The new Lumix ZS3 features 10.1-megapixels, a 25mm ultra-wide-angle lens and 12x optical zoom, meaning it has added 2x optical zoom to the award-winning TZ-series camera, yet reduced its size. The ZS3 also features a Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens and High Definition (HD) video recording ability, known as AVCHD Lite. The ZS3 is the world’s first digital camera to feature HD video recording in “AVCHD Lite.” Compared with the conventional Motion JPEG format, AVCHD Lite allows longer recordings with breathtaking HD visual and audio quality. This combined with a well-considered control interface, which includes a dedicated movie recording button on the camera’s back panel, makes the ZS3 a hybrid model that performs admirably for both still and motion image capture. The ZS3 also expands Panasonic’s popular Intelligent Auto (iA) mode with the addition of Face Recognition–a feature that “remembers” faces from previous shots. When a registered face appears in the frame, the camera (more…)