which has been a great camera/camcorder for us). Almost went for the FZ28 last year, but decided to wait. One of my best decisions! Only had this ZS3 a few days, but already I really love it. Picture quality is excellent (indoor/outdoor/movies)!! Super simple to use. Took some macro zoom shots of our orchids, just beautiful. Delay from button push to picture is much better than my old Sony (which was great in its day :).

Button layout seems to suit me very well. Put in my pocket, nothing gets switched/opened by accident (that was my biggest problem with the T9 - accidentally opening the lens cover). Separate movie record button is another nice touch. Screen is clear, large. Camera feels solid.

The only inconvenience I have found is when I screw in my tripod mount, I can't pop open the memory card cover - but with a 16GB SD card, that's hardly a con. Battery life appears excellent.

I'm sure you've read so many other reviews raving about this camera, so all I can really add is: after owning a Kodak, Canon, and Sony (each of which I really liked), this camera is a true evolution, taking all the best aspects of previous digital cameras and improving into something really excellent!

Oh yah, on a PC you can use [...] to convert the AVCHD to .avi's (may have to manually reset the frame rate to 29.97). I didn't need to install any of the Panasonic software on Win7, it can play the .mts file directly from the SD card located in M:\PRIVATE\AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM. Using avidemux, you can then transcode to many different formats (I used the MPEG-4 ASP (lavc) and MP3 (lame) audio)