Panasonic 14.1MP Digital Camera with Leica 16x Optical Zoom, GPS & 1080p HD Video

Some of my links from the last woot-$239.99 last time vs. $199.99 this time:
http://www.woot.com/Forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=4588038&PageIndex=1&ReplyCount=40

Panasonic site camera reviews on main page:
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/evaluated/index.html#zs10

and US page:
http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/shop/Cameras-Camcorders/LUMIX-Digital-Cameras-Point-amp-Shoot-Models/model.DMC-ZS10K

Product support page:
http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-electronics/support/Cameras-Camcorders/Digital-Cameras/Lumix-Digital-Cameras/model.DMC-ZS10K

Manual:
http://service.us.panasonic.com/OPERMANPDF/DMCZS10_ADV.PDF

froogle

and show you that PC Magazine’s last Readers’ choice award for digital cameras went to Panasonic and Canon last fall:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368159,00.asp

including the chart itself:
http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,iid=267324,00.asp

I have had good experiences with Panasonic cameras, just don’t own this one.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004KKZ0HY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A2SP7PATXBS8OB

Didn’t do too great when compared to some similar cameras.

DP Review Comparison Test

I know it’s a refurbie. But 4.8 stars on average from the Buzzillions reviewers ain’t nothin to sneeze at. That’s for sure.

http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dmc-zs10-digital-camera-blue-reviews

However, they don’t make this lens they just license their name out to it. Panasonic makes the lens and Leica approves the quality and sometimes designs them.

RE: VIDEO///

From the description:
VGA: 640 x 480 pixels, 30fps (Motion JPEG)
QVGA: 320 x 240 pixels, 30 fps (Motion JPEG)
Motion Picture Recording HD Movie:
1920x1080 pixels, 60i (GFS: 17Mbps, FSH: 17Mbps / AVCHD) (Sensor output is 60p)
1280x 720 pixels, 60p(GS: 17Mbps, SH: 17Mbps / AVCHD)
1280x 720 pixels, 30fps (Quicktime Motion JPEG)

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Why the heck is a camera of this caliber still using Motion JPZG??? That CODEC is usually used only in the cheapest digital cameras because it takes very little CPU power to compress. And that’s the problem. It is very inefficient. The current standard, H.264, is 4X more efficient, which means that you can fit 4X as much video of comparable quality in the same amount of memory.

I should point out, however, that the specs also say that two HD modes use AVCHD. I believe that AVC = H.264. The 60fps also seems very impressive.

If it’s true that Panasonic is now finally using H.264, it eliminates a major criticism I had of a previous superzoom model. I’m still not thrilled that it probably uses the MOV container, which is not easily editable in Windows (no free program supports it well, i.e. Movie Maker is only semi-successful). And I don’t know if if can pause while recording, which I need. Otherwise, you end up with lots of little snippets. And there are other problems too (multiple snippets takes up more space because of overhead; the waste of time to join the snippets; the potential loss of quality if you use a lossy CODEC before saving the final video; etc). Samsungs are one of the few digitcal cameras that have pausing during recording.

Regardless, 1080i.720p at 60fps sounds amazing…

This comes with an owner’s manual? A real, physical, hold-in-your-hand version?

I passed on it last time but couldn’t resist the price this time around. Still should be much better than my almost decade old Sony DSC-W1 which I paid over 450 dollars for.

From the cnet review:

The good:
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 has fast shooting performance and an extensive feature set.

The bad:
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 has a near-pointless touch screen; no raw capture option; noisy photos; and a short battery life.

The bottom line:
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS10 is a very good compact megazoom, as long as you don’t mind paying more for features and speedy performance than photo quality.

OUCH! That last one hurt!

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/panasonic-lumix-dmc-zs10/4505-6501_7-34505713.html

The “In the box” list says it does but if it should be missing, whatsamattaU was kind enough to link it here.

i absolutely love mine. i paid $350 for it as a preorder in february. just used it this last weekend to record video for a music festival. get a 32gb sd card and you can take video and pics for days. great camera at full price, amazing deal here.

I saw ‘ajrichard.com’ has it new for $239.99, free shipping.

Are any of those “similar cameras”, currently selling for a “similar” price?

Panasonic just released a firmware update for this as well on August 3, 2011. This should help address some picture quality issues. And supposedly makes the GPS unit even better.

Yeah, but it’s got a poor rating as a website from the WOT (Web of Trust) rating system. Not sure if people agree or disagree with WOT.

Exactly. Sort of makes you wonder why Panasonic is dropping their price so much compared to Nikon and Canon. Thanks for pointing that out.

Anybody know the recording duration for 1080p files? I bought the 720p version of this camera from Woot! some time ago only to find out you can only record about 8 and a half minutes for each 720p file.

Two Reasons on Why REC Pausing is important, and Lots of Snippets are a Problem…

Part of my research involves Movement Disorders (i.e. Parkinson’s, Dystonia, etc) so we need to record patient movements. I was really excited about this camera because it’s small enough to fit in our pockets (for bedside and house visits) and it has most of the features of a camcorder. The specs are amazing. So I fired off an email to our medical AV guy (at 1:15am!) and he rejected the purchase because it can’t Pause during recording (p30 of the manual suggests that you can only start/stop). Since the camera is shared among 10 users, he said that snippets are too much of a hassle to organize and the possible degradation when joining them is also a concern.

[REASON 1] He’s right; most cameras can’t play multiple videos automatically (like a slideshow) so to watch an entire session composed of snippets on this camera, we’ll constantly be pressing Next and Play – up to 10+ times to watch a single exam. A huge hassle, especially without a remote control. With a single video file, we simply plug the camera into our conference monitor and press play once. No need to go back and join/edit/degrade on a computer before presenting. [REASON 2] It’s also questionable whether you can edit/join the videos on a computer and reload back into the camera for playback. Unless your software meets the camera’s exacting parameters for MJPEG or AVCHD, chances are it won’t play.

Oh well; it’s a no go for us. For those who can tolerate multiple snippets, or don’t need the ability to pause while recording, he agreed that the specs are amazing for the price.

Here is the manual in PDF.

It’s 150 pages and very detailed, but annoyingly, neither my AV guy nor I could find what container format the camera uses: MOV (bad!) or MP4 (good). This is important for Windows users.

Since video is our primary concern, here’s a bit more info. It’ll be my last post about it so don’t worry (we’re prepping for the 9/11 ceremonies here in NYC, and I have a minor lab emergency).

The below specs are from Panasonic’s website. Check it out for some great demos and description of all the amazing video features.

Of note, they say that AVCHD is only 2X more efficient than MJPEG. Most descriptions I’ve seen say that H.264 is 4X more efficient so either Panasonic is modest, or I misunderstand AVCHD. Also interesting is the fact that GPS is disabled in China. I wonder if that means that their Chinese model doesn’t have GPS, or that this camera can’t use GPS in China. Damn Commies!

One last thing … the 29 min limit is very impressive. Most cameras limit their videos to about 11-20 mins because of buffer size. I wonder why temperature and humidity would affect how much video you can record.

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*1 Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) movies are recorded at 60i (NTSC) / 50i (PAL). HD (1,280 x 720) movies are output and recorded by the image sensor at 60p (NTSC) / 50p (PAL). *2 Approx. *3 QuickTime Motion JPEG. Continuous recording exceeding 2GB is not possible when recording Motion JPEG. Remaining time for continuous recording is displayed on the screen. 4 These are standard times taken at a temperature of 23°C (73.4°F) and a humidity of 50%RH. The time available for recording varies depending on the environment, the interval between recordings, and the manner of use. Actual recordable time is the time available for recording when repeating actions such as switching the power supply [ON]/[OFF], starting/stopping recording, zoom operation, etc.
• Motion images can be recorded continuously for up to 29 min 59 sec in European PAL areas. In other region, motion images can be recorded continuously for up to 29 min 59 sec if [Rec Quality] is set to [GFS] or [FSH]. • If [Rec Quality] is set to [GFS] or [FSH], and if the surrounding temperature is high, or motion image is recorded continuously, is displayed, and the recording may be stopped halfway through.• The length of recording time depends on the capacity of the SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card. • Use a card with SD Speed Class
with “Class 4” or higher when recording motion images in AVCHD. Also, use a card with SD Speed Class with “Class 6” or higher when recording motion images in Motion JPEG. *SD Speed Class is the speed standard regarding continuous writing.