Top positive review
144 people found this helpful
Great pics and video - MAC user notes
By Happy in CA on Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2012
It was time to upgrade our old video camera AND point-and-shoot camera. I wanted a small, new camera that did BOTH really well, but was also small enough to fit in my purse or pocket. After much research, I decided on the Panasonic Lumix ZS19 (didn't go for the ZS20 since I can't see myself needing GPS on pics or videos.) So far, I'm really loving this camera. PICTURE QUALITY: I'm not a professional photographer, just a mom who needs a great camera on the go, and this fit the bill perfectly. Now that I see how good our videos look, I WISH I upgraded a long time ago. I first used the camera to take pics and video of my kids at an indoor TKD event, and several parents asked what kind of camera I was using because the photos were coming out so good! The indoor lighting varied from strong sunset coming in through the windows, to overhead fluorescent bulbs later in the evening, but I still was able to get great pics with and without the awesome 20x optical zoom ...and this was within hours of receiving the camera in the mail. I literally just needed to "point-and-shoot" to get great shots without knowing anything about the camera. SOMETHING TO KNOW IF YOU'RE USING A MAC: The software that comes with this camera is not compatible with a Mac, so the accompanying CD will only display a PDF copy of the user's manual, and NOT the software that is meant to be used with the camera. You can view and import your photos using iPhoto, HOWEVER, VIDEOS FROM THIS CAMERA WILL NOT DISPLAY IN iPHOTO. But there is a SIMPLE solution for this... After researching comments online, I found that by opening iMovie on my Mac, and selecting "IMPORT FROM CAMERA", I can easily and quickly import videos from this camera into iMovie. From there you can edit them, add music, text, etc., and then export your video to whatever format you want. I'm actually glad I discovered this because it forced me to open and use iMOVIE for the first time, and I've already made some incredible movies from the videos and pics I've taken with this camera. MEMORY CARD AND BATTERY COMMENT: Based on Amazon comments I read before I chose this camera, I also bought a "Class 10" memory card to go with it. I guess the "Class 10" is better for taking high-quality videos. The only thing I noticed is that taking video quickly drains the battery (albeit, I have the video quality set pretty high) so I also ordered a backup battery to have an extra on hand when I need it. This camera should probably not replace your video camera since you won't be able to take long movies due to the battery drain, but it's great for short clips here-and-there, which is pretty much all I take anyway. For what I needed, this camera was the perfect choice. I'm VERY pleased with it.
Top critical review
6 people found this helpful
Can't get past the screen, and pictures are very noisy
By Aly89 on Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2012
I purchased this camera after much debate with myself over getting a P&S Canon or this one. I had a Lumix before, and returned it for a Canon, and it looks like I'm going to be doing the same thing again. I purchased this camera refurbished, so perhaps that has something to do with my bad experience, but I really did not like the pictures from this camera, and the screen on it is HORRID. That's the biggest problem for me - the screen. Again, I bought a refurbished item and that may have something to do with it - but when I took a picture, and went to review it on this camera, the image on the LCD display was so terrible - extremely over sharpened, pixelated and noisy. The screen was also laggy/choppy. The image on the LCD screen also changed drastically from what I saw while taking the pic vs. what I saw after the pic was taken. What I saw BEFORE was darker and more true to color - and what I saw after was very washed out. What I saw on the computer matched neither. It was impossible to tell if I had captured an in-focus picture. Honestly, pictures displayed on the camera looked nothing like the actual picture I took once I viewed it on the computer. The images are much better on the computer, but they are still way too noisy, and I just didn't like photos from this camera. Because there is no viewfinder, not one picture I took was focused where I had wanted - it appeared so on the crappy LCD screen, but once loaded onto the computer and the image wasn't being over-sharpened and pixelated, the areas I focused on were blurry. Because of this, I just can't recommend this camera, even if the images it produces would most likely please the average user - you just have to take a picture and hope it's in focus... You also cannot use the full zoom function unless you are in full auto mode. Switching out of auto mode, if you zoom at all, it is digital zoom. This seems incredible to me, and really - not right. I wonder if the camera I received was damaged, because if you can really ONLY use the 20x optical zoom in Auto mode, what is the point? In auto mode this camera seriously wanted to jack up the ISO which is why most of my pictures were so noisy - but I couldn't use the zoom function in any other mode. The macro mode on this camera is it's only saving grace for me - it takes very good close-ups, and using the manual mode to take them produces pretty good results (when you can keep the ISO at 400 or lower). However, I find this laughable, because I bought the camera for the zoom and not the macro - I have another camera for that already. Lastly, this camera has a touch screen - touch to focus - which worked maybe 10% of the time? I would not recommend this camera to anyone. I'm baffled really by all of the good reviews, and my only hunch is that maybe my camera was damaged. If you do purchase this camera, get it NEW. Not refurbished.
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