Panasonic 12MP Digital Camera with Leica 12x Optical Zoom & HD Video

Deal Chatter Daily Deal
12

Yup.

13

Ah, You beat me. But here’s the amazon link for the ZS6 Amazon ZS6

14

Froogled

Googled

15

Just wanted to say that we bought one of these from Woot a few months ago. It is a terrific camera. It takes better pictures than my $800 Pentax digital SLR. Well worth the money.

16

So not right. I just bought this 3 days ago at Amazon for $200.

Liking the camera so far.

17

Bought 1 last time around back in Dec. at $10.00 more . Great camera fairly large though for a compact but no problems .
Love how woot packed the thing . Wrapped in a piece of bubble wrap , slipped inside a zip lock and shipped in an incredibly large box .

18

refurbished from $159.95

19

I use a third party battery from Amazon with no problem. Just find one that is “decoded”.

20

owns this camera and LOVES it.

21

I have the older but very similar Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 and it’s an awesome camera.

22

Even if it was a POS *ist I wouldn’t buy that on pixel pitch alone, as well as crummy lens resolution. Though it certainly may be hard to tell at web sizes at EV 12+.

(that being said, this is a decent compact, particularly for a superzoom)

23

Here is the correct CNET link.

As you can see, CNET has not reviewed the ZS6, but they have reviewed the ZS5 and ZS7 and they do discuss the differences between the three.

24

I have a slightly older Panasonic camera. Pretty fantastic, always been happy with it.

But like CNet says - low light is pretty awful.

25

Yeah, it’s about what you can expect from a Matsushita 1/2.4" (noisier than the Sonys on many other compacts) but honestly you won’t get much better without a larger sensor or backside illumination.

26

Just wondering in what way are they refurbished? Thanks

27

PROS:

  • AMAZING 12x OPTICAL zoom!

  • Excellent quality lens by Leica, a very well-respected lens maker

  • OPTICAL stablization as well as a hybrid mode combining optical and digital stabilzation. Unless you use a tripod, stabilization is crucial when zooming, and a necessity when you zoom 12x.

  • Ability to Zoom in movie mode

CONS:

  • It uses the very inefficient Motion JPEG CODEC. Many newer cameras now use H.264 compression, which is 4x more efficient. That means you can fit roughly 4x more video in the same amount of space at similar video quality when using H.264. MJPEG is old technology. Then again, it’s much more universally playable, i.e. you can plop the file into many digitcal picture frames and play EXCEPT…

  • Panasonic stupidly decided to use the Apple’s Quicktime (MOV?) container. I don’t know for sure if this is the case, but the description mentions Quicktime. That would usually mean MOV, although it may also mean the more universal MP4 container. MOV is a bad idea because it’s not supported in the Windows world (inhabited by the vast majority of computer users). I know of no Free or Shareware Windows program that would allow you to edit MOVs, You’d normally have to convert before editing, which means a decrease in quality. And it’s time consuming, considering that these cameras tend to have lots of separate clips. Furthermore, virtually no digital picture frame (besides those from Kodak) or DVD player support MOV, which means that you can’t just plug in your SD card for playing on TV. Panasonic should have chosen AVI, which is much much more universal, or even MP4.

28

So between this camera and the Samsung with the Schneider lens they had on here awhile ago, which was better? http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=4108294

29

I have the older TZ4. Bought it when it was closer to $200 (albeit new). A friend of mine has the TZ3. Even those were very good. The ZS6 is a step above the TZ5, so this is is a good price for an even better camera.

30

I have a greater affinity for the HZ30W but part of that is my dislike for Panasonics UI, and the history of so-so low-light on the LX/ZS series.

Don’t worry about the lens branding, it’s decent for a compact lens but it’s mostly marketing. It isn’t any more “Leica” than the “Schneider” on the Samsung or the “Zeiss” lenses that Cosina and Kyocera have made for decades. All three companies started outsourcing production and licensing their brand names long ago.

31

WoooHooo! Bought ONE! This is the 3rd Panasonic LUMIX that I own. I LOVE THIS CAMERA and what luck, because the my ZS3 broke a month ago when I dropped it eating sh@t at Islands of Adventure in Orlando and the screen turned to dust.

They take great pictures, the video is stunning, and take a beating!