Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 16x Wide

Customer Ratings:

I bought this at Costco, so maybe this review won't get printed, but if it does, here goes. I own and still love the ZS-3 and the ZS-7 and have taken tons of images with both. The ZS-10 is a small step backwards in image purity but a big step forward in usefulness. When I want to take a single image of a still life subject in difficult lighting conditions such as backlighting or very high contrast, the 3 or the 7 will yield more reliable results. In those conditions, the 10 sometimes shows some purple fringing or neon borders; not enough to make the images unusable, but remarkable simply because those defects almost never happen with the 7 or the 3. But most of my photography doesn't involve still subjects in high-contrast lighting. I take pictures of the grandson playing with the dog, or of speakers and performers at an event, or of faces in a crowd in a public place, or of birds in nature. In those situations, the high-speed full-frame burst mode of the 10 opens the door to photo satisfaction in a way that the older models never could. When the kid takes the ball from the dog's mouth, the action takes just a second, and with the older models my chances of hitting the perfect moment are statistically slim. With the 10, I can be taking 5, 10, 40 or even 60 full-resolution frames during that second, and I'm going to capture the perfect combination of facial expression and hand position to convey the magic of the moment. When talking heads speak, the motion of their faces makes all kinds of grimaces, and if I only have one or a few snapshots, I may have nothing that I can print without making the speaker look like a fool. With the 10's fast burst mode, I have options; I can make the speaker or performer look at their best. If I were a news photographer in the thick of action, this is the camera I'd want in my shirt pocket. I also like to to take bird pictures. Birds rarely sit still, and if I can only squeeze off a few shots, I may not get the ideal pose with the head forward or sideways and an eye clearly visible. With the high speed burst mode in the 10, I get my choice of bird postures. And did I mention the zoom? I can get perfectly printable shots at the 21x zoom, the equivalent of a 504 mm telephoto lens. The digital zoom takes it out to 84x, longer than 1000 mm; and while shots at that range look like an Impressionist filter was applied, and won't win too many photo contests, they are good enough to accurately identify the bird, or the person, or the object. I recently sold my digital SLR outfit with lenses up to 1000mm and I don't miss it at all. What you can do with this combination of burst and zoom, and in a package of this size, is mind-boggling. And it does a completely satisfactory job with ordinary landscapes, sunsets, flowers, street scenes, family snapshots, and the like. In short, Panasonic's switch to the high-speed CMOS sensor in the 10 does mean a small sacrifice in image quality in nasty lighting situations, but a big gain in usability. The 10 reliably gives me usable images, images that capture precious moments, that are worth printing, and that people love, in situations that were a photographic crapshoot until the 10 came along. To me, that's a big plus in photo satisfaction.

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