Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3

Shooting Modes (10.00)

The ZS3 has two automatic modes: the normal mode and the intelligent Auto mode. The normal mode is analogous to a program mode on most other cameras: the camera makes most of the decisions, but the user can jump in and tweak some settings, such as

The Intelligent Auto mode, as the name suggests, puts the control into the cameras hands. When the shutter is pressed down half way, the camera will choose the appropriate scene mode from 7 options (including iPortrait, iMacro and iBaby) and sets the camera appropriately.

Auto Mode Features

Focus – The ZS3 provides a lot of different focusing modes. The fastest is the 1-area high speed mode, which uses an area in the center of the screen as the focus point. This was pretty fast; it seldom took more than half a second or so to snap into focus. If you want to use different approaches to focusing, there is the spot mode (which uses a tiny area right in the middle of the image) or the 11 area, which uses 11 focus spots, and concentrates on the closest one. There is also a face detection option and an AF tracking option, which tries to track a moving object in the frame. The latter could be useful for subjects such as pets or a football game, as you can focus on the subject, but then take a photo with it not in the center of the frame.

Exposure – The ZS3 is unusual in including both exposure compensation and auto exposure bracketing; most point and shoot cameras just offer exposure compensation. When auto exposure bracketing is enabled, the ZS3 can take 3 images with between 1 and 1/3 of a stop of compensation applied. So, with this enabled, you would get an image with -1 stop, one with no compensation and one with +1 stop of compensation. You can also use this feature to take 3 images with different aspect ratios, which could be useful if you aren’t sure which aspect ratio would be the best, and you want to try them all without cropping the image.

Metering – Evaluative, center weighted and spot metering modes are available on the ZS3. These are buried rather deeply in the menu system, though; changing from one to the another involves a lot of button pushing and scrolling around the menu system.

Aperture – The ZS3 has a very limited aperture range: at the wide end of the zoom range, the aperture range is f/3.3 to f/6.3. At the telephoto end, this range shrinks to f/4.9 to f/6.3. That small range does limit the camera: the relatively small numbers of the maximum aperture means that it does not have a particularly wide depth of field.

Shutter Speeds – The shutter speed range of the ZS3 in most modes is from 1/2000 of a second down to 8 seconds. This can be extended right out to 60 seconds in the Starry Sky scene mode, which is for taking starscapes.

Self-Timer – Two self-timer modes are available that give a 10 second or 2 second delay. There are none of the smile shutter or interval shooting features found on other cameras.

Scene Modes

In addition, the ZS3 has a huge selection of scene modes on offer: 26 in all. These can be chosen by setting the mode to the scene spot, or two frequently used modes can be assigned to the MS1 and MS2 spots on the scene dial. This is a good approach, as it means that the frequently used modes can be quickly set, while there are a good selection of other modes also on offer.

Picture Effects (1.50)

The ZS3 offers a number of photo effects, which it refers to as color modes: Standard, Natural Vivid, Black & White, Sepia, Cool and Warm. Examples of all of these are below.

Picture Samples
Standard Natural Vivid Black & White Sepia Cool Warm More...

Manual Controls (6.74)

The usual selection of white balance features are on offer: you can set the camera to a number of presets (Daylight, Cloudy, Shade and Halogen), set it to an automatic mode, or set it to an evaluative mode where you measure the white balance. To do this, you have to go into the main menu, select the Set option and point the camera at a white object.

Drive/Burst Mode (5.00)

Two modes that take a burst of shots are available: a short burst mode that captures 3 images at the fine quality setting (or 5 at the standard quality setting), and a continuous mode that keeps capturing for as long as the shutter is held down.

Shot to Shot (3.01)

In the short burst mode, we found that the ZS3 was capable of capturing about 1.6 frames a second. In the continuous mode, the camera managed about 1.3 frames a second. Both of these figures are significantly less than Panasonic’s claimed 2.5 frames a second.