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

For a long time, I assumed that Canon made the best cameras. I have had Canon ultra-zooms (and have posted good reviews of some of them) and Canon Elphs (with mixed reviews). Panasonic and Lumix were not even on my radar screen until I saw one that a friend had (a prior model with 10x zoom).Being the rather impulsive person I sometimes am, I purchased both a Canon SD940IS and this Panasonic (DMC-ZS3). To me they are roughly in the same class, although to be fair the Canon SD940 is a lot smaller. However, for practical purposes, they are both "pocketable" point-and-shoot cameras.The Panasonic surprised me and beat the Canon in every way except for size (see my Canon 940 review). I sold the Canon and kept the Panasonic.What do I like about the Panasonic?- Intelligent Auto almost always gets it right. If I want to take a picture but don't want to think about the settings, Intelligent Auto works better than I have ever experienced on other cameras.- The 12x zoom. I often forget that it has a 12x zoom because it is not as bulky as cameras that have a long zoom. The zoom is very nice, and even at full zoom the details are very clear.- Very nice, high-resolution LCD. The resolution and size of the LCD makes it easy to compose pictures and a pleasure to review them. One downside is that when I took pictures on a sunny day the display was hard to see. There is a setting for the display that may help and I've ordered a protector that may cut down on glare. I don't have enough experience with the camera yet to know if this is going to be much of an issue.- Thoughtful and useful features throughout. Just one example (out of way too many to list) is multi-aspect bracketing. With wide-screen computer and HDTV displays, it's hard to keep track of what aspect ratio to use, and depending on what a photo is used for, viewing on HDTV, wide computer screen, printed on certain sizes of photo paper, who wants to decide in advance whether to use 4:3, 3:2, or 16:9 aspect ratio? Even though I have a minor in math, there are just too many other details in life to try to keep track of. The multi-aspect function takes a single photo and saves it in all 3 aspects so that whatever aspect is later needed is available. This kind of thoughtfulness shows up in many other features.- Very accessible menus for quickly applying settings.- Great movie recording features -- dedicated button, new format for longer videos as well as a more common format. Video quality is better than what I experienced on the Canon SD940IS -- much more stable.- 25mm wide angle. Recently cameras have been offering 28mm wide -- this camera takes it a step further and goes even wider.This is a camera that I can honestly say that I will probably be using for several years, rather than upgrading more frequently, that satisfies my need for both an "ultra zoom" as well as pocketable point and shoot, and that exceeds my expectations both in terms of features available as well as the consistently excellent pictures that it produces. Five stars from someone who is usually very critical of products I review.

My family has had a DSLR for the past 4 years. It is a great Canon EOS Rebel, but portability and taking a spontaneous photo is not a strong suit. We have purchased two different great HDTVs from Panasonic and really didn't consider them for this purchase initially, as they are not what I consider to be a "real" camera company.We did a lot of research before making this purchase. We looked at Best Buy, Target, Sam's Club, HH Gregg, and looked throughout 4 different online resellers (including Amazon). After finding the top 5 cameras, we did more research on ratings of each at Amazon, plus many other sites. We also went to independent websites focused on camera reviews. CNet was another that was very helpful of seeing videos on each camera. After looking at a specific website, they mentioned this Panasonic as a great camera. We were able to eliminate one of our top 5 and added this to the list. CNet gave a lukewarm review of this, but most of the smaller independent sites loved it. I wasn't particularly impressed by the CNet reviewer as all of her reviews took a negative tone (this was more positive a review).We were able to find every camera at a local retailer, but this Panasonic. Ease of use is important, but let's face it, picture quality is more important than anything else. Most digital cameras come out grainy or, in some cases, so clear that people look nearly transparent (and really require a little softening). The only camera we found in the $250 - $400 price range with great picture quality was the Sony Cybershot DSC-HX1. It is a point-and-shoot, but it is a hybrid between a DSLR and point-and-shoot. Really what this means is it isn't something you can easily slip into your pocket. It also relies on Sony's proprietary "memory stick" technology which doesn't fit into a computer without an adapter (easy to lose), not something sold at all retailers, and tends to be a bit more expensive. We really liked the camera, but these are concerns.Now to this camera. We decided to take the leap based purely on suggestions online. A big leap. The camera is small, functional, lightweight, and also takes digital video. It has to auto picture-taking settings (standard and intelligent auto) with 3 additional settings that you can set (shutter speeds, etc. for specific types of settings). We have yet to use the manual settings, but have found the other two settings to be quite good. The pictures are clear, but soft enough where the pictures look great and print well. The videos have a great quality, can zoom during recording (most can't), and taking multiple photos in a row wasn't a problem. More than 90% of the photos turned out great, but we suspect the only photos needed for manual settings are extreme low-light (but even concerts look great) and for true close-up action photos. Overall, this is definitely superior to most, if not all point-and-shoots in the price range, and definitely worth the risk.Brick and mortar stores are foolish not to carry this camera, but I would suspect this camera would raise the bar for most of the horrible point-and-shoots they carry on the low cost side. If you are considering a camera for under $200, do yourself a favor and wait another couple weeks for the money to purchase this one.