Description

Panasonic DMC-ZS5 Digital Camera Features

25mm Ultra Wide-angle 12x Optical Zoom LEICA DC Lens
The DMC-ZS5 features a 25mm ultra wide-angle* 12x optical zoom f/3.3-4.9 LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens (35mm camera equivalent: 25-300mm). Incorporating Panasonic's advanced optical technologies, this lens system is comprised of 10 elements in 8 groups, with 2 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) lenses and 2 aspherical lenses / 3 aspherical surfaces while preserving compactness. This lens system enables a remarkable 25 to 300mm range of focal length in this compact body. The powerful zoom of the DMC-ZS5can be freely controlled even when shooting motion images. Inheriting the fine rendering and outstanding quality of the LEICA ELMAR lens, this easy-to-carry camera delivers beautiful images any time, any place.

* Converted to standard 35mm camera equivalent, at the maximum wide position.

Powerful 12x Optical Zoom
The DMC-ZS5 features a powerful 12x optical zoom lens (35mm camera equivalent: 25-300mm). This gives you highly natural expressions from people and animals that you can't get close to. It is also available in movie recording with the mechanism designed to minimize the noise of auto focusing or zooming. And its slim, compact, pocket-sized body can easily go wherever you do for both everyday snapshots and traveling.

25mm Ultra Wide-angle Lens
The 25mm ultra wide-angle lens* has about twice the shooting area as a standard 35mm lens. This enhances all kinds of shooting situations, like when you're photographing a group of people at an indoor party or shooting a large structure or sweeping landscape while traveling.

16x Intelligent Zoom / 23.4x Extra Optical Zoom
Thanks to the newly incorporated Intelligent Resolution technology, the Intelligent Zoom is available with the DMC-ZS5 which extends the zoom ratio by approx. 1.3x maintaining the picture quality even combining a digital zoom. This means the 12x optical can virtuall

Customer Reviews

 PANASONIC ZS5 BEST IN CLASS? - Sep 03, 2010

The question is whether the Panasonic ZS5 is the best in the 2010 class of point and shoot cameras. In my humble opinion it is. All of the reviews written against this camera, for example poor picture quality and not a real 12X Optical Zoom(you've got to be kidding), are simply not true. Even the favorable reviews are not necessarily true. I have been taking photos of some kind over 45 years and I have yet to find the "perfect" camera. Of course, I am not a professional, but I feel I am more than just the casual photographer.

I have tested the ZS5 camera against an older, but more expensive Casio Exlim 7.2 Megapixels and my Nikon D70. All of these cameras are very good, but I wanted to take a more versatile camera on our recent trip to Alaska. The picture quality was just simply outstanding. Were all of them perfect? Did all the 500 plus photos turn out with perfect contrast, sharpness, and focus? No, to both questions. But taking pictures of Orca whales on the move, which turned out very good, and a still picture over Resurrection Bay are quite different. The camera performed in excellent fashion when properly used. For example, in manual mode it took almost perfect pictures of the moon rising over the mountains on Resurrection Bay and in IA, the camera performed very well in the sunlight over Exit Glacier. However, you will get washed out colors, especially on white capped mountains when taking the picture into the light. But that is what most any camera would likely do. One review accurately noted that putting the camera in Scene mode would be very beneficial and I agree with this observation. And of course, Manual, Aperture, and Shutter speed modes are all there to learn and use to take better pictures by anyone.

The camera also did an excellent job with the true 12X optical zoom plus the 4X digital. Excellent quality if one holds the camera still.
As other reviews have noted, the ZS5 does an outstanding job taking macro zoom pictures. Taking video movies with the camera also showed excellent results; just don't move the camera too quickly.

I highly recommend the Pansonic ZS5 digital camera as an all around camera. To those who are still undecided as to which point and shoot camera to buy, you will not be disappointed with the Panasonic ZS5. For those who have purchased the camera, stay with it.

In conclusion, this is still a point and shoot digital camera. These cameras have come a long way in quality and price reduction. All of the major companies make great point and shoot cameras, but that is exactly what they are. These kinds of cameras have a place for good photography but are no match for a digital SLR, but again, when hiking up the Harding Ice Fields near Seward, Alaska, the Panasonic ZS5 was a perfect litte pocket camera to carry.

 Amazing little camera that does it all! - Aug 31, 2010

I just received this camera and it's so intuitively designed, I was able to quickly discover its amazing ability to do everything from a wide screen format to a giant zoom to tight closeups - all from a small pocket size device. It works well in low light, easy to disable/enable flash, change settings, move into different modes, etc. Given the camera's size, the picture quality is also far better than I expected. Easy to download files from the card or the usb cable. The movie mode creates very high quality files. I will no longer be lugging around large cameras and lenses!

 Not Sure Of Picture Quality Yet - Aug 28, 2010

I purchased the Panasonic ZS5 camera in early August. I have taken a cpuple of hundred pictures and several videos with the camera. The camera is user friendly but I would like to be able to refer to the operation manual while learning the features of the camera. The Instruction manual comes on a CD in the form of an Adobe PFD file that is some 170 pages in length. It is not a handy reference item to carry with you, although I could print the info to carry around while learning the operation.

The camera has worked incredibley well in the video mode, although the file is quite large.

I have tried to use several of the options in the picture modes. The pictures look very good on the camera screen, but when downloaded to the computer and cropped to a standard picture size to be printed (5x7, 8x10 etc.),they are quite "noisey" or "grainy" in a lot of cases. They can be improved with photo editing software, but I am disapointed that they have to be worked on that much.

I have not printed any of the pictures yet. I think that the printed copies, after editing, will prove to be acceptable in most cases, but they do not appear to be as sharp and crisp as pictures fron my small Canon point and shoot or my Canon DSLR.

Further work, knowledge, and refinement on operation of the camera may correct all of the negatives I feel at this time. The 12x optical zoom is great in a small point and shoot camera. And it has a lot of desirable features. Pictures seem to just be a little soft in most cases.

 If you enjoy customization, this is for you - Aug 23, 2010

Perfect for the advanced photographer looking to customize his point and shoot experience.

Don't pick this camera up and use the "intelligent auto" function. If you do this, your photos won't come out the way you want, you'll have basically no customization, and you shelled out an extra $100+ when you could have bought a coolpix.

However, after taking my time learning this camera and all of its features, I find that I can take a nice, clear, zoomed, photo in almost any motion, brightness, color, hue, setting, scene, etc. I use the "A" or "scn" setting on almost all my photos. Also, the zoom is very, very nice.

Some of the photos look a little matted (2D) when enlarged, but for the most part the pictures come out very nice looking. Until you go to make posters of photos taken of moving targets in the dark, you'll be fine with this piece of technology.

I paired it with a sandisk class 10 30MB/s 8gb card and that allows me to use the "hi-speed burst" setting to take nearly 70 consecutive photos before outrunning my buffer.

The best: awesome image stabilization lets me take movies and pictures without shaking or blur even with shutter speeds as slow as 6sec without a tripod. Because of this, I rarely ever need the flash.

The worst: I keep leaving it at friend's houses. I guess others might find it not so appealing to have to read about their camera prior to optimal operation, but I liked that part.

 Horrible display image - Aug 21, 2010

I would not recommend this camera. It had a horrible LCD display and the video it took was terrible quality. With all the great sub compact cameras out there I would strongly reccomend finding another one to buy.

 Great travel camera - Aug 18, 2010

I wanted a small pocket camera for when I travel. I looked at several other cameras from Nikon, Fuji, Kodak, etc and decided to give the Panasonics a tried. I tried the DMC-FH20. I found it too small for my hands to use and the lens performance was not to my liking. I felt my fingers were getting in the way of the camera's flash and sensors. Some of the pictures just weren't sharp enough for me. I exchanged it for the DMC-ZS5. It had all the features I wanted. The ZS7 has GPS which is not that important to me. I couldn't justify the added cost for that feature.

Pros:
I like the physical size and the hand grip. It feels well balance with controls that are easy to reach. Thumb of right hand holding the camera is comfortable and doesn't interfere with any control.

Lens is genuine Lecia lens. Larger higher quality lens then the one used on the FH20. In order for cameras to be built smaller, you have to compromise on the lens quality.

Images in good light are excellent. Photos are sharp with good depth of field.

Optical lens range from 25 to 300 is fantastic. This camera is getting me to think about retiring my older Kodak P712.

Menu system is pretty straight forward. Took some time to learn were everything is, but getting use to it. I most cases I just push buttons and found out how to access the different features without having the read the manual.

Shot short video clips that came out great. Beats having to carry a video camera as well.


Cons:
Low light performance is not as good as my older Kodak P712. Experience a lot more noisy and out of focus photos.

Weak flash good for close distances only. I did supplement it with a slave flash for night time and some indoor shooting.

I would have preferred a push button for the review instead of the slide switch. With how much I switch back and forth from camera to review mode, I don't know if the slide switch is going to hold up.

Shooting at 12 megapixels creates large files of about 6 meg each. This takes up hard drive space and takes 3 times longer to upload to printing service like Shutterfly as compared to my older 7.1 megapixel Kodak P712.

Bottom line:
I highly recommend the camera. I am still learning the different program modes and seeing how they work. Every camera has its own design personality with things I like and dislike. With that in mind you just have to learn what the limitations are and how to work with them. Over all I happy with this camera.

 great camera! - Aug 10, 2010

got it as a present for the wife and she loves it. camera works great and it was actually cheaper on amazon than at retail.

 Fantasic camera with flaws and high learning curve - Jul 30, 2010

Firstly, this is Not a 12x optical zoom or 16x zoom camera. It's zoom is 16x from the camera's starting point, which is not normal 1x vision. Meaning: when you look at something with your own eyes, and then look at it through the camera, that object is further away looking through the camera. Which allows the camera to take a wider field of view picture. But 2x optical zoom on the camera gives the same distance as if you are looking at the object without the camera. Which means 16x zoom is actually only 8x true zoom. And it's not even all optical! That was my biggest issue, as I was looking for a super-zoom camera and was disappointed to find out this truly isn't one.

Secondly, this camera has a High learning curve. Repeat: HIGH learning curve. Annoyingly so. The camera takes amazing pictures whenever the settings are correct for the situation. The problem is no one setting is correct for even just all the most common situations, and what you want to photograph can change on you fast. And the instruction book that comes with it has NO information on the dozens of different pictures modes and options. (I haven't checked the digital PDF document on the CD to see if there's a real instruction manual on there.) Here's just the stuff I remember right now of what I've found:
- The intelligent auto feature works well outdoors in normal light, but very not well other times.
- The "A" mode works indoors in normal light, but not low, and in sunlight.
- Portrait works in indoor bright light and outdoor shade or other low light.
- Baby 1 works best for high action, like dancing and sports.
- Self-portrait is the only mode that maintains the self-timer setting you choose between pictures.
- To get a fast recovery speed between picture taking you need to turn off image review.
- Oh, and more than half the time you'll want to set the flash to force off to get true colors!
- Etc, etc.

Last negative in my opinion is that the door that covers the battery and SD card and is held closed by a latch is very flimsy. I fully expect that's gonna be the first thing to break.

On the plus side:
- the video this camera takes is excellent quality. I was surprised at how much detail and how fine the resolution. Just keep in mind the camera can't light for a video, so it won't work in darker situations. But get a large SD card so you can take longer length videos!
- "MS" mode (which is My Scene) is handy because you can customize a scene and save it under MS for later use quickly.
- the navigation controls on the back of the camera are easy to learn and well placed for fingers.
- fits in a purse easy, and normal pockets too
- the panorama assist is very cool!

Overall, the camera is too flexible without giving help on how to make it work best, but when you come across the right settings it does fantastic stuff.

 A good Point and Shoot - Jul 28, 2010

I have a significant amount of Nikon Pro level equipment and do some commercial photography. I wanted a P&S that was around $200 that could be used as a travel camera.

I have not used any of the scene modes, but the Intelligence mode and the aperture and shutter modes work extremely well. The zoom and stabilization work very well. Mostly importantly for me, the images are incredibly sharp. This is a camera you need to speed sometime with unless you want to only use the Intelligence mode - but remember this is a 25mm-300mm (35mm eqiv.) zoom and it can take advantage of all of the power built into this little camera.

It is not a substitute for a $3000 DSLR and f2.8 zoom, but it will take very good images if you spend some time learning all of its features. I'm picky about my images (website: [...])

Upto 13 x 19" printed images look good. There are lots of choices now in travel zooms, the ZS5 is a good one at a fair price point.
This camera is good enough that getting photoshop elements (less than $100) will let you really learn photography.
Because of the small sensor the limited f stop range is not a real problem when it comes to depth of field. F6.3 on a camera this size is like f11 or so on a DSLR.

The Intelligence zoom gives you 16X and it is very hard to tell from the 12x optical - looking at 100% resolution at the pixel level.
Given that this camera has a "super zoom" and lots of settings besides the Intelligence or program mode, I rate it very highly. With so many ways to configure this camera, the only problem I see is taking the time to use it to learn it before you head off to Europe or Africa, or on vacation here in the US.

 HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE - Jul 28, 2010

Great camera, but I received a broken battery charger, and the process to get it replaced under warranty has been ridiculous. Panasonic seems to have horrible customer service. I still haven't received a replacement charger after speaking to them several times. This is ridiculous. Even if I love the camera after using it for a while, I would never buy another Panasonic.

 Disappointing - Jul 27, 2010

Unless you are a serious photographer this camera is a waste!! Automatic settings create lousy pictures. Very complicated to figure out. have not yet figured out how to make corrections so the colors come out closer to what they should be. Bought this because of the reviews and features, but the truth is in the pictures and they are lousy!!

 Great camera - UNRELIABLE Panasonic replacement battery quality; POOR Panasonic customer support - Jul 22, 2010

First, the positive: Bought the camera (Panasonic Lumix DMZ-ZS5) in April 2010. I find this to be a great super-light "pocket" camera with an excellent feature-set (super-wide angle lens, optical image stabilization, intelligent resolution, large variety of auto-exposure settings, and manual exposure control). Several previous reviewers have done a great job explaining these features, so I won't repeat them here. I consider myself an advanced user, and I like to experiment with several exposures for each composition (whether using this point-n-shoot, or my SLR) - so I always like to travel with (at least) a couple of spare, fully-charged batteries. The battery that came with the camera seems to work as advertised and I am happy with its performance.

Now, the negative (or, why 2 stars?): Based on warnings from other reviewers (both here and elsewhere), I decided to buy two brand-new Panasonic replacement batteries (from the Amazon marketplace). I checked that these were IDENTICAL to the one that came in the original box (DMW-BCG10pp). However, owing to work/travel commitments, I did not get a chance to test out these new batteries for over 3.5 months. Just recently, I took the batteries out of their packaging, charged them, and tried to use them. But the ZS5 refuses to recognize the battery, shutting down within 3-4 seconds with the message: "This battery cannot be used". I waited several hours, recharged the batteries, and tried again - with the same result. I looked online and found that this message results from ID-secure feature built into their cameras to identify non-Panasonic battery packs.

I then tried Panasonic's web-site, but found nothing related to either battery problems or firmware updates for the ZS5/ZS7. So, I called Panasonic's customer/tech support (U.S.), hoping for some sort of a firmware download or some other "re-setting" procedure that would let me over-ride the camera error-message. To my surprise (and after three phone-transfers), instead of helping me figure out why TWO, BRAND NEW, Panasonic batteries were being rejected by their own camera, the rep kept insisting that I bought the battery over 90-days ago, so they cannot help me! Now perhaps I am naive, but I consider a battery to be brand new (within a reasonable time-limit, of course), as long as it has not been abused or used before - so it should not matter whether I bought the batteries 90 days vs. 110 days previously (at the time I called them).

During our extensive online review prior to buying this camera, the battery issue never come up. But now when I type the exact camera-error message in Google, I get several hits on this subject (all pertaining to Panasonic Lumix cameras). I am now stuck abroad with only a single working battery, and TWO BRAND-NEW batteries that don't work! Yes, I could buy two more brand now ones here, and fork out an even higher price - but what if those don't work either? And what if the only working battery fails at some point?

So, I wanted to put this warning out there that in spite of Panasonic's advertised "stringent" standards that purportedly make their batteries so much better, their camera's failure tolerance seems to be so tight that many of their own batteries fall outside of it! So, the lessons learnt for me are: (1) Don't expect that the "Panasonic" brand implies a guarantee of quality or reasonable customer/technical support; (2) If you plan to buy any Panasonic Lumix camera, or any of their new ID-secured battery based cameras, check online for 'battery cannot be used' or 'battery failure' for that camera before purchasing; (3) Be prepared to go through the hassle of trying out several replacement batteries, EVEN if you buy Panasonic's own; and (4) Thoroughly test out any spare replacement batteries you buy within the first 90 days (I guess the last one's a "DUH!").

I have never bought a camera outside of Canon before, and will most likely go back to Canon after this - I am afraid I cannot trust Panasonic to "do the right thing" at this point.Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 2.7-Inch LCD (Black)

 Great Camera for Price - Jul 19, 2010

I was looking for a compact camera that had a lot of options. This one does it!

 Dont think BUY - Jul 17, 2010

Really doesnt need to many words. Do the research, this camera is the best in this price range. Dont worry about the lack of 100s of reviews on amazon. More buy more review.

 Super, wonderful little camera! - Jul 15, 2010

I got this camera for my horseback riding vacation to Scotland. It did not disappoint. I used the 'intelligent auto' mode and can't say enough good about it. The zoom and quality of photos was incredible! The image stabilization worked like a charm. The wide angle was fantastic for the vistas of the Highlands. The motion picture mode and continuous shooting features are also excellent. The software is very user friendly and the directions on how to use the features is excellent. I took one extra battery and a 16 GB card (didn't want to run out of room). Originally I only wanted to spend $150 or so. But am sooo happy I went the extra and purchased this camera!

 Panasonic DMC ZS5 vs Canon SX 210 vs Nikon S8000 - Jul 08, 2010

The title of my comments presents the dilemma I had before going to a camera shop and holding them, testing them and talking with the salesman. My research suggested, despite the media hype and ads and especially Consumer Reports high recommendation of the Nikon, that I select the Panasonic and I did and I think it is GREAT!!!!!!! It is the only one of the three in its "macro zoom" point and shoot class that had a built in flash (not an annoying pop-up that conflicts with one's hand), has a battery charger that plugs directly into the electrical socket (don't we all have too many adapters and chargers in our lives already to deal with still another cord???!!), had versatility of both Auto and powerful Manual, had nicely placed and useful controls and had a "handle" to make it easier for this medium sized woman's hand to hold the camera steadily and comfortably. The photos are just fine and superior to the Canon Supershot 1200 IS that launched me into the digital photography world. I plan to use the Canon from time to time, but I am looking forward to my new Lumix world-- for travelling and recording sporting events -- and hope others join me.

One question: "What do you recommend for a camera case for the Panasonic ZS5?" Semi soft case? hard? And what manufacturer and model?

Thanks!

 Excellent in daylight, needs some handling at night - Jul 08, 2010

I'm not a pro photographer but I do understand the basic of photography. This camera is very good. In daylight you can get excellent pictures whether you use manual or automatic settings. The iA works quite well too.. in iA the chosen scenery mode shows up when you try to focus the picture, and it has been quite impressive so far. However, things are not that easy at night.... I took many night photos in NY city. When the flash is on, the photos came out fuzzy in many cases. Things got better when i forced the flash off, but the photos came out dimmer naturally. I think the image stabilization becomes very sensitive in low light (you really have to be very still to take a good photo with the flash on)...

Controls, build, and ease-of-use are all very good and live up to expectation. The battery/flash locking piece is a bit flimsy, but is holding on so far....

Things I love about this camera:
- excellent photo quality in daylight
- excellent zoom
- excellent HD video and stabilized/smoothed zoom-in during video shoot.

I do recommend this camera as a point and shoot.... but remember it is point and shoot +++ but not an SLR.

 AMAZING Camera!!! - Jul 06, 2010

This camera is AMAZING!! I was shopping for a new camera before taking a vacation in France. I wanted to be able to take focused photos without a flash, take photos quickly and have colors and light register truthfully. This camera did ALL of this. The Leica lens is what sold me, and for the price...its a joke how good this is.

 Excellent value, well designed camera - Jul 02, 2010

The good points of this camera have been well described. For me, size and layout of controls are excellent...any smaller and it would be difficult to handle. The controls and menu selections are easy to use. And, overall, picture quality is good to excellent. That said, most of my photos are scenery, usually involving contrast in brightness, colors, and depth of field. In scenery mode, camera will not focus closer than 5 meters, so need to be aware of that.

OK, one BIG complaint. I got into photography ages ago, when rangefinder 35 mm (Leica) cameras were about the best, then SLRs were developed. My previous digital cameras all had viewfinders. The problem is...MOST compact digitals rely on a battery hungry LCD display that is not worth squat in sunlight! I've tried to photograph incredible vistas...sun and clouds, ranges of mountains, mists, etc., without much guidance from the LCD display. Granted a good viewfinder (parallex correction, etc.) would add to costs, but...for so many situations it would really help!

 An astonishingly excellent camera on manual, a mediocre point-and-shoot otherwise. - Jun 28, 2010

The Panasonic Lumix ZS5 a.k.a TZ8 is purportedly a point-and-shoot camera. However, if the auto setting is all you will ever use it on, you'll probably be disappointed by its performance. This is not a camera which you can simply set on auto, aim, click the button and expect the pictures to come out excellent all the time.

My experience with the intelligent auto has been hit or miss so far. To be blunt, the 'intelligent auto' does not seem exceedingly intelligent at all, and it loves bumping up the ISO (grainy pictures) and pulling out the flash in circumstances where using the said flash doesn't seem to make much sense (wasting battery and resulting in ugly photos). To be fair, it performs excellently when taking pictures in bright outdoor conditions, but if you plan to take pictures indoor and it is the slightest bit dim, the auto doesn't seem to do too well and I ended up with a lot of blurry photos that way. Even with the flash deployed.

After spending about a couple of hours taking a bit of time to understand the manual modes and the appropriate settings of each, however, the mediocre point-and-shoot camera became an excellent little camera. The manual modes allow you a lot more leeway on how you want the photo taken, and thus override the choices the irritating auto mode makes, thus saving your indoor photos. You can also do a lot of experimental pictures. (In fact at the smallest aperture setting, the camera allows you to keep the shutter open for a staggering 60 seconds!). So if you know at least a little bit of basic photography and are willing to do your own settings, the camera manages to perform to its full potential and you can get some truly excellent photos.

If you're not too keen on reading up on fstops and shutter speeds and whatnot, I should mention the camera does get along quite respectably on its preset scenery modes. There's a pretty nice selection of them, covering outdoors, night scenes, food shots, macro etc. An important thing about getting good shots while using these modes is to give the IA a lot of time to "make up its mind" how it wants to take the photo by halfway depressing the button before you take a photo. Do watch for the indicator on the LCD to turn green before committing the shot. There's also a high-speed burst option, which scales down your pictures to about 4 megapixels but allows to you take a lot of pictures in succession very very quickly. (Note: You can also shortcut to this mode under the MS setting on the mode dial)

As you all know, the huge Leica lens on this camera is the main attraction and it lives up to its hype. It's advertised as 16x zoom, but only 12x of it is optical, the rest of it done by "intelligent zoom", which is basically a surprisingly almost-indistinguishable-from-optical digital zoom. The zoom also works (limited however) in macro zoom mode, which can result in some amazing macro shots. The camera also has conventional digital zoom (which went up to a staggering 90+ times zoom) , but you have to navigate the camera's controls to turn it on because by default it's turned off. The non-intelligent digital zoom however, does produce grainy pictures, but this is expected of digital zoom anyway.

When you have a strong zoom, the image stabilization capabilities of a camera become extremely important, and the ZS5 seems to have that covered. I did some testing shooting out of a moving car, sometimes with maximum optical zoom and the camera managed to deliver surprisingly clear pictures despite that.

I actually liked the slightly larger size of the camera, since it made it far easier to hold, but the thing that tipped the balance in this camera's favour for me were the controls, which shy away from pressing buttons as much as possible (Sorry Canon, but you lost out to the Lumix in the end because of this). Dials and switches are less prone to accidental pressings, and a nice little feature is that the camera will still recognize situations where the power switch has been left on by accident and will shut itself down to save the battery.

The battery life is ok, but not particularly amazing. I would recommend getting a spare battery to keep on hand. Do keep in mind however the battery is a proprietary Panasonic one, and the firmware on the camera will recognize imitation batteries and refuse to use them.

The HD video is very nice, although the sound recording is only in mono. The upshot of this camera is that the zoom can be used with the video, and I was very pleased with that because it really does make a lot of difference when you're taking videos of something far away so that you can actually see the thing instead of it being a black silhouette. It does not use the same recording format as the other cameras in the ZS3 or ZS5 however, so if I am not mistaken, the video recordings will take up more space on your SD card.

Overall, I am quite happy with this camera, but like I said before, this camera doesn't do too well as a simple point-and-shoot for the casual user. It takes a while to learn to use to get the best out of it. I would however, recommend this camera for people with a casual interest in photography, and aren't afraid to experiment with their own settings. I would also recommend this camera to people who are into photography but want a compact camera with an excellent zoom without having to lug around a DSLR and lens bag.

Pricewise, I think it's quite reasonable, and I don't think you can get another superzoom camera from any other camera maker for this price range. Although if you find a ZS3 (the older higher end model of this same series) for about the same price, you won't lose out by getting the ZS3 either.

 great small camera - Jun 25, 2010

I was attracted to the ZS5 because of Leica lens quality and the versatility of the 12X optical Zoom and the ability to take movies. The camera exceeded all my expectations. The pictures I have taken so far are very good, and I expect them to get better as I become use to the manual controls and automatic setting. Plus the small size means I call haul the camera every where instead of a bulky camera bag with a heavy long lens SLR. Now I not saying the ZS5 will replace a good SLR camera, but it does a great job in a small portable package.

I think the thing that surprised me the most was the ease and quality of the moves. I tried a few and now I am hooked. So the feature I though I would use the least is now my favorite.

 Panasonic DMC-ZS5 Not Acceptable - Jun 23, 2010

Pros: Wide angle lens, Great zoom, Compact size
Cons: iAuto is iDumb, Features Don't Work, Very Bad Flash Performance
My Uses: Live Music Videos, Live Music Pics, Portraits

Use: I take pics of live music acts, especially in large venues and small clubs, so I want a compact camera with long zoom, wide angle, and good low light performance.

Present camera: Canon A720is, 8MP, 6x zoom, 35mm equivalent lens, 2.8, 1600ISO

The specs on this Panasonic DMC-ZS5 are so promising, and the performance is so disappointing.

There are two KILLER REASONS that I have rated this camera Not Acceptable.

1. The flash performance is totally unacceptable. About 1 out of 10 pics come out exceedingly blue tinted. Take a look at the pics in this link. Two consecutive shots within the same minute, same camera settings, stage lighting did NOT change.

[...]

The tinted pics can be approximately corrected in software with -15% blue and +15% red, if one was willing to do that. I'm not.

2. I could not get any of the advertised "Focus Lock" features to work. I tried AF Tracking and both Continuous AF modes. No matter what I tried, when I pressed the shutter button, the camera still went through the Auto-Focus process. The AF-Assist lamp even came on. Panasonic claims a 0.005 second shutter lag with these "Focus Lock" modes; not achievable.

I have 21 OTHER REASONS why this camera is not a good choice. Here's just a few. If anybody wants to know more of them, I'll be glad to post.

3. For what I do, the iAuto mode is essentially useless. All of the indoor live music shots that I tried came out blurred. The reason being that iAuto decided that they were "Night Portraits" and shot them at 1/8 second or so.

4. Almost all of my pics were coming out too dark. I had to continually use EV of +1 or +2.

5. The slow speed of the 2-speed zoom is essentially useless. The zoom lever is way too touchy to access the slow speed.

6. The software PhotoFunStudio quit working. "Cannot continue the operation because the folder or file is being registered." I didn't bother to try re-installing it.

7. The Hi-Sensitivity Mode (ISO6400) is pretty much useless. I was shooting Av mode at 1600ISO and getting a shutter speed of 1/20, which was kinda slow. So, I switched to Hi-Sensitivity and guess what, I got the same ISO and shutter speed, except at reduced resolution. Why bother?

8. The Quick Menu is incomplete. Still have to use the main menu for some settings, like turning Intelligent-ISO on/off. Having two menus just confuses the issue. Looks like two menus were designed by two different groups of people who didn't talk with each other.

9. In iAuto I took a night flash portrait @ Tv=1/8 Av=3.3 ISO=400 Size=2560x1920. Why wasn't the size 4000x3000, like I asked for?

10. I sent messages to Panasonic, via their web site, about #1 and #2. No response after 7 days. And, the message text block on their site doesn't allow enough characters to explain problem, nor will it accept attachments.

11. - 23. Contact me if you really want to know. Reasons 1. through 10. should be enough to scare you away.

 LOVE IT!!! - Jun 17, 2010

I has a much older Panasonic with a 6x zoom but wanted an update. The Optical stabilizer on my old camera wasn't impressive. I always got blur when using the zoom. Not so with this camera! The zoom is amazing! I lowered the pixel count to 9 and the zoom increases. Amazingly clear zoom shots! I have noticed some fuzziness in night shots, but I have never used anything but the auto mode. The reaction to my pictures is overwhelming! Everyone thinks I'm a pro and have a $$$$$ camera!

 Great quick pix camera - Jun 08, 2010

This is the second Panasonic Lumix that I've purchased. The first was stolen. I love the sharpness of the images and the color clarity.
The marriage of Panasonic and Leica is a good one.

 Panney Lumix ZS-5 - Jun 05, 2010

I've used the camera for a month and I carry it with me almost all the time. For a point and shoot it is superb. I leave it in Program AE. Due to the lens limitation it has very shallow DOF so I just forget that aspect of creativity. If I want that I'll use my Nikon DSLR. Manual is not as easy to use as say a Canon S-90 but it is OK. It's feel, fit and finish to my hand is excellent. It has a solid feeling not like a plastic toy camera. Some might think it's too heavy, but I like it. Picture quality is excellent and the opitcal zoom is great. It would be near perfect with a larger sensor and an f2.0 lens.