Panasonic DMC- LZ3 Review: Full Review. Panasonic DMC- LZ3 Overviewby Aimee Baldridge & Dave Etchells. Review posted: 0. Note: The Panasonic LZ3 is so similar to the previously reviewed LZ5, we've only changed the relevant details. If you've already read that review, please feel free to skip to the conclusion below, and test results sections under the Optics, Exposure, and Performance tabs. The Panasonic LZ3 is in most ways a typical compact snapshot camera, providing a good selection of automatic features and not much in the way of manual control. But it stands out from the crowd by providing a 6x optical zoom range of 6. Lumix cameras. There are two stabilization modes, and while the first produces only a minor difference while stabilizing the LCD preview somewhat, the second mode captures a much more noticeably sharp image than what you'll get without the OIS at slower shutter speeds. Image stabilization is really a very worthwhile feature on a camera, it makes it a lot easier to get sharp photos when shooting under limited lighting. The Panasonic LZ3 rejoins the compact- camera herd by forgoing an optical viewfinder in favor of making room for a large LCD, a choice that has mixed results. The Panasonic DMC- LZ3 also implements its zoom function a little different from most cameras: At all resolutions lower than the 5. View and Download Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3 operating instructions manual online. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3. Brand index Panasonic Panasonic Compact Cameras. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3. Announced Jan 4, 2006 Since the image is already cropped due to your resolution choice, there's no degradation of the image quality from this, the net result being an overall zoom range of 7. Panasonic LZ3's lens alone produces. If you're shooting at a lower resolution anyway, this is handy, a very legitimate use of digital zoom that's transparent to the user. Available in both black and silver finishes, this Lumix has an understated look. Its lightweight plastic body is peppered with a moderate number of physical controls and a single silver and gray accent that extends from one side of the lens and curls around the shallow grip. Panasonic Lumix Dmc-lz3 Software DownloadsAlthough it has some rounded edges, the Panasonic LZ3 is a fairly boxy camera that doesn't conform as closely to the hand as some other compact cameras with more ergonomically fashioned grips. However, even though it was not as one with my hand, the Panasonic LZ3 wasn't uncomfortable to hold. Neither ultracompact nor too bulky, the Panasonic LZ3 measures 3. The Lumix DC Vario lens retracts into a base that extends about half an inch from the body, and its surface is protected by a built- in cover when you're not shooting. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3/LZ5. Windows users get two additional products on the software CD. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 is a very good point. Business Software Solutions. Panasonic DMC-LZ5 and DMC-LZ3. 2158 Upwardly mobile Sony a6300 Review 336 Power Zoom Panasonic Lumix ZS100/TZ100 Review 2494. Panasonic lumix dmc lz3 manual is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as. Panasonic LZ3 Operation. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3's user interface is straightforward and should present a. Buy the Panasonic DMC-LZ3. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 Reviews and Comparisons DigitalCameraInfo. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3 Reviews; Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1 Reviews. That makes the camera compact enough to carry in the pocket of your jacket or cargo pants, although probably not your shirt. It comes with a handstrap as well. The Panasonic Lumix LZ3's forte is taking pictures of people. It gives you plenty of options to choose from: There's a plain Portrait mode that warms up skin tones and lowers contrast a bit, as well as a Soft Skin mode that adds a bit of blur to skin tones. While a few of the pictures I took with this mode were a little too blurry for my taste, many of them had a nicely soft effect and toned down the harsh highlights of the flash. The red- eye- reduction flash mode often works well, although it fails to prevent red eyes occasionally, and there's a slow- sync mode with red- eye reduction too. If you're taking candid pictures late into the night and prefer to be unobtrusive, you can turn off the Panasonic LZ3's flash and use the High Sensitivity mode to boost the ISO and apply noise reduction. This degrades the image quality quite noticeably, but I was able to take some High Sensitivity shots lit only by a computer monitor that made decent- looking small prints. For photographing groups, you can use the Panasonic LZ3's Party mode, and when you want to get in the shot, you can set the self- timer in continuous- shooting mode. After a delay of two or 1. If you want to hand your camera off to photographically challenged friends, you can throw it into the Simple mode denoted by a heart on the mode dial for total automation. There are also Night Portrait and Candle modes that can improve photos of people in those settings, and there's a Baby mode too. You can even set up the Panasonic LZ3 to note the current age of two separate babies each time you take a photo of one of them in his or her dedicated Baby mode. If that's not enough information, you can record a voice annotation with a photograph in most shooting and playback modes. The Panasonic LZ3 is an average camera when it comes to photographing scenery. It provides automated Scenery, Night Scenery, Starry Sky, Fireworks, and Snow modes, along with a macro mode for close- ups. Some of these modes can use shutter speeds as slow as eight seconds, which can help both at night and when trying to get the right effect with subjects such as waterfalls and seasides. However, there isn't a panorama mode or any other special feature for photographing scenery. The 2,5. 60 x 1,4. Panasonic LZ3's widest angle of 3. Like all compact, inexpensive cameras, the Panasonic LZ3 makes some important compromises, many of which have to do with the camera's 2. LCD. Its large size is an advantage, and its viewing angle is wide enough that you can take pictures easily when holding the camera off to one side. There's also a useful High Angle mode that you can activate by pressing and holding the Display button. This alters the display to give you a good view when you're holding the camera above eye level. The LCD doesn't offer very high resolution, though, and while it gains- up to give you an adequate preview in even very low light, it's hard to use as a viewfinder in bright light. Adjusting the screen brightness didn't solve this problem, so I took a lot of outdoor photographs with one hand shading the LCD, and ended up just pushing the button and hoping for the best in many cases. Fortunately, the Panasonic LZ3's design lends itself to one- handed shooting, so using your left hand to shade the LCD isn't a problem, merely an inconvenience. The screen's relatively low resolution turned out to be much less of an issue, since there's no manual focus available and the LZ3's numerous autofocus options generally worked quickly and accurately. Another thing that the LCD affects is action photography. The Panasonic Lumix LZ3's three continuous- shooting modes allow you to hold the shutter release down and keep shooting at a nice clip; with the infinity mode the burst will last until your memory card fills. But the LCD preview can't refresh itself fast enough to keep up with a subject that's moving at even a modest pace. That means it's virtually impossible to use the Panasonic LZ3's continuous shooting mode with a tightly framed subject. To get the best results, you'll need to leave a good amount of space around your subject to keep it in the frame, and improve your photos' composition later by cropping them with image- editing software. The Panasonic LZ3's Sports mode tends to err on the side of preserving image quality by keeping the ISO setting at 2. That means it pushes shutter speeds down too, and most of our Sports mode shots had a lot of motion blur, even when taken in afternoon sunlight. An alternative for capturing action is the LZ3's video mode, which captures smooth VGA- resolution clips at 3. The image quality can't touch a camcorder's and there's no sound recording, but it's good enough for casual video mementos. One thing I liked about the Panasonic LZ3's LCD was its display options: You can activate a grid for composing by the Rule of Thirds, display a live histogram, or view current settings. That's largely a tease, though, since you can't set either parameter manually, aside from setting a lower limit of 1/8 second to one second for the shutter speed. If the shutter speed or aperture combination that the camera has selected isn't to your liking, you can use exposure compensation or autobracketing to get the camera to select another combination. The one exposure parameter that you do have control over is the ISO setting. You can select ISO values of 8. ISO automatically. There are no selectable metering modes on the Panasonic LZ3- -- an unusual omission these days even for a compact snapshot camera- -- but I generally got good exposures with the multizone metering that this camera uses. Battery. life is another important area affected by the large LCD. Panasonic is promoting the use of its oxyride AAs with this camera, but I didn't get more than an afternoon of shooting out of the requisite two cells. That was much better than the handful of shots a couple of alkaline cells gave me with the LZ3, but is less than a pair of high- capacity rechargeable Ni. MH batteries can produce, so those are clearly the best option for both your wallet and the environment. Panasonic helpfully provides an Economy mode on the LZ3. To save power, it reduces the LCD brightness, turns the LCD off quickly after you're done shooting, and puts the whole camera into sleep mode if you don't operate its controls for two minutes. If you prefer to keep your camera on and ready to shoot, you can use the Power Save function instead and set it to enter sleep mode as long as 1. In either case, the Lumix LZ3 wakes up from sleep mode and extends its lens very quickly when you press the shutter release button halfway. Panasonic doesn't put an AC adapter in the box with this camera, but you can avoid draining the batteries while downloading pictures by using a separate card reader instead of transferring shots directly from the camera. Panasonic is very justifiably proud that they've managed to bring optical image stabilization to their entire product line, from top to bottom. The Panasonic LZ3 did quite well overall in our testing, delivering good bright color, good resolution, and only moderate lens distortion. The large 2. 0- inch LCD screen is great for sharing your photos with friends, and makes the menus easier to see, but the difficulty of seeing the screen clearly under bright lighting often left us wishing for an optical viewfinder as well.
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