Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although I have a Nikon D80 DSLR, I needed a more compact point and shoot camera replacement for my aging Canon S60 with dying batteries. After reading a couple of reviews and a visit to a local camera store I decided to choose the ZS3 over the competing Canon SX200 IS with very similar features. Although the Canon is more familiar to me and has more manual features, the compact size of the Panasonic with better battery life, robust video functions and the fact that it's still made in Japan (versus the Canon which is now manufactured in China) edged out the Canon for me personally (you may want to try both to decide for yourself). So far I have been very happy with this versatile camera - screen is big and bright, facial recognition is neat, zoom is remarkable for a camera of its size and the video quality is excellent for a camera. Only downside is that like the camera store employee said - the autofocus motors inside the Panasonics do seem to be quite loud - i.e. if you are aiming the camera around randomly you can hear the motors whirling away as it refocuses at different potential targets. I enjoyed this purchase and I would recommend this camera to anyone who is looking for a easy-to-use, high quality point and shoot with 12x optical zoom.