Tour
The DMC-ZR3 is a small, compact camera, at just 2.15 inches tall and just over an inch thick. It would fit easily into a small pocket or bag.
The front of the DMC-ZR3
The lens of the ZR3 telescopes out of the front of the camera body in three parts, protruding about an inch from the body. As with all cameras of this type, caution will be needed to make sure the lens isn't blocked or stopped from telescoping out when you turn it on, as it can get damadged if this happens in a pocket or bag.
Back
On the back of the ZR3 is the LCD screen (a 2.7-inch model with a resolution of 231k pixels) and the controls on the right side.
The back of the ZR3
Sides
There are no features on the left side of the camera body
The left side of the ZR3
On the right side is a lanyard loop and a small cover that protects the HDMI and multi-purpose port.
The right side of the ZR3
Top
There are a few features on the top of the camera body: from the left we have a grille over the speaker, a hole for the microphone, the power switch, the shutter and zoom control and the mode dial. The power switch doesn't stick out much, so you aren't likely to accidentally turn this camera on.
The top of the ZR3
Bottom
The only things to see on the bottom of the camera are the cover of the battery and memory card port, and the tripod socket to the far right.
The bottom of the ZR3, with the battery cavity cover on the left
Hardware
Viewfinder
There is no viewfinder on the ZR3: all operations are carried out through the LCD screen on the back of the camera.
LCD
The LCD screen of this camera is a 2.7-inch TFT model with a resolution of 231k pixels. That's a little on the low side; other cameras have higher resolution screens, such as the 921k pixel resolution screen of the Sony DSC-TX7. Although this screen is clear and bright, it doesn't feel especially sharp.
Flash
The flash of the ZR3 is a small, thin model located just above and to the right of the lens. This is a little too close to the lens for comfort; we suspect that this camera may produce a fair amount of red-eye, although we will have to wait to get it into our labs before we can be sure of this. Panasonic didn't supply any figures for the range of this flash, and we were not able to test the power of the flash at the PMA show.
Lens
The lens of the ZR3 has Leica branding and an impressive 8x zoom range. This starts at a focal length of 4.5mm, equivalent to a 25mm lens on a 35mm film camera. That's a decent wide angle, but a touch smaller the 24mm that some other cameras offer. At the telephoto end, the focal length goes out to 36mm, which is equivalent to a 200mm lens on a 35mm film camera. If you want to push it further, a 4x digital zoom is available, but we don't generally recommend the use of digital zooms if you can avoid.
Jacks, Ports & Plugs
There are two ports on this camera: a HDMI port for connecting to a HDTV and a multi-purpose port that provides a USB connection and an analog video output.
Battery
The ZR3 gets is juice from a Lithium Ion battery that can hold about 865 mAh of juice. That's a decent amount of juice for a small camera, andPanasonic claims a battery life of 330 shots. We weren't able to test this claim.
Memory
Images are stored on SDHC Cards, which fit into a slot above the battery. In addition, there is also about 40MB of built in memory, which provides a nice cushion if you run out of space on the SDHC card.
Design & Layout
Design & Appearance
The ZR3 is a small, compact camera that is thin enough (at just over 1 inch thick) to fit into a shirt pocket or a small bag. It has the same clean, simple design as other Panasonic cameras, with a raised ridge on one side of the front that provides a grip for the fingers.
Size & Handling
Small cameras can be a little awkward to hold sometimes, but we had no issues with this one; it sat well in the hand, with the index finger falling right onto the shutter and zoom control. An area on the back with a series of raised bumps provides space for the thumb to sit if you are holding it one handed, and we had no problem zooming and shooting one handed. Using the other controls does require two hands, though: to reach down and use the 4-way control you need to have two hands gripping the camera body.
Menu
The ZR3 has two separate menus: the quick menu that appears when you press the quick menu button below the 4-way control, and the main menu that appears when you hit the menu button in the center of the 4-way control. The quick menu button provides access to the shooting functions of the camera, such as the metering mode, ISO level, etc. The number of options that you get on this menu depend on which mode you are in: you only get ahandful of options in iAuto mode, but a wider selection in program mode (shown below).
The main menu has the same controls on it, but also the other stuff that you use less often, such as setting the aspect ratio to use, formatting the memory card, setting the date, etc.
Ease of Use
We found that the ZR3 was generally easy to use; the controls are well laid out with the most commonly used ones in easy spots to reach. We did only use it for a limited time, though, so we will report back more on this in our full review that is coming soon.
Modes
Auto Mode
The auto mode of the ZR3 is accessed by turning the mode dial to the iA setting, short for Intelligent Auto. In this mode, the camera makes all of the decisions; the only thing the user can control is the size of the images and the burst mode.
Movie Mode
One of the new things on the ZR3 is support for capturing high definition videos; this camera can capture video at a maximum resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, which is the same as a 720p signal on a HDTV. A full 60 frames a second are captured at this resolution, and the files are saved in AVCHD lite format, which is compatible with a range of video editing applications, such as iMovie on the Mac. Three different quality levels are available for this video: Super High (with a bit rate of 17Mbps), High (13Mbps) and L (9Mbps). Several other lower resolution options are also available, and these can be saved as motion JPEG files if you are using a program that can't read AVCHD lite files.
Mono sound is also captured through the single microphone on the top of the camera body.
Drive/Burst Mode
The ZR3 can capture a burst of images, but it's no speed machine: at the full resolution of the camera, Panasonic claims it can only capture about 1.8 frames a second. You can increase this speed if you don't mind sacrificing resolution: cutting this to 3 megapixels allows for 10 frames a second capture, Panasonic claims. We weren't able to do a formal test of this, but our informal tests at the PMA show indicated that it is probably about right.
Playback Mode
The ZR3 allows you to view captured images in a number of different ways, sorting them out by date, category or the scene mode used to capture them. Slideshows can also be created, complete with one of three built-in soundtracks.
Scene Modes
Portrait, Scenery, Night Portrait, Night Scenery and Sunset. There are also a number of movie scene modes, including Portrait, Scenery and Low Light . These scene modes can be programmed into one of two spots on the mode dial labelled as MS1 and MS2 (short for My Scene) for quick access, or there is a SCN setting that accesses a menu containing all of the options.
Controls
Manual Controls
The ZR3 does not have a full manual mode; there is no way to directly set the aperture or shutter speed.
Focus
There are five autofocus modes on this camera: face, AE tracking, multi, 1 point and spot. The face mode uses face detection to decide what to focus on, while the AE tracking and multi mode use 11 focus points, wih the camera choosing which ones to focus on. The 1 point mode allows you to choose any single focus point of the 11 to use, and the spot mode uses a single point in the center of the frame.
ISO
The ISO range of the ZR3 goes from 80 up to 1600 at the full resolution of the camera. You can extend this up to 6400 if you don't mind the resolution dropping down to 5 megapixels. The ISO can also be set to one of several automatic modes, including a mode called Intelligent ISO which sets it automatically within a certain range (80 to 800). This is useful if you want the camera to set the ISO, but want to avoid the noise the accompanies the higher ISO settings.
White Balance
White balance presets are available for daylight, cloudy, shade, halogen. There is also an automatic mode and an evaluative mode thatuses a white object to judge the white balance. The latter is unusual to see on a compact camera, but it is the best way to get the correct white balance.
Metering
This camera is unusual in only having one metering mode; an evaluative mode where the camera uses multiple zones to judge the correct exposure for the camera. There are no options to spot or center weighted metering, and no way to override the cameras decision. We'll have to wait until we get the camera in for review to see if it makes good choices or not.
Shutter Speed
The shutter speed range that this camera can manage goes from 8 seconds down to 1/2000 of a second. This can be extended out to 60 seconds in the starry sky mode, which is the longest shutter speed we've seen on a point & shoot.
Aperture
The 8x zoom lens of this camera has a good aperture range, which starts at f/3.3 and goes out to f/10 at the widest point of the zoom range. At the telephoto end of the zoom range, theaperture range drops to f/5.9 to f/18.
Image Stabilization
The ZR3 uses Panasonic's Power O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilization) system, which moves an element of the lens to compensate for camera shake. We've found the previous version of this (called Mega O.I.S.) to be pretty effective on older models (such as the ZR3), but Panasonic claism to have improved it to the point where you can use shutter speed of up to half a second without shake. We'll have to wait until we can test this particular camera before we can see how much truthiness there is in these claims.
Picture Quality & Size Options
The ZR3 offers 12 different image sizes at three different aspect ratios. The 4:3 aspect ratio sizes range from 4320 by 3240 down to 640 by 480, while the 3:2 aspect ratio sizes range from 4320 by 2800 down to 640 by 424. Finally, the 16:9 aspect ratio image sizes range from 4320 by 2432 down to 640 by 360 pixels. There are also three options for the image quality, but no option to save images as RAW files.
Picture Effects
Several different color modes are on offer with this camera: images can be shot in standard, vivid, natural, black & white, sepia, cool, warm or the slightly scary sounding happy color mode, which apparently boosts color, saturation and brightness to produce a happier image.
Conclusion
Meet the tester
Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.
Checking our work.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
Shoot us an email