Panasonic DMC-ZS3
Digital Camera Review
Mar 03, 2009
- By Richard Baguley
4.6
It's not often that we see a whole new video format being introduced on a digital camera, but that's what Panasonic has done with the Lumix DMC-ZS3; as well as being a well specified 10-megapixel still camera, it's the first digital camera to shoot high definition video in the new AVCHD Lite format. Camcorder fans may recognize the first part of the name (AVCHD is the format that many high def camcorders shoot in), but the Lite part is new. AVCHD lite is a subset of the full AVCHD standard, which means that the ZS3 shoots 720p video (which is lower in resolution than the 1080i that most dedicated camcorders shoot) that can be watched on a HDTV and edited in many video editing programs, such as Apple's iMovie.
| Top Point & Shoot Cameras |
|---|
|
It's not often that we see a whole new video format being introduced on a digital camera, but that's what Panasonic has done with the Lumix DMC-ZS3; as well as being a well specified 10-megapixel still camera, it's the first digital camera to shoot high definition video in the new AVCHD Lite format. Camcorder fans may recognize the first part of the name (AVCHD is the format that many high def camcorders shoot in), but the Lite part is new. AVCHD lite is a subset of the full AVCHD standard, which means that the ZS3 shoots 720p video (which is lower in resolution than the 1080i that most dedicated camcorders shoot) that can be watched on a HDTV and edited in many video editing programs, such as Apple's iMovie. As a camera, the ZS3 has a 12x zoom lens and shoots 10.1 megapixel images. The DMC-ZS3 will be priced at $399.95, and will be available in April. 