Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Violet)

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Price: $159.99    

Product Feature

• 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)

Product Description

Panasonic 14.1mp Digital Camera Violet14.1 MP, 2.7" LCD,4x Optical Zoom with 28mm Wide Angle, MEGA O.I.S.,720p HD Movie Recording

Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Violet) Review

51; Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
ѾѾѾѾѾ Highly recommended with warm fuzzies (great camera for a first-time photographer).

What is in the box package?

✵ DMC-S3 digital camera
✵ Panasonic NCA-YN101G 3.6V rechargeable lithium ion battery pack (NCA-YN101G)

0037; Battery charger (DE-A91B)
✵ USB cable to connect the camera to your computer
✵ Hand strap
✵ 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)
✵ 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.

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150; Excellent 5-fuzzies feature ratings:

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150; 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.

ѾѾѾѾѾ 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.

ѾѾ50;ѾѾ 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.

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150;Ѿ 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.

50;ѾѾѾѾ The camera offers three useful autofocus modes: automatic face detection, 11-zone autofocus, and 1-central-zone autofocus.

s0;ѾѾѾ;Ѿ 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.

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150;ѾѾ 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.

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150;
150;ѾѾ 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.


150;
150;ѾѾ Good 4-fuzzies feature ratings:


150;ѾѾѾ 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.

ѾѾѾѾ 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.

ѾѾѾѾ 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. The "iA" and two night-scenery "Scene" modes kept the ISO at 800 for night shots, and the results were quite acceptable, again taking into account the price bracket for this camera. ISO 1600 had substantial sensor noise, but it was still comparable to other $100-$150 cameras. On a practical basis, ISO noise like this may not be that apparent for the novice photographer for whom this camera is targeted at. Once you start learning about digital camera technologies and you become more aware of what high-ISO noise is (or what problems like pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration are), you tend to notice that more in photos when you see it. But to novice photographers, moderate amounts of high-ISO noise may not always be noticed by them. Besides, high-ISO noise is very common for these small digital cameras anyway. If ISO 1600 is still not enough due to the darkness of your shooting environment, the camera's "High Sensitivity" scene mode can operate between ISO 1600 and ISO 6400 to allow for a faster shutter speed. But unless you are getting blurry images due to your subject moving in the darkness, I would strongly suggest sticking with ISO 800 since ISO 1600 and higher produces too much noise in photos. When I mounted this camera on a small Joby GorillaPod tripod, using either the two night-scenery "Scene" modes or the "High Sensitivity" scene mode, photos taken in dark outside settings were quite good. But because the ISO noise starts becoming apparent at ISO 800, and really gets noisy at ISO 1600 and beyond, avoid using the "High Sensitivity" scene mode unless you really have to photograph in near-total darkness. If you do not already have a camera tripod, I would recommend the affordable and very useful Joby GP1-0GEN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod (Green) for use with this camera. By using this camera with a small tripod, you may be able to stay within ISO 400 or ISO 800 for better less noisy photos. But if you do end up getting a lot of high-ISO sensor noise on some low-light photos, either with this camera or with any camera really, try converting the photos from color to black-and-white or sepia tone. I find that high-ISO noise sometimes looks more "noisy" on color photos than on black-and-white or sepia tone photos. In fact, with black-and-white and sepia tone photos, the high-ISO noise may also add a grainy vintage look to the photo which can have its own appeal.

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150;ѾѾ The 230,000 dot TFT screen 2.7-inch LCD display is pretty clear and respectable for a low-end point-and-shoot camera like this.

ѾѾѾѾ The included 'PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0' software offers all of the basic functions that you would expect, including user-friendly tools to help you transfer the photos from the camera to your computer, delete sections of the recorded videos, capture still photo images from recorded videos, rotate/resize/crop photos, adjust brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation, sharpen photos, convert to sepia/negative/greyscale, etc.


150;ѾѾ
150; When using the 'Panorama stitch' function on the 'PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0' software to align and stitch together a series of horizontally or vertically photographed shots, the software usually does a very good job at aligning, cropping, and merging the separate photos together. This is especially true if I either use the camera on a tripod with a panning head, or use the camera's very useful "Panorama Assist" Scene Mode. When in "Panorama Assist" Scene Mode, you tell the camera whether you are panning left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, or bottom-to-top. Then as you take each photo, the camera's LCD display displays a grid and superimposes about 25% of the previous photo's right side, left side, bottom, or top and overlays that onto the current display to help you visually overlap and align about 25% of each photo to be used in the panorama. This Panorama Assist" Scene Mode is one feature of point-and-shoot cameras that I actually wished digital SLR cameras also had because, without using a tripod, it can alleviate the possibility of having photos being skewed and tilted between each other. However, when I photographed a series of five panned-and-overlapping shots indoors in subdued morning lighting while carefully holding the camera level, on three of the stitched photos, some of the seams where nicely merged together while other seams had jagged and distorted blocky shifts of the edges in objects within the photos. These misalignments seemed to always occur near the top or bottom of where two photos were merged, and never in the (vertical) middle two-thirds of the photos, and these alignment issues seem to happen because they were indoor photos with less edge contrast. The PHOTOfunSTUDIO software's 'Panorama stitch' function does a far better job at stitching when there is good light-dark contrast of edges (e.g. outdoor daytime photos).

ѾѾ50; Average not-good not-bad 3-fuzzies feature ratings:

ѾѾѾ The monophonic microphone that is used for video recordings is located behind two small holes that are below the camera lens. The audio sound quality of recorded videos is not that good. But given the inexpensive pricing of this camera with all of its other features, I cannot be too harsh about this shortcoming.

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150; Bad 2-fuzzies feature ratings:

ѾѾ Using the 'PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0' software, when I tried to use the 'Delete SD card pictures' option to delete images from the DMC-S3 that was still properly attached to my computer via the supplied USB cord, I got repeated errors saying "Failed to delete the file. Cause: An unknown error has occurred." Regardless of how many images that I selected to be deleted, only one of the images would actually be deleted, and the rest of the images would not be deleted. I tried using the software's 'Delete SD card pictures' function repeatedly, and in conjunction with trying different SD cards (SanDisk 2GB SD cards), and I would always get the same error message, even though the images would actually be deleted one by one instead of deleting all of the images that I had selected. This is not a huge issue considering that the camera itself has very convenient 'Delete Multi' and 'Delete All' functions, but there is no reason why a simple software task like this should repeatedly fail.

051; Fuzzy Wuzzy's Conclusion:

At its current $100-$120 price bracket, this camera is very competitive with its performance and features. Panasonic obviously had to cut corners in order to make this camera affordable. In particular, this camera's aperture of f/6.5 at its telephoto focal length and the inability to zoom in and out while filming video seem to be due to intentional cost-cutting measures. But these kinds of limitations are common for point-and-shoot cameras in this price range. For example, I have a comparably priced Fujifilm point-and-shoot camera that also cannot zoom in/out in movie mode, its video only goes to 640x480 (compared to this camera's 1280x720), pressing the Fujifilm camera's zoom button only gives me five distinct zoom levels (compared to this camera's finer gradations of zooming), and for low-light shooting, my Fujifilm only goes out to ISO 3200 whereas this camera's "High Sensitivity" scene mode will go up to ISO 6400 (and as mentioned, the extra amount of high-ISO noise in the photos as you go above ISO 3200 may not look as noisy if you convert some of those photos to black-and-white or sepia, which you can do using the supplied 'PHOTOfunSTUDIO 6.0' software). However, my similarly-priced Fujifilm camera uses more metal on its exterior and its camera body feels much more rigid, whereas the front panel of this DMC-S3 is made of plastic that flexes a bit if you squeeze on it. Perhaps using plastic instead of metal on the exterior panels was also a cost-cutting measure, but along with the camera's rounded corners and slippery feel, I think that the DMC-S3 is less likely to survive being dropped onto a sidewalk compared to a camera with a metal exterior. Just make sure that you (or the person that you are buying this for) always uses the included hand strap when holding and carrying the camera because this camera's plastic body is quite slippery. Panasonic should have added some texture to the plastic exterior, especially around its curved sides and corners where your hands and fingers would be gripping it.

While it is a pretty crowded playing field for digital point-and-shoot cameras priced around $100 to $120, I could find no other camera that currently has the combination of 14 megapixels and 720P video capabilities. I give this camera a 5-star rating because of all of the features that it has at a very affordable price. The ideal person that this camera is targeted at is a first-time camera user, especially a child or teenager, due to its very user-friendly foolproof design and layout. However, be aware that in this price bracket, you can get a substantially better camera, with better image quality and better higher-ISO (800+) noise performance, by spending $50 or $70 more. That contrasts with high-end digital SLR cameras where you may have to spend at least $400 or $800 more to get a substantially better SLR camera.

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