If we hear some photography aficionado say that Panasonic’s Lumix cameras seem to be moving from strength to strength, most of us wouldn’t be surprised at all. While most other imaging companies are busy coming up to standards that have already been set by major camera manufacturers, Panasonic is busy adhering to its own principles regarding quality, by going that extra mile that most wouldn’t even think of going. Most people would only think of either increasing the optical zoom capability of the camera, or give the camera too much digital zoom capacity, which is, in fact eyewash rather than a useful tool. This 12.1mp and 8x wide angle optical zoom camera comes with 15.6x Extra Optical zoom function.
Design and FunctioningLike most compact cameras that belong to the ultra slim battalion, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 comes with credit card dimensions and rounded edges ensuring it's marginally less boxy than other competitors. It's small and light enough to easily fit into a shirt or trouser pocket, which could make any user forget that it provides 8x optical zoom function. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 comes in colours of Royal Blue, Midnight Black, Blood Red and Silvery White. There's also an 'extra' optical zoom function boosting it to an equivalent 15.6x. The High Dynamic mode is an interesting new scene mode which helps to capture a scene with even exposure even if it contains extreme bright and dark areas. There are three options, Standard, Art, or B/W, making your photos look natural or more artistic. On the rear of the camera is the Q. Menu button which provides quick access to most of the principal controls, including ISO speed, image size, image quality and white balance. The camera also comes with Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto Mode, which automatically determines a number of key criteria when taking a picture, including selecting the most appropriate scene mode from a set of five most used scene modes, and ISO speed, and turning face detection to recognise a total of 15 faces especially in group pictures, image stabilization and quick auto-focus on. Image Stabilization is of Panasonic’s POWER OIS type, which uses a sensor shift technology as well as a boost in ISO and Shutter speed to make images stable, much before the picture is taken. It contains 50MB of internal memory and is compatible with SD/SDHC cards.
