Panasonic Lumix DMC ZX1 HD video test

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX3 Review | PhotographyBLOG

About Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX1

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX3 (also known as the DMC-ZR3) is a 14 megapixel compact digital featuring an 8x optically-stabilised zoom lens with a focal range of 25-200mm in a body measuring just 2.6cms thick. The new Intelligent Resolution function can be used to digitally boost the zoom ratio to 10x without hardly any loss in quality or to simply make still images and video look better, at least according to Panasonic. The high performance Venus Engine HD II processor delivers longer 330 shot battery life and video recording has also been greatly improved for the ZX3. 720p footage is now also available in AVHCD Lite format as well as motion JPEG, Intelligent Auto mode can be used, there’s a Video Divide function and the option of extracting a 1920x1080 still, plus a dedicated Video Record button and HDMI port. If all that fails to entice you, the new Happy scene mode should put a smile on your face. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX3 is priced at £299.99 / $299.95 in silver, black, blue or red.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZX3 is externally very similar to the previous ZX1 model in terms of its design - side-by-side, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart. Credit card dimensions and rounded edges ensure it's marginally less boxy than other competitors, and it's easily small and light enough to fit inside a shirt or trouser pocket. Panasonic have somehow squeezed in an 8x zoom lens, equivalent to a focal range of 25-200mm on a 35mm camera, which as with the original ZX1 is quite a feat of engineering. There's also an 'extra' optical zoom function boosting it to an equivalent 15.6x, albeit with an attendant resolution drop to 3 megapixels. Even when set to 200mm, the lens doesn't extend very far from the front of the ZX3, making it look to all intents and purposes like a run-of-the-mill compact camera. This helps to make the DMC-ZX3 a great candid camera, as people assume that you're using just a standard point and shoot.

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