Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3

Auto Mode

Panasonic calls the auto mode of the ZS3 intelligent auto, with the idea being that the camera does most of the work, tweaking the settings depending on the subject. the user still get some control, but most of the work is done by the camera itself. In our limited testing of this feature, we found that it generally seemed to make good decisions, intelligently juggling the shutter speed and other settings.

The normal picture mode gives the user a bit more flexibility, but it can also be used as a straight point and shoot mode.

Movie Mode

The highlight of this new camera is the movie mode; the ZS3 can record high definition video to an SDHC memory card in the new AVCHD Lite format. The video is captured with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, the same as 720p high definition video, at 30 frames per second. One of the advantages of this format is that it is compatible with any video editing program that can read AVCHD video. Because this is a pre-production model, we weren't able to test this or judge the quality, but the signs looked good; the video was sharp and had decent color on the camera's screen.

Options for shooting standard definition video are also available; videos can be captured in at 848 x 480, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 pixel resolution. The first resolution preserves the wide aspect ration of the high def video, but all of the standard definition resolutions are stored in the Motion JPEG format, which is compatible with a wider range of video editing software than AVCHD Lite.

Drive/Burst Mode

At the maximum resolution, images can be captured at a rate of 1.8 frames per second for as long as the battery lasts. A smaller batch of 5 images can be captured at the slightly faster speed of 2.3 frames per second, but neither of these are particularly fast; if you want to capture images faster, go for an SLR or a camera with a dedicated speed shooting mode (such as the Casio EX-F1).

Playback Mode

Pushing the mode slider to playback puts the camera into playback mode, and a good number of controls for viewing images are available; you can view up to 30 thumbnails on the screen, create slideshows and list of favorite photos and zoom in up to 16x.

Custom Image Presets

The ZS3 offers a wider range of scene modes than its predecessors; 26 in total. Highlights of these include two baby modes, an underwater mode and the usual suspects of portrait, landscape, etc. There are a couple of unusual ones; Pinhole turns your expensive camera into a cheap pinhole camera, complete with the usual vignetting and poor focus, and film grain simulates the grain of film for those who are nostalgic for old-school photography.