Customer Reviews

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR3 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 8x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I got this camera a week ago, and I am pretty pleased with the picture, video testing so far. I also have ZS3, which takes great outdoor shots but poor indoor shots with flash. So I was curious how much indoor flash shot is improved with ZR3. I was happy to see that indoor portrait shots from ZR3 came out much better with more accurate skin colors and the annoying reddish cast from ZS3 seems to be gone with ZR3. Flash is a little improved. Still catching far subject indoor with zoom is challenging as the flash shoots ISO up too high and makes pictures too reddish, grainy. So, like ZS3 I had to adjust exposure settings in normal model (flash off, IS mode 2, auto ISO, min shutter speed 1/8, etc) and rely on my hand-holding skill. But considering that this is small camera, it is understandable.
In outdoors, the ZR3 takes just takes beautiful crisp pictures with iAuto mode and I am very happy with the results. Overall I highly recommend this camera to people looking for simple, automatic one with high zoom, HD video.

I bought this versatile camera for a trip to Cuba. Great stills. VIDEO is amazing, because full optical zoom can be used while shooting. Video is true high definition and plays on HD Television and windows seven computer. Video taken of dancers in a cabaret and of reflections on water at night were great. The LCD is amazingly sharp. LCD is bright too. Battery life is good. Camera is light and fits in my pocket. Did I mention that I love the ability to optically zoom while taking great high definition video, which is still very rare? All my older video cameras are history. I love it. Oh, it turns on fast, and power switch is a tiny excellent toggle. Clever power saving too. Still photos are great, with good low light ability. So rush and buy it

I am an extremely poor amateur photographer, and this camera makes me look great! We took both still and video of my friend's BD party just after we got it (without reading the manual) and both turned out great. The video quality is amazing.

We took 2 videos, one with a relatively high end Sony Video camera (HD) and one with the Lumix (HD). The quality of the video was the same. The Sony had better controls on the zooming, but amazingly, the sound quality on the Lumix was better. Of course, you can hook up an external mic with the Sony, but still....

I can't say enough good things about this camera. I was looking for something small that would fit in my purse, and this fits the bill and has tremendous quality as well. There are some manual controls for experienced photographers, but I am a strictly point and shoot girl. The auto focus feature determines the correct setting, and the majority of the pictures I have taken are great without fiddling with anything other than the zoom.

This is my first Panasonic camera and may I say it is THE BEST CAMERA I HAVE EVER OWNED. My last camera was a Canon which also makes a great camera, but this Panasonic camera blew my Canon away. The image quality is outstanding all around, even in low light situations. I took this camera to rock concert last month and it did an amazing job even in the low light conditions of the concert arena. Also you don't have to worry if your hand shakes, because it still takes a sharp crystal clear picture. Also it is great at catching fast action moments that are sometimes hard to catch. As for the video, it is amazing, great quality and sound. Also you can zoom in and out with this camera while recording, which to me was an important option to have in a digital camera. I am very impressed and I can highly recommend this camera to anyone who is still not sure which brand to buy.

I previously ordered the Panasonic Lumix DMC FP1R which is a great camera, but you can't zoom in while taking a video.... hence I sent the camera back.

This model is exactly what I was looking for in a camera (I had a Konica Minolta for years and was looking for an upgrade since a couple of months already), the zoom is great, you can zoom in an out while taking a video and the volume is adjustable which is great, the pictures are very clear and the colors are authentic, the display is crystal clear, the camera is light and small and has a really long battery life.

I have it on iA (intelligent auto) all the time and am very satisfied with the quality of the pictures... for the ones out there who like to play around with the settings.... there are plenty of them, you can even choose between 4 zoom options. Personally I like it simple, therefore iA for me all the time. :)

Oh and I even took a picture of a sunset (against the light of course) and it came out beautifully, I was really impressed.

5 stars from me, there is really nothing I miss or have to criticise

The Lumix DMC-ZR3 is a very good camera. I especially like the AI setting which is great for a quick point and shoot pictures of the grand kids. The pictures are easily downloaded to my computer using the supplied USB cable. Overall I'm very pleased with the Lumix ZR3, it takes a great picture and is easy to operate. This a must for my wife, there is no setup or lens adjustments for light or distance. This is my second Lumix camera.

I previously owned an earlier generation Panasonic Lumix compact camera and was very happy with it. I did a lot of research prior to purchasing the DMC ZR3 and have learned that over the past few years Panasonic has made quite a name for itself in the camera industry. The primary reason for me upgrading was that newer cameras have HD recording capabilities as does the DMC ZR3 and also I was attracted to the large optical zoom capability (8X) with such a compact camera. It is only slightly larger (hardly noticeable) than my previous Lumix, which I bought largely for its compact size.

Pictures are nice quality. Like any camera you buy -- especially compact -- pictures with a lot of natural light are going to turn out the best. If you plan to take a lot of pictures of scenery or the outdoors during your traveling I would recommend this camera. It takes very nice quality photos outdoors. Indoor photos are not quite as sharp generally, but sometimes they can turn out pretty good if you are able to have a decent light source. honestly, sometimes I force the flash off if there is enough artificial light to make due.

The HD video pretty much follows suit with the still photo quality. Best in good natural light situations, tending to be grainy in low light. And because it is video as opposed to still frame, the granularity is more pronounced as is to be expected with probably any camera until you get into professional grade (and big bucks). I find the ability to connect to an HD TV using a mini-HDMI cable very handy. You should be able to find a generic mini-HDMI cable online for less than $10. You should realize that when using the HDACV Lite mode of recording, it works nice for TV playback, but is not as PC friendly as it requires the included Panasonic software to load that format onto your PC. You do have the option of recording in the less memory-efficient motion-JPEG format which will allow you to load directly to a PC without software, making videos more conducive for sharing.

I have found the strong zoom to be good quality in terms of maintaining sharpness of the subject. When you have the zoom at maximum or a very high level, you have to keep it very steady -- especially in lower light. I have not yet attempted using it with a tripod, but I am confident that would produce quality results.

Bottom line is that I paid less for this camera than I did my first Panasonic Lumix (which I really liked) and it has a lot of nice recent technological improvements which I find very useful. It's well worth the money.

Great product. Works well and is durable. Quality of the video is superb and software to view and edit the mts and/or mov files it produces is available online for free. Using a class 6, 32GB SD memory card and it works flawlessly. My only complaint is that in lower light settings the pictures are not as good as the video; they seem too dark. But that is when using the camera on full auto mode; I'm sure a real photo buff can alter some of the settings and make low lighting shots as good as the video. Other than that a great camera for the money that I highly recommend. Long battery life too.

I bought this as an everyday complement to my Canon DSLR, which is excellent, but too big to carry around most of the time. I wanted a high quality, high zoom camera that would fit in my pocket. The size of the Panasonic is great- it's one of the smallest cameras with a 7x or larger zoom. I liked the Canon SX210, but with its widescreen LCD, I thought it was a little too big. 8X is at the low end of the zoom range I was looking for, but it works pretty well. With a 14MP image, I can always crop a little in software to zoom in tighter and still maintain good quality.

The quality of the ZR3 is excellent. Outdoor shots in sunlight are excellent. Indoors shots are very good. Like most compact cameras, you don't have as much control as you'd like. There are about 20 scene modes, but no easy way to simply set the aperture to its widest setting to get a fast shutter speed. One feature I like is that you can put a max limit on the ISO speed so the camera won't jack it way up in its search for a fast shutter speed. That usually inserts considerable noise in the picture. I set the max ISO at 400 and noise is excellent. I haven't shot much above that, so can't comment on noisiness at higher ISOs. However, almost all compacts start to degrade above 400.

Video quality is very good. You can zoom while filming, as some newer cameras can now do, which is a great feature. It has the space-saving ACVHD format, although I use the motion JPEG because it's hard to find software to edit the ACVHD.

The wide zoom of 25mm comes in very handy when trying to get all of an indoor scene or a big group of people.

I like this so much and the portability is so good, that I find I use this camera for most of my needs. I'll use my SLR for shooting my kids sporting events or if it's low light and I need the high ISO capability of the SLR. But it's so nice to have a high quality option that fits in my pocket. I'd highly recommend this.

After many hours of online research I chose the ZR3 as my new digital camera. I compared it to the other Panasonic cameras such as the ZS7,ZS5,ZS3,ZR1 and the FH20. I was also considering the Canon PowerShot SX130IS. The main reason I chose the ZR3 over the Canon was the difference in size. I wanted something small and lightweight and the Canon did not fit that requirement. The FH20 seems very similar to the ZR3, the only difference I seen was that it records movies in quicktime format instead of AVCHD lite and you are not able to use zoom while recording. It does not have the intelligent zoom either. I felt those added features on the ZR3 were worth the $40 difference. But I didn't want to spend another $90 to upgrade to the ZS7. I am very happy with my choice so far. I have only had the camera 2 days so far. It takes good pictures and video and that's what I wanted. I was looking for a new camera with 8X zoom or more. My old camera only had 3X zoom and that was not enough. The pictures in low light are not excellent but they are acceptable.