Panasonic DMC-ZS1 hands on...

Ok, so I could not keep my hands off this one. I picked up a Panasonic DMC-ZS1 today and I have made some preliminary conclusions already. I hoped that the somewhat larger camera would be justified with that so intriguing 25-300mm zoom range, and the possibility to use it even when shooting video.

But first some views of the camera:






Nice and shiny, indeed. Not too much larger than the Canon SD1200IS.

For you to be able to check out some photos, I have posted some full size 10Mpixels photos, and three videos, all directly from camera, and provide links here.

Photos:
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
Videos:
Video 1, VGA
Video 2, WVGA
Video 3, WVGA

I guess if you are interested, you have probably seen all of them by now. My short summary of the pros and cons, at this time, would be:

Pros

• Fairly compact for a 25-300mm zoom range
  
• Nice wide 25mm lens
  
• Zoom while shooting video works
  
• Autofocus keeps working during video (not true for SD1200)
  

Cons

• Soft photos from long end of zoom (at least on my camera)
  
• Quite slow zoom operation in general. More so in video.
  
• Slow autofocus when taking photos
  
• My first impression is that the face tracking autofocus is much better on SD1200
  
• Mechanical button for review, shooting not possible without flip of that button
  
• Mode dial (on top) has few settings, and turns really easy (easy to do by mistake)
  
• Sound in video is sampled at 16kHz. Canon is 44kHz which makes it sound a lot better

I guess what I am trying to say, is that if you ask me right now, I am not that impressed with the Panasonic DMC-ZS1. I guess my Canon SD1200IS feels like a better overall camera. But, it is not fair to come to that conclusion already. I have to give it some more time...

You can check out the cameras at Amazon here: Panasonic DMC-ZS1, Panasonic DMC-ZS3, Canon SD1200IS.