Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 (TZ7) review

 

12x zoom and 720p AVCHD video: the cards are on the table.

The format of the ZS3 is still almost equivalent to the size of its predecessors: it is not an ultra-compact camera, but is about twice as compact and light as e.g. a Canon G10. This is good news, as many photographers equipped with a DSLR wish to have a second camera, lighter and less bulky, and hesitate between a very complete camera with expert modes like the G10, but rather bulky, and a more compact camera like the ZS3, which on top of it all offers a range which any SLR-owner dream of: 25-200mm. As it has a stabilized 25-300mm lens, the ZS3 remains extraordinarily compact and can fit in any pocket.

 

The 2 main assets of the ZS3 are summed up on the body’s front: 12x zoom and AVCHD video. Extremely versatile, the ZS3 can replace a camcorder in many homes. With its 25-300mm lens, which is really worthy, the ZS3 is perfect for landscape as well as for portraits shots. At 300mm, you should be careful to maintain a rather high shutter speed, but fortunately the Mega O.IS. stabilization is here.

 

The Mega O.I.S. stabilization is coupled with the very wide coverage zoom of the Lumix ZS3: indeed, at 300mm, it is best to rely on optical stabilization to increase your chances of getting sharp photos. Why is Panasonic the #1 in digital picture (at least in France) while before the D-age it was totally absent from this market? Surely, listening to consumers’ needs and optical stabilization becoming standardized on all of the manufacturer’s compacts, illustrates well this state if mind which proves a winning ticket. Offering zooms with wide coverage with wide angle is another sign that Panasonic is listening to photographers. The Mega O.I.S. optical stabilization of Panasonic on the ZS3 is well-known, the system is running smoothly and operates well to gain up to 3EV. The stabilizer will also be active in HD video.

 

Zoom all out.

Nothing to complain about with the finish of the ZS3, the body is mature: Panasonic is launching its 5th generation of SZ, all based on the same concept. But when you see this wheel to define the shooting mode, you are struck by the lack of choices available... and that was done on purpose.

 

The ZS3 is made to operate in an automatic way and Panasonic indeed strongly relies on its intelligent automatisms set up over the past few years: Intelligent Exposure will enlighten the shades and change the sensor sensitivity according to the luminosity of the zone, Intelligent ISO will boost sensitivity to freeze the subject’s movements when s/he moves, automatic correction of red eyes in portrait mode with Face detection, etc....

 

The ZS3 is very intelligent.... but some of us might want to benefit from expert settings like PSAM, even just a manual mode with a larger choice of settings. But Panasonic’s intelligent automatisms operate quite well, such as the automatic Scene mode recognition which Panasonic pioneered: you get close to a flower by 3cm, the ZS3 sets itself on macro, you shoot a face, the ZS3 detects it and sets itself on Portrait mode, or Night portrait according to the surrounding light.
 

 

iA: the "Intelligent Auto" mode

Lets’ stay with this wheel for a while, because it is Achilles' heel of the camera’s ergonomics. Its functioning is as dangerous as it is exasperating. Indeed, as it is too loose, the wheel unfortunately tends to change modes without the photographer noticing it... Worse, usually it stops in the end on the "notepad" mode, in which your pictures are taken in 2 megapixels only!

 

During our review, we have failed an entire series of ‘instant’ photos because the wheel (a true casino roulette!) had placed itself in Notepad mode. Similarly, in this poor-resolution mode, the photos remain in the memory of the camera and won’t be transferred in iPhoto, Lightroom or Picasa when you empty your card. One has to be careful to notice this, and remember to transfer the pics one by one, via the camera menu, from the built-in memory of the Notepad to the memory card. Let’s hope that engineers will soon remedy the functioning of this wheel, which will betray more than one owner of an ZS3.

 

The ‘Russian roulette’ of the ZS3

 

The functioning of the zoom is very pleasant and as the lens must cover from 25mm to 300mm, it is rather quick. On the contrary, for fine settings, it remains rather soft. In video mode, zooming gets slower to avoid "punch" effects.

 

We weren’t impressed by the duration nor the precision of the ZS3 battery: we found ourselves in red several times (with really nice temperatures though) then with 1, maybe 2 bars: the gauge is rather imprecise. The compact’s battery life is good, average but no more. There’s no way one may go on holidays leaving the loader at home, even for a week-end, if one wishes to film a bit and use the zoom.

 

 

On the back of the camera you find the usual Lumix ergonomics. The Q Menu is there to control the more frequent settings (depending on their availability in the shooting mode). It’s worth noting a new button, round and red, which launches video recording on the fly, from any photo shooting mode. Handy! But what is less handy is this sacrosanct lever which you must use to browse from shooting to viewing modes... When you are viewing your pictures, pushing the trigger to take an instant picture is useless: you must first use the lever, put it back in shooting position and eventually take your picture. This way of functioning is obsolete: a viewing button would have been best, to be able to leave the viewing mode as soon as you push half the trigger.

 

 

The very few options for settings can be found easily without going through the menu.  

 

 

Rich with scene modes, the ZS3 will optimize your portraits if you choose the "skin grain" mode, a very efficient mode which makes one look well. Users can found themselves at a loss with so many scene modes. Fortunately, the wheel to set the mode has 2 positions: SM1 and SM2. You can record the 2 scene modes that you use the most frequently on these 2 positions to find them easily. These short-cuts are really helpful.  

 

 

The histogram display can prove useful while shooting given the low dynamics of the sensor....

 

 

The ZS3 reactivity is medium: the camera seems slightly overwhelmed by the quantity of calculations imposed by the intelligent automatisms which the camera is loaded with. The autofocus offers efficient Subject Tracking and Face detection works well to concentrate focusing and exposure on faces, or even to determine that you are shooting a portrait and set the "portrait" scene mode automatically.

Unbeatable lens
The main asset of the ZS3 is its 25-300mm lens: very wide angle, it covers at 25mm a surface twice as big as at 30mm! Though one cannot make a lens with such coverage without some compromises on image quality, the lens, bearing the Leica logo to guarantee its quality, manages very well. We suspect that the camera processor comes as a back up to straighten up perspectives, ensure contrast and definition or blur chromatic aberrations. But the end result is more than honest.  

 

 

Here is a photo taken at 25mm and in red, the photo at 300mm... Click on the picture to download the original version in 10 megapixels.  

 

 

The same photo at 300mm, thanks the optical stabilizer!

 

 

The phenomenal coverage of 12x.... which you also benefit from in video mode!    

 

Here the main defect of the ZS3: the 10-megapixel sensor dynamics are rather limited.... It is impossible to obtain a sky with at least some details if the foreground is a little dark. The famous automatism of Intelligent Exposure is good enough to enlighten shades. It will be necessary to resort to the histogram to avoid this type of problem but unfortunately the histogram impresses beginners.

 

 

No more information.... however, at 25mm depth of field is maximal and this short focal allows nice framings, like here at only 10 cm from the subject  

 

 

Perspectives exaggerated by the 25mm but evasive straight: the zoom distortion seems well-corrected by the processor of the Lumix.  

 

 

In proxiphoto, with its macro mode at 3cm from the subject and the large depth of field of the lens at 25mm, the DMC-ZS3 gives very detailed results.

 

 

Click on the picture to download the original version in 10 megapixels and judge by yourself of the level of detail offered by the Panasonic ZS3.           

 

 

 

We were looking forward to catching the ZS3 out, as the previous generations of Lumix and the SZ in particular, were not up to it. Panasonic missed out on the new Lilliputian sensor of 12 megapixels and was right to stick to the 10 megapixels of this sensor: the result is rather good up to 400 ISO and correct at 800 ISO.  

 

 

Child picture mode, high shutter speed, subject tracking: you’ll notice the inequality of exposures and even on those vignettes, the lack of dynamics is obvious.  

 

The video mode of the ZS3 runs in 720p high definition (i.e. "HD Ready" as opposed to full HD 1080p with a better definition). Video is very smooth and the sound rendered by the stereo microphone (Dolby Digital Stereo). The quality of the video benefits from the Mega O.I.S. optical stabilizer and the extraordinary 12x zoom, 25-300mm, increases tenfold the possibilities of video shooting. The only snag is that AVCHD videos (very economical in terms of storage space) cannot be read yet on Mac though some conversion freeware exist. It is too bad that there is no HDMI output and that Panasonic only included a component output to view the videos on an HDTV.

So what with this ZS3, which seems so nice on paper? It turns out to be an extraordinary companion provided that you accept the low dynamics of its sensor and this damned wheel which may spoil a few series of photos. As for the rest, the ZS3 is really generous in satisfactory aspects, starting with its stabilized Leica 25-300mm lens and the appeal of its HD 720p video mode, which offer rather good quality of image and sound for most uses.

The ZS3 will nicely replace a camcorder in many homes expecting their child (the motivation to buy 80% of digital camcorders) while allowing large savings. This all-in-one is really appealing thanks to its versatility and its reduced format, and helps us forget about the weaknesses of the SZ series of the past, like the bad sensor noise management, domain in which Panasonic has made sensible progress. The processor of the ZS3 works really well to compensate the optical defects inherent to such a focal range.

 

Overall, the ZS3 has it all to become a bestseller and, most important, to fully satisfy its owners.