Panasonic DMC-ZS40S Digital Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD (Silver)

Oooooh boy! Might nice camera. Traded in a Panasonic FZ150 to put money towards this model. So glad I did. Had purchased FZ150 to take to Iceland to photograph Northern Lights. Did a fine job but the camera is a bulky SLR style body. Bought this DMZ-ZS40K for a recent trip to Disneyworld. I wanted something that would fit in my pocket and this fit the need perfectly. It is a small camera. Just bordering too small for my big hands. The photo quality is beautiful. All the features are listed in the description so I will not repeat them. Just realise this is a feature rich camera. Offers everything the FZ150 offered but in a smaller package, longer zoom and unusual flr almost any point-and-shoot today, a viewfinder! Also the photos are much better than rhe FZ150. I purchased 2 extra batteries and an external battery charger. Let's put it this way, seven days in Disney, 840+ photos taken and never switched out the battery. All I did was charge the camera while sleeping at night and it was good all day. This was almost exclusively using the electronic viewfinder, not the big screen on the back. Even then I'd expect good battery life. A viewfinder adds so much to taking good pictures. Number one, it's indespensible in the sunlight. Number two, when holding the camera to your eye it gives stability.

I have been a fan of the Panasonic travel zooms for a long time, but this time the purchase was for my wife. She loves it! Just the right size to carry everywhere, and the image quality is amazing! The zoom range really surprised her, coming from Micro 4/3rds and small DSLRs, the size of the camera gives no indication of how far the zoom can reach. She loves to take pictures of architectural details as well as close up of flowers, and this camera does it all very well. IQ at max zoom is not perfect, but even I am amazed at how good it is. We bought a two pack of batteries with an external charger, and have been pleased that the batteries can last a few days with moderate use. The built-in viewfinder was probably the biggest selling point, and although I struggle a little with its resolution due to only using TTL optical viewfinders, she loves it. GPS works quickly and accurately compared to other P&S, and even compared to a handheld GPS unit. We havn't shot with RAW yet, waiting for Adobe coverage, nor used the manual focus, but the video quality is good. Overall five stars and no problems recommending. The price will come down, but we will cover some of the cost when my wife sells her M4/3, she is not going back!

There are a lot of reviews of this camera, so I thought I'd write one that covers things not covered much by other reviews. 1) It does record high speed video, up to 240 fps in VGA resolution! It can make a hummingbird's wings visible. 2) It does wonderful panoramic shots. You just pan the camera across the subject, and it records the panorama! Awesome. 3) I can take 30x zoom pics hand held, with no blur! Wow. 4) It does have full manual setting capability, but the iAuto function does a great job. This makes it a wonderful camera for both beginners and photography hobbyists. 5) The HDR functionality is a must. Do not buy a camera without it. It lets you evenly expose a backlit subject, as well as those landscape scenes with contrasting bright and shadow areas. Absolutely wonderful feature. 6) The previous version had a touch screen. Seems like you'd be accidentally touching it too much while trying to take a picture. I'm with the people who say it isn't necessary to have a touch screen. 7) The viewfinder....not using it much. It's nice to have it for those hand held zoom shots, though. 8) It can store up to 4 sets of customized settings. It stores 1 in the first (C1) position on the mode dial, while the second (C2) position can store 3 more that are accessible through the menu arrows. See tip below for how to make great use of this. 9) Great low light capability. I'm impressed with how well it takes pictures in low light. 10) Pocketable. Comfortable to carry in normal fitting pants pockets, though not a shirt pocket. 11) The high speed burst mode is really good. If you use a high enough shutter speed, you'll get very good still shots of sports and hummingbirds. Why not 5 stars? Well, it's not perfect. Here's my complaints: 1) You can't see the screen with polarized sunglasses on. The screen goes black. They could have polarized the screen 90 degrees off (like phones and gps screens), but they didn't. 2) While you can change the functionality of each of the two rings, any change you make is propagated to all camera modes, except the 4 C modes. For example, I'd like to set one of the rings to control ISO. This would be great if each mode (auto, A, S, M, etc) could have unique functions set for these rings, but the function setting is universal. Oddly, if you leave the ring functions set to default, then the functions will be unique to each mode. For example, the default setting for both rings in Aperture Mode is to control the Aperture, and the control the shutter speed in Shutter priority mode, while in iAuto mode, they both control the zoom. I would like to make one of them control the ISO, but not when in full manual mode, because then one should control the aperture and the other should do the shutter, which is how it does work if you leave them set to their default functions. However, if you have set one to control ISO, then it will always control ISO, not matter what mode you are in, making it really difficult to control both shutter and aperture in manual mode. 3) The same problem exists if you change the function of the Fn button. It applies across all modes. 4) Wrist strap is grey on my black camera. Should be color matched. (not a big deal, but just saying) 5) Included photo album/editing/organizing software is poor. 6) Somewhat cantankerous and slow image viewing when in record mode. I thought maybe this was due to my older memory card, but the speed problem goes away when in pure playback mode. Wish they would fix this, because it'd be nice to not have to switch into playback mode to be able to quickly flip through your pictures. As it is, it'll let you flip backward/forward through them when in record mode, but it's slow and clunky. Tip for programming the rings and Fn button - Thankfully, the programmed settings for the rings and Fn button will stay unique if saved in one of the four (C) settings. I set up the camera the way I want it to work for full manual mode(large ring does shutter and small ring does aperture), and stored that in C1, which I now turn to for full manual. I can store up to 4 of these customized settings, each with its own functionality for the rings and Fn button. The other modes all get set to this... I set the large ring to control ISO, leaving the small back ring set to default control. This lets the back ring control aperture, shutter, filter and scene settings as appropriate for each mode, while giving me quick access to ISO. I also set the Fn to control the type of focus, giving me easy access to that. Tip for improving the slow image viewing in record mode - it speeds up quite a bit if you format your memory card in the camera itself. This erases any pics on your card, of course. Tip for battery usage - be sure to turn off the GPS functionality when the camera isn't in use. I was shocked that this runs the battery down in a couple of days of the camera being "off". The GPS regularly checks for signal, even when the camera is off, unless you turn GPS off. If they could fix that polarized glasses issue, and let each mode have its own custom settings for the control rings and Fn button, I'd give this 5 stars.

So far, I love this camera. Pictures are very clear and the shutter reacts immediately. Many nice features. I love that you can zoom when you film and take pictures while filming.

It is as was described, so no surprises. But right now it's a better camera than i am a photographer so there will be a learning curve.

Love the camera but found it takes too long for the GPS to work

Nice addition to the travel bag

Fantastic little camera! Great features, easy to use and fool proof!