patriotusa, in a comment to Macword's article: Canon PowerShot SX200 IS:
I initially bought a Panasonic ZS3 (the SX200's closest competitor) based on reviews on internet camera sites, but I returned it after a few days of testing and purchased a Canon SX200 instead. I could not be happier. The ZS3 had a very weak flash, and took poor low-light photos. In addition, the ZS3 had poor color quality compared to Canon's I owned. The SX200 has great color quality, excellent flash capability, and good low-light performance. I took some evening photos on a trip to Galveston recently and was extremely pleased. In addition, the manual controls on the camera are great and I tend to use them about 80% of the time. As you adjust the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed, the preview changes to show you how your settings will affect the final shot. No need to adjust, shoot, review, and adjust again.
I do wish it could zoom during video, but this is a minor complaint for an excellent point and shoot, particularly at this price.
Regarding the highly-reflective rear LCD screen on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 / TZ7 – NIK11:
First thing to say about Reviewers is that they pay only lip service to LCD performance. Even DPRE do not take LCD's seriously, otherwise they would be doing comparitive tests for brightness/readability in a variety of situations, especially the one that beats the Pana – shooting into sun and being surrounded by bright or reflective surfaces such as sand/sea/snow/mountains/whitewash buildings/glass etc. Users who swear the Pana never produces reflections just haven't used it in these trying conditions.
No LCD is perfect. I find the Pana LCD's look like a dream come true inside, in stores or outside in moderately bright light. But try using it in demanding lighting and in my experience it doesn't perform as well as the best Canon's or the Samsung AMOLED's for example.
Finally, LCD resolution is not the most critical factor when shooting in difficult lighting – brightness and anti-glare matters more. Pana are pandering to the market that wants to show off hi-res results indoors, and not to those photographers who want to properly frame shots in difficult lighting.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 vs Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 / DMC-TZ7 – Paul Schubert, who was trying to choose one of the two compact cameras, which will then be used "… primarily for family shots (two young kids)", says:
While I was very keen on the LX3 for its larger sensor and faster lens, in the end I opted for the TZ7/ZS3 because I just couldn't tolerate the tiny zoom on the LX3. I guess you can crop/digital zoom the LX3, but if you're going to be doing a lot of zooming then you may as well go for the dedicated zoom lens. I've found I've been using the full range of the zoom more than I expected, so I'm glad with my decision in that regard. I do find some of the features of the ZS3 a bit gimmicky and unnecessary, and I still lament the small CCD sensor, but I think the camera strikes a reasonable balance as a jack of all trades compact.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 vs Canon Powershot SX1 IS: Fringing – Mike Perlman of InfoSyncWorld offered up this interesting bit of information on one aspect of image quality differences between the Canon SX1 IS and Panasonic ZS3 / TZ7:
So, RAW was really the only way to shoot with the PowerShot SX1 IS. But even then, we discovered some unwanted noise and fringing. What's really interesting is that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 exhibited far less fringing than the PowerShot SX1 IS, and both cameras were tested side-by-side.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 Review at InfoSyncWorld, and comparison with the Fuji F200 – Score: 73% (GOOD), and Mike Perlman says:
The 12x optical Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens with 25mm telephoto capability was a welcome carryover from the Lumix DMC-ZS1, and we were able to capture a lot of content in our shots without having to back up significantly. Panasonic's Mega OIS came to the rescue while we were at full zoom, retaining a relatively solid image. The Lumix DMC-ZS3 is certainly one of the most advanced compacts on the market, and one we truly enjoyed shooting with.
There are links to 12 high-resolution images straight from the camera at the end of the article.
In the introduction, Mike wrote the following:
The Lumix DMC-ZS3 also gave the Fujifilm Finepix F200 EXR a run for its money, but we’d have to hand image quality over to the Finepix. Discerning shooters who are looking for a great performance compact will be torn between both models.
Having seen tons of sample photos from the ZS3 / TZ7, and owning the Fuji F200 myself, I'd have to say that for outright image quality, I concur with Mike's assessment.
Digital compact cameras with 720p HD video – Nice summary piece by CNET Australia, which lists the following 720p HD-capable cameras:
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
- Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
- Canon Powershot SD780 IS Digital ELPH / Canon Digital IXUS 100 IS
- Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 / DMC-TZ7
- Olympus PEN E-P1
- Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900
The article has links to more comprehensive reviews for each camera.