Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10MP Digital Camera (Silver)

For those still thinking about tinkering with the firmware to accommodate OEM batteries, you don't need to. Ebay sellers in Hong Kong have bypassed the protection and sell excellent batteries at a fraction of the extortionate cost of Panasonic's own. Thanks to all contributors for your advice. I've just discovered the Amazon forums for this camera and they've also proved immensely helpful.

Simply a great camera. The videos and stills are both excellent. I agree with the common dislikes of other reviews; need more manual controls, mode selector wheel moves to easily, software could be better. However, these are all pretty minor issues for me, and probably most people.

I bought this hoping to replace both my old digital camera, and video camera. I believe I was successful. I took a 2 1/2 week trip, took plenty of videos and photos, and the results were fantastic. I didn't have to lug around 2 devices, and the camera is very pocketable.

My only complaint was the battery would not last a complete day. But this was a heavy sight seeing trip with lots of video and pictures. I tried to order an extra battery before my trip, but they were back ordered everywhere. Since the trip, I haven't had a battery issue, so I still don't have an extra.

I noticed this model is in some Costcos now. So if you can't wait for online orders, go get it there. What a deal.

Got this camera as a christmas gift. It is replacing my previous Sony H5 which had replaced my Olympus C3000Z which had replaced a Nikon taking exclusively color slides. Main reason for replacing the Sony was its tremoendous appetite for AA batteries, rechargable or not.

This Lumix is wonderfully compact and fits into a good sized shirt pocket. I had expected a snapshot point and shoot camera but it is so much more, I find myself using it for "everything", including tripod and night scenes. It allows at least the same diversity as the Sony, the still image quality is at least as good, the movie quality considerably better. Still image and movie quality are not quite as good as with my daughter's Nikon D90 but I guess that's an unfair comparison.

The Lumix has a VERY useful Zoom range, down to equivalent 25mm and up to equivalent 300mm. From real wide angle family shots in the house to far away animal life and scenery. It releases faster than both of my old cameras, especially in bad lighting needing flash. Repeat time is fast, also with flash. The User Manual is very descriptive and easy to understand. Settings are intuitive and straightforward, and allow a wide range of customization including selection of various AF dominants as well es metering areas, plus a large variety of scene modes, also face recognition. It does not have a view finder but the large viewing screen is quite bright and usually sufficient. About the only thing I would wish for is a remote release, but it does have a selectable self timer, 2 or 10 sec.

Summary: I would definitely buy it.

I bought a Panasonic electric thermal pot. After a few months I realized that the stainless plate inside (under the lid) rusted. I sent Email to Panasonic and requested for a replacement. They called me and asked me to fax them the receipt. But they never responded since. The product description says stainless thermal pot. That means everything inside that contacts with water must be stainless steel. Now the plate rusts, that impose health hazard to my family.

Panasonic called on June 1 saying that they concluded the rust was caused by corrosion. That implied I boiled tea with the pot. I said I never boiled tea with the pot and asked them if their engineers are certified and recognized by the government agent. The representative said she did not know. She refused to replace the lid. I said that way of doing business is not good. I filed further complain to the Attorney General of New Jersey and to the headquarter of Panasonic in Japan. The president of Panasonic did not even respond. No business ethics at all.

I owned a few Panasonic camera. The one I bought recently has problem with the flash. It is not power enough to illuminate objects within 5 feet. Very bad, I just think quality of Panasonic items are no good. Because they are like Toyota, lower the quality to make more money and never admit they did.

As I said in the title, I don't have much interest in all the ins and out of digital photography. I don't understand all the complicated tech spec talk and I don't have time to take a class just so I can take pictures of my 2 sons. So what I wanted was a camera that would take pictures of very fast moving children that don''t pose for pictures. I wanted it to be small enough that I would take it with me where ever I went. And I wanted the interface to be straight forward and easy to understand. Oh, I also wanted the pictures to be clear and the color to be like what I was seeing with my eye. And this camera does all that stuff. But even more than that, it does HD video, which looks incredible when I post videos on youtube and facebook. It's not so small that I can put it my pant pockets but it is small enough to go in my jacket or hoodie pockets. And it has some interesting setting that let you do some pretty trippy stuff (pin hole, grainy, and my favorite, stars, which keeps the lens open for a very long time, but you need a tripod for the pictures to look like something) I will not get an SLR, cause I would never bring it with me, so this camera gets close enough to SLR speed. In short: fast, great color, sharp pictures, easy to use, and HD video (with focus)