Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 4.1 x 2.4 inches ; 7.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00395YA90
• Item model number: DMC-ZS5K
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,904 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The Lumix DMC-ZS5 features a 25mm ultra wide-angle^* 12x optical zoom f/3.3-4.9 Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens (35mm camera equivalent: 25-300mm). Incorporating Panasonic's advanced optical technologies, this lens system is comprised of 10 elements in 8 groups, with 2 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) lenses and 2 aspherical lenses / 3 aspherical surfaces while preserving compactness. This lens system enables a remarkable 25 to 300mm range of focal length in this compact body. The powerful zoom of the DMC-ZS5can be freely controlled even when shooting motion images. Inheriting the fine rendering and outstanding quality of the Leica Elmar lens, this easy-to-carry camera delivers beautiful images any time, any place.
_{* Converted to standard 35mm camera equivalent, at the maximum wide position.}

Lumix DMC-ZS5 Highlights

Powerful 12x Optical Zoom
The DMC-ZS5 features a powerful 12x optical zoom lens (35mm camera equivalent: 25-300mm). This gives you highly natural expressions from people and animals that you can't get close to. It is also available in movie recording with the mechanism designed to minimize the noise of auto focusing or zooming. And its slim, compact, pocket-sized body can easily go wherever you do for both everyday snapshots and traveling.

25mm Ultra Wide-angle Lens
The 25mm ultra wide-angle lens has about twice the shooting area as a standard 35mm lens. This enhances all kinds of shooting situations, like when you're photographing a group of people at an indoor party or shooting a large structure or sweeping landscape while traveling.

16x Intelligent Zoom / 23.4x Extra Optical Zoom
Thanks to the newly incorporated Intelligent Resolution technology, the Intelligent Zoom is available with the DMC-ZS5 which extends the zoom ratio by approx. 1.3x maintaining the picture quality even combining a digital zoom. This means the 12x optical can virtually extend to 16x equivalent. Furthermore, the Extra Optical Zoom function that extends zoom power to 23.4x^* by using the center part of the large CCD to bring subjects even closer.
_{*At 3-megapixel resolution or less.}


Sonic Speed AF
The Sonic Speed AF system in the DMC-ZS5 has a maximum speed of approx. 0.35 second (wide-end) / 0.41 second (tele-end) for auto focusing. It includes numerous re-engineering enhancements, including a higher-speed actuator, optimized algorithms and parallel software processing. The result is fast and accurate AF performance. You can quickly get moving subjects in focus, such as when you're shooting sports scenes.

POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) Shake Detection
Just about everyone has had the experience of taking a photo at night and hoping to capture all the memories and beauty, only to be disappointed at the poor result. The POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer)^* nearly doubles the hand-shake correction power of conventional MEGA O.I.S. You get bright photos without blurring even from handheld shooting at slow shutter speeds. Panasonic's accumulated optical technologies, the MEGA O.I.S. has been incorporated into Lumix from the early stage of digital camera development. This helped show all digital camera users the absolute need for hand-shake compensation, and led to its prevalence throughout the industry. And now, Panasonic has worked on the low-frequency vibration hand-shake component, which is physically generated when pressing the shutter button or when shooting at night with a slow shutter speed.


_{*The POWER O.I.S. is automatically turned on in the iA Mode and can be turned on or off in the P/A/S/M Mode or some Scene Modes.}

Product Description

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 Point & Shoot Digital Camera - 12.1 Megapixel - 2.70" Active Matrix TFT Color LCD - Black DMC-ZS5K Digital Cameras

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

219 of 223 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty amazing point-and shoot camera., May 10, 2010

By 

KHA (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

Purchased this to replace my Canon A1000, which I bought last year for a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Had to really struggle to get a good pic with the Canon -- I was very aggravated with it (though I finally came up with some program combinations that worked okay for the low light under the trees). But I decided for this summer's trip to the beach to try a new camera, with more zoom, and pass my Canon down to my 12-year-old son -- who's not nearly as picky as I am ;-)

Did a bit of research (which is always overwhelming because there's such a huge selection to choose from, and such a diversity of opinions on what makes a "good" camera). And I still wanted a pocket camera for convenience when hiking, fishing, float tripping, etc., so the Canon SX20 and Nikon P100 and the like were still too large for my needs. And then I came across well over 100 user reviews raving about the Panasonic ZS3 -- the predecessor of the ZS5/7 models -- on various websites, and it's reviews were also very good on "official" review sites. What especially impressed me was a review by a couple who guide trips to Yellowstone, were experienced SLR users, and had tried the ZS3 as a compact alternative -- and they loved it for outdoor shots. So I decided to try out the newer version of the ZS3, the ZS5.

(The main differences I saw between the ZS5 and ZS7 were that the ZS5's screen is 2.7" instead of 3.0", the ZS7 has two custom "My Scene's" instead of one, the ZS7 has a built-in GPS, and the ZS7 also has stereo video instead of mono, with more advanced video technology. None of those features were important to me for the additional money.)

I've had the camera only a couple of days, and have done various side-by-side camera comparisons between the ZS5 and the Canon A1000, and I'm pretty floored by the capabilities and photo quality of the ZS5. I'm especially impressed with the macro (I like to take wildflower pics). While no camera is perfect (from what I've seen), for me the ZS5 is going to be just what I needed for outdoor pictures. I'll update this review once I've had more time to experiment.

Update 05/11/10: Some cons -- (1) Battery door latch seems a little flimsy; wonder if it will get where it doesn't latch tight after alot of use? Only time will tell. (Other than that, this camera feels solidly built.) (2) Proprietary battery that has an ID chip built in, and the software in the camera looks for that (on their website, Panasonic says this change was made to ensure battery quality/safety). However, it appears you can finally get a 3rd-party battery thru Amazon (meaning a whole lot cheaper), and other vendors -- just be sure to look for "ID Secured" batteries (e-mail and ask the vendor first if you're not sure). I knew this before I bought the camera, but figured it should be pointed out. (3) I've had several indoor shots, in not very low light, that looked fuzzy, especially when you zoomed in on a PC. Not always the case, though. I think the "iA" mode is not always as intelligent as it should be. Also, reducing to 4 stars, so as not to mislead anyone that the camera is "perfect" -- though it's still "pretty amazing", and I'm really happy with it.

Update 05/14/10: The best pics seem to come with my own settings, and not with the "iA" mode where the computer is trying to make all the decisions for me. So you'll want to learn what the various settings do (and there's quite a few of them -- lots of flexibility). The ZS5 has three "Custom" memory slots in which to save your own configurations (which is great -- my Canon had no memory slots, and I was constantly fiddling with the settings).

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An astonishingly excellent camera on manual, a mediocre point-and-shoot otherwise., June 27, 2010

By 

Phalanx - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

The Panasonic Lumix ZS5 a.k.a TZ8 is purportedly a point-and-shoot camera. However, if the auto setting is all you will ever use it on, you'll probably be disappointed by its performance. This is not a camera which you can simply set on auto, aim, click the button and expect the pictures to come out excellent all the time.

My experience with the intelligent auto has been hit or miss so far. To be blunt, the 'intelligent auto' does not seem exceedingly intelligent at all, and it loves bumping up the ISO (grainy pictures) and pulling out the flash in circumstances where using the said flash doesn't seem to make much sense (wasting battery and resulting in ugly photos). To be fair, it performs excellently when taking pictures in bright outdoor conditions, but if you plan to take pictures indoor and it is the slightest bit dim, the auto doesn't seem to do too well and I ended up with a lot of blurry photos that way. Even with the flash deployed.

After spending about a couple of hours taking a bit of time to understand the manual modes and the appropriate settings of each, however, the mediocre point-and-shoot camera became an excellent little camera. The manual modes allow you a lot more leeway on how you want the photo taken, and thus override the choices the irritating auto mode makes, thus saving your indoor photos. You can also do a lot of experimental pictures. (In fact at the smallest aperture setting, the camera allows you to keep the shutter open for a staggering 60 seconds!). So if you know at least a little bit of basic photography and are willing to do your own settings, the camera manages to perform to its full potential and you can get some truly excellent photos.

If you're not too keen on reading up on fstops and shutter speeds and whatnot, I should mention the camera does get along quite respectably on its preset scenery modes. There's a pretty nice selection of them, covering outdoors, night scenes, food shots, macro etc. An important thing about getting good shots while using these modes is to give the IA a lot of time to "make up its mind" how it wants to take the photo by halfway depressing the button before you take a photo. Do watch for the indicator on the LCD to turn green before committing the shot. There's also a high-speed burst option, which scales down your pictures to about 4 megapixels but allows to you take a lot of pictures in succession very very quickly. (Note: You can also shortcut to this mode under the MS setting on the mode dial)

As you all know, the huge Leica lens on this camera is the main attraction and it lives up to its hype. It's advertised as 16x zoom, but only 12x of it is optical, the rest of it done by "intelligent zoom", which is basically a surprisingly almost-indistinguishable-from-optical digital zoom. The zoom also works (limited however) in macro zoom mode, which can result in some amazing macro shots. The camera also has conventional digital zoom (which went up to a staggering 90+ times zoom) , but you have to navigate the camera's controls to turn it on because by default it's turned off. The non-intelligent digital zoom however, does produce grainy pictures, but this is expected of digital zoom anyway.

When you have a strong zoom, the image stabilization capabilities of a camera become extremely important, and the ZS5 seems to have that covered. I did some testing shooting out of a moving car, sometimes with maximum optical zoom and the camera managed to deliver surprisingly clear pictures despite that.

I actually liked the slightly larger size of the camera, since it made it far easier to hold, but the thing that tipped the balance in this camera's favour for me were the controls, which shy away from pressing buttons as much as possible (Sorry Canon, but you lost out to the Lumix in the end because of this). Dials and switches are less prone to accidental pressings, and a nice little feature is that the camera will still recognize situations where the power switch has been left on by accident and will shut itself down to save the battery.

The battery life is ok, but not particularly amazing. I would recommend getting a spare battery to keep on hand. Do keep in mind however the battery is a proprietary Panasonic one, and the firmware on the camera will recognize imitation batteries and refuse to use them.

The HD video is very nice, although the sound recording is only in mono. The upshot of this camera is that the zoom can be used with the video, and I was very pleased with that because it really does make a lot of difference when you're taking videos of something far away so that you can actually see the thing instead of it being a black silhouette. It does not use the same recording format as the other cameras in the ZS3 or ZS5 however, so if I am not mistaken, the video recordings will take up more space on your SD card.

Overall, I am quite happy with this camera, but like I said before, this camera doesn't do too well as a simple point-and-shoot for the casual user. It takes a while to learn to use to get the best out of it. I would however, recommend this camera for people with a casual interest in photography, and aren't afraid to experiment with their own settings. I would also recommend this camera to people who are into photography but want a compact camera with an excellent zoom without having to lug around a DSLR and lens bag.

Pricewise, I think it's quite reasonable, and I don't think you can get another superzoom camera from any other camera maker for this price range. Although if you find a ZS3 (the older higher end model of this same series) for about the same price, you won't lose out by getting the ZS3 either.

UPDATE 29 Oct 2011: After a little over a year's use, the genuine Panasonic battery that came with the camera decided to suddenly and completely stop working. As I have mentioned before, replacements are not cheap and 3rd party batteries may be blocked by the camera's firmware, so this is definitely something you may want to consider before making any purchases. Still enjoying the camera, the battery factor could be a bit better...

52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sweet li'l pocket cam, May 5, 2010

By 

David Chaika (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

I bought this camera two weeks ago and almost immediately took it for a long weekend in the NC mountains, where I shot near 700 photos, including video and some bracketed shots. All outside overcast daytime shots. The camera worked like a charm and is much more convenient than my Canon DSLR and larger Panasonic FZ20. I carried it mostly in my jacket pocket.

I have not shot video before, and this one works great! I guess the image stabilization works in video, because mine came out looking pretty smooth, including the zooms, which seem to run a little slower than zooming between still shots. Nice. Sound is good too, I got waterfalls in video and sound.

The major prob. with my DSLR is close focus - i.e., none. With this baby you can get down to 3cm. This is real good for wildflower and moss/fern shots. I wish I had brought my 1-ft tripod with me, but still got lots of acceptably sharp shots. Have not printed any blowups to test this yet.

Battery life - well I didn't count the shots, but towards evening the alert started flashing at me. Going to buy a second battery, which I would recommend you do, if you want to be sure of a full day's worth of photos. I did a lot of reviewing and zooming in to check that I had things in focus.

Great feature of Slide Show viewing -- you get various directional pans of your stills, plus music. Sweet! Wish I could do that on my Windows 7 PC, but I think you can hook up to your TV and get this.

Still learning how to use some of the functions. Unfortunately, the printed manual includes only the basic settings, and you have to read the CD manual to find out more details. This is not like the manual for the FZ20. I would like a complete printed manual to peruse.

You can set 3 presets, and I tried setting up one. Needed the manual to figure out what all you could do, but I had not brought it with me. That seemed a pretty convenient way to do things and I am going to configure all three settings when I get time.

I wonder if there is any way to get the ZS5 to shoot RAW photos like the hack (temporary) for some of the Canon pocket cameras. Think Panasonic will do a firmware update for this?

I discovered that the f-stop range is really limited, f/3.3-6.3. You can't get much depth of field when you do closeups. I would say that this is my main issue with this camera, would like to be able to stop way down. But I really like the wiiide angle lens!

I was out in rain, and I wish there were some way to put on a lens hood. Had to wipe and blow drops off the lens.

I had been worried that my eyes with glasses would not be able to focus on the screen (there is no viewfinder), but then found that you are basically only positioning elements when you make a shot, leaving the focusing to the camera. That worked out great.

Remember to take the camera out of Macro mode when you are switching back and forth. I didn't and got a couple of fuzzy shots.

The battery door and lock seems weak, and the off/on and wide angle /tele knob are a little too small for me, but I managed ok.

One 8GB card, and I used only about 5GB this weekend. Overall I think I have the right camera for my next travel adventure.