Review on 📷 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1 10 Megapixel Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD Screen (Black) by Will Kern

I bought this camera to replace the previous one - Canon A40, the camera is 8 years old. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the capabilities of this camera. Size: This camera is quite small. it can easily be slipped into the pocket of a vest or jacket. When I was in New York, I kept this camera in my vest pocket all the time so I could accidentally take it out to take a picture. Battery: The battery life is said to last up to 300 shots. Not sure if it's my settings or something else, I'm using 3MP in iA mode, I actually took up to 500 images and a few video clips under 1 minute in WVGA before the battery was empty. However, I would advise anyone buying this camera to get a spare battery just in case as it is not an AA battery which anyone can easily replace. The original battery is almost impossible to find or just plain expensive. not original everywhere, just need to make sure they work with the new firmware. and from a technical point of view, non-OEM is at least 1000Ah+, which contains more juice than an OEM battery. Controls: The on/off button is obvious and you can feel it with your finger. I can just grab the camera with one hand, turn it on when it comes out of my bag, and take a picture right in front of me. other controls like zoom in/out, menu selection are fairly standard like canon etc. nothing special. Lens: The 12x zoom is amazing, as is the optical stabilization. I was literally able to photograph a concert in low light, at 12x zoom and without fear of motion blur. The 25mm zoom is great for taking close-ups of an entire building, interior shots, group shots, landscapes, etc. I'm amazed at how wide the angle of this camera is with no fisheye or distortion around the edges of the images. Flash: I personally don't like flash as it literally ruins the original color of the image. but when I need it, it's quite bright for indoor or outdoor object lighting. The charge time is short to my knowledge, less than a second, but I've also heard that as the battery ages, the charge interval time is also affected. Image Quality: Since I mostly use the iA mode, the images are quite nice overall. Big. The OIS lens allowed me to snap a few indoor low-light shots with no blur, but the ISO can be a bit high and noisy, but it's still bearable compared to my A40. Color is generally accurate, images are not too grainy. The biggest disadvantage is night shots, the automatic night shot mode is bad, it doesn't catch enough light or doesn't show enough. The whole photo looks like a sheet of pitch black paper with a few bright spots. For night shots, you'll have to manually adjust the settings to get what Canon or Nikon can do automatically. I usually only set it to manual for night shots. So if I need to take a night shot, I just turn the dial and I'm good to go. All in all I love this camera! Quite small, great battery life, really good lens with OIS, 12x zoom and 25mm side angle, easy to control, just point and shoot. The only downsides are that the battery isn't an AA battery (which is cheaper and easily swapped out) and night shots aren't up to scratch unless done manually.