Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Red) Online
- 14.1-megapixel resolution; 4x optical image-stablized zoom
- 720p HD video capture at 30fps
- Panasonic iA mode makes it simple for anyone to take beautiful photos
- LUMIX Image Uploader makes it simple to share pictures on Facebook and video on YouTube
- Capture images and video to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
Best Review: Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Red) - Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:***** Highly recommended with warm fuzzies (great camera for a first-time photographer).What is in the box package?o DMC-S3 digital camerao Panasonic NCA-YN101G 3.6V rechargeable lithium ion battery pack (NCA-YN101G)o Battery charger (DE-A91B)o USB cable to connect the camera to your computero Hand strapo Software CD with Panasonic "PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0" and "Super LoiLoScope" 30-day trial (both software only run on Windows XP/Vista/7, no Mac version)o 27-page "Basic Owner's Manual" (and 26-page Spanish version in the same booklet). A separate 81-page "Owner's Manual for advanced features" is included as a PDF file on the included CD-ROM disc. The printed "Basic Owner's Manual" is great as a quick-start guide, but you should also read the "Owner's Manual for advanced features" that is included on the CD.The software installation CD gives you the option to install a URL link shortcut that merely accesses a loilo.tv Web site using your browser. From that Web site, you can either download a 30-day trial version or purchase the Super LoiLoScope software. Super LoiLoScope is third-party software that offers a bundle of video editing functions for creating videos, adding text, images, music, and special effects to videos, burning DVDs of your videos, etc. This was the only part of the camera package that I did not try out since I already use other software to edit my videos with.Although I am a serious amateur photographer with 3 Canon dSLR cameras and 7 nice Canon lenses, I can appreciate the amount of features that are packed into this very affordable camera. The S3 comes in five color options: black, white, purple, red, and violet. This camera is aimed at value-for-money simplicity, specifically designed to be easy to use by beginning photographers. While the photos that you take using this camera will not always be perfect, they tend to be quite idiot-proof, which makes this camera an excellent choice for a first-time photographer or as a camera for a teenager. Someone who is college-age or older may potentially become very interested in digital photography and then outgrow this camera and want something better. But for a teenager, or for someone looking for a good basic and very affordable point-and-shoot camera, this is a pretty good choice.Some of the DMC-S3's noteworthy features are described and rated below.***** Excellent 5-fuzzies feature ratings:***** There is an excellent set of features packaged in a very easy-to-use camera. The ergonomics of the controls and the on-screen menus are excellent and seem to be aimed at first-time digital photography novices.***** 720P (1280x720) at 30fps HD video recording in a $120 camera is currently quite rare! If you look at all of the competing point-and-shoot cameras in this price range (or even out to $150), nearly all of the video capabilities of cameras by Nikon, Canon, Olympus, and other only go up to 640x480 at 30fps. It is not until you get closer to the $200 camera pricing that 720P is currently being offered for most camera brands (Amazon currently sells a Kodak 14MP with 720P or a Sony 16MP with 720P, both for $160)... and then at the $200 price point, Panasonic offers 1080P HD video in its Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX700 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black). So it is currently very rare to get 720P video capability in a camera of this price range.***** The "Mega O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) Shake Detection" works very well. This is a good thing since this camera is so slim in style and slippery in feel that your hands may move the camera during the focusing process more than cameras whose bodies are molded with more edges to grip onto. On the right side of the top of the camera, where the shutter button is, that top right corner has a grooved indentation where your right index finger rests. I really wished that this camera also had a similar grooved indentation on the top left corner of the body so that my left index finger could get a better grip on the camera when holding it steady for either photos or video. The camera is housed in a plastic casing that can give it a toy-like feel, but its construction feels fairly precise, so I expect its exterior to have good long-term durability *** AS LONG AS THE CAMERA IS NOT DROPPED ONTO HARD FLOORING OR SIDEWALKS ***. The slim camera body with all of its rounded corners makes it more slippery to hold (like a bar of soap) than most point-and-shoot cameras, so make sure that you use the included hand strap when carrying and holding this camera.***** The camera offers four flexible 'Recording Modes', three Recording Modes for photography and the fourth mode being the "Motion Picture" video mode. The "Scene Mode" covers an above-average number of shooting situations, with 16 scenes that you can select from: Portrait, Soft Skin, Self Portrait, Scenery, Panorama Assist, Sports, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Food, Party, Baby, Sunset, High ISO Sensitivity, Fireworks, Beach, Snow. As you select each of the 16 scene modes on the LCD monitor screen, a description of that scene mode scrolls as text at the bottom of the screen, a nice touch instead of requiring you to memorize each scene mode just based on a graphical icon. Another photography mode is called "iA", or "Intelligent Auto", mode. This is the most automated mode and is great for a total newbie who is just starting out in digital photography. In "iA" mode, the camera automatically configures the settings and scene mode used based on whether it detects peoples' faces, scenery, close-up focal lengths, people or scenery in a night environment, sunset, or movement in the scene. Under most conditions, its settings were fairly accurate. But with some subject matter, such as a busy scene where there are people, scenery, and objects all juxtaposed close together, the camera can get fooled into setting a wrong scene, and then you have to switch the 'Recording Mode' over to use either a "Scene Mode" or the "Normal Picture" mode. For a first-time camera user, the "iA" mode is perfect for a novice who mainly just points and shoots.***** The camera offers three useful autofocus modes: automatic face detection, 11-zone autofocus, and 1-central-zone autofocus.***** The camera has a better-than-average continuous burst shooting speed when compared to other compact point-and-shoot cameras like it. When I turned on the "Burst" option in either "Normal Picture" or "Scene" modes, keeping the shutter button pressed results in additional shots being taken right at about one frame each second. A 1 frame-per-second continuous burst shooting speed is excellent for a point-and-shoot camera like this.***** The S3 model comes with about 70 MB of built-in memory so that you can either shoot and record to the built-in memory without needing to use a memory card, or use an SD, SDHC, or SDXC card.***** With the camera connected to your computer, the handy "Upload Set" function lets you easily upload photos to your Facebook account or videos to your YouTube account.**** Good 4-fuzzies feature ratings:**** The S3 has a good 4X zoom range, going from a nice wide-angle 28mm (in 35mm equivalent) to a decent 112mm telephoto reach with an aperture of f/3.1 to f/6.5. The f/3.1 at the wide-angle end is quite respectable for a camera at this economy price level, but the f/6.5 at the telephoto end is not too good. If you keep this in mind, you can work around this camera's aperture limitations by not zooming in so much when shooting indoors or at night; e.g. move in closer to the child sitting at his birthday cake or move in closer to the people standing at night on the sidewalk before take the photograph. The standard 4X zoom can be increased to 6.8X by setting an "EX" Extended Optical Zoom, which also decreases the resolution to 5 megapixels, or increased to a maximum 8.4X optical zoom by decreasing the resolution to 3 megapixels. This is analogous to a crop sensor SLR camera's effective focal length when using a lens compared to a full frame camera. The camera also offers "Digital Zoom", which multiplies the zoom of Optical Zoom or Extended Optical Zoom up to 4 times. But in trying this camera's "Digital Zoom" under a variety of conditions, including bright clear outside environments with good contrast, I found that most of the outer reaches of the digital zoom were just way too pixelated and grainy in appearance. The "Digital Zoom" is an option that you can set, and my suggestion would be to leave this option turned off, just using it sparingly on an as-needed basis. If you leave the option turned on, you may inadvertently go into digital zoom while pressing the zoom button as it transitions from the much-clearer optical zoom to digital zoom.**** The camera has good image quality from its Leica DC lens with good contrast and color saturation. The image quality is especially excellent with outdoor daytime shots. With night or indoor low-light photographs, the photos tend to get more noisy due to its ISO performance when using ISO 800 and higher (see below). But this ISO noisiness is common for cameras in the $100 to $150 price range.**** In some of the toughest tests for a basic point-and-shoot digital camera like this, I manually turned off the flash and tried photographing dark or even very dark night scenes in "Normal Picture" mode using ISO 800 and ISO 1600, "iA" mode, and the two night-scenery "Scene" modes. Read more ›
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