#>> Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 12.1MP Digital Camera with 8x POWER Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Red) Reviews
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 12.1MP Digital Camera with 8x POWER Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (Red) Features
- 12.1-megapixel resolution
- 25mm wide-angle Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens; 8x zoom, Power O.I.S.
- Capture HD video at 1280×720, 30fps
- 2.7-inch TFT LCD screen
- Capture images to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)
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| Store | Rating | Prices | Shipping | Link |
| H AND B DIGITAL | 4.9 New |
USD 259.95 | Usually ships in 24 hours |  |
Customer Reviews
My old digital camera is now some seven years old and has only two megapixels of resolution. Clearly, it was time to upgrade. After a lot of online research, I went with the Panasonic because of a high rating at the [...] site (always a “must consult” before making high-tech purchases). The camera is stunning in appearance, almost jewel-like. I ordered the metallic red model and it is just beautiful. It reminds me of an expensive wristwatch, say a Rolex. The camera is almost exactly the size of a deck of playing cards and is quite heavy for its size. It feels solid, as though it were made to industrial specs. It is anything but plastic or toylike. The small moving parts feel precision made and strong. Nothing flimsy about this camera.
When first charging the battery with the plug-in wall charger, it took several hours to reach full charge. Not knowing how much memory is required for high resolution photos, I bought an 8 Gig SDHC memory card. I figured this would probably suffice for say, 100 shots. I later Googled the subject and discovered that high-res JPEG photos in the 12 Megapixel range translate into about 1500 photos with this card!! Well, this was clearly a case of overkill and I would go with a 4 Gig card were I to order it today.
I took my camera outside on a bright and sunny day, and determined to see how sharp it’s 12 Megapixel images can be, placed the camera on a tripod for really steady shots. I found that it is very hard to see the LCD screen in bright sunlight. I had to hold my hand over the screen to aim the camera. It wasn’t possible to make out fine detail but I could see well enough to aim the camera composition-wise. The wide angle works great indoors and I was very pleased with the zoom function. It’s impressive. I also made a few indoor shots and found that the flash worked unexpectedly well. In general, well lit rooms photograph with sharp and clear colors but darker spaces take on a more contrasty appearance. My photos were generally sharp and detailed. Colors were good. It is obvious that 8 by 10 enlargements with no loss of detail, are a breeze for this camera. Who needs 11 by 14’s for family snapshots? One downside though. This camera has a problem with high contrast subjects. My first digital camera does too, so maybe it’s characteristic of digital designs. For example, when shooting dark green trees against a brightly sunlit street, the camera lowered exposure to capture the street at the cost of making the trees unnaturally dark and losing shadow detail. There is a built in menu-selected exposure compensation (EV +/-), and perhaps this will solve the issue. I suspect it will but have not played with this function yet.
A final point. The software is lousy. It’s bloated at about 400 Megs and has the usual “photo editing” functions for correcting red-eye and re-organizing photos. Slooowww to install, the software uses Microsoft’s NET.framework platform. This caused my computer (I run Windows XP home SP3), to download four updates over the next day or so. The software also ran automatically and without my permission, ALL of my photos. These number over two thousand and would have gone on for hours. I could not find anyway to disable this feature and had to open the My Music folder to stop it. The software would not run with the camera until it finished “reviewing” all of my photos. Fed up, I removed the software completely. One bright note, it does un-install quickly and cleanly.
A hot tip: Go to the [...] site and download the FastStone Image Viewer. This is a wonderful photo editor and completely free. I swear by it.
There is no mention of this on the box, but the software will run on Win 7 as well as Apple’s OS X Snow Leopard. An included leaflet says that it will not run with Mac OS.
When I connected the camera to my computer directly, with no Panasonic software…good riddance, my computer immediately recognized ths camera as an “F: drive” and downloaded photos through Windows. This worked perfectly. I conclude that it will likely work fine with Apple too. Just treat the camera as a thumb-drive. In conclusion, this is a beautiful camera which I got at the earlier price of about 2 with free shipping, and is likely the last snapshot camera I will ever need. With a bit of exposure compensation (EV adjustments), for contrasty subjects, I’m certain the camera will be perfect for your general snapshot needs. I recommend this one, but about that sudden price increase…
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