After a short comparison with a few other cameras, I bought this model. Part of the reason was for the Leica lens...it's incredibly sharp.

The camera is quite easy to use, and the controls are 'intuitive' once you have used them. Navigating through the menu is not intimidating or complicated, so no one needs to feel like they could not master this camera. In fact, I didn't even have to read the manual.

Image quality and color rendition are quite surprisingly good for an 'economical' camera, and it adapts really well to low-light situations with it's extended ISO range.

The camera reacts quickly when you turn it on, and the 'write-time' to the SD card is fast, so follow-up shots can be taken almost instantaneously.

I highly recommend it with no reservations!

I had several criteria for chosing a camera. There are so many choices nowadays :)

1. Decent pictures, always a plus with a camera
2. Movie mode, high quality
3. 720p support on movie
4. Able to record up to 1 hour continously.

This camera was a compromise. But I am very happy with the compromise. I use AVI files at home, with Windows Media Center. I do not use iTunes, I do not use a Mac. Unfortunately, nowadays, very few cameras support AVI format files directly. I was concerned about Motion JPEG with the movie mode.

So, I ran some tests. Pictures look great. There is a little noise in the background but that only appeared when a flash was not used in slightly low light. Pictures with flash look great.

Facial focus was great. Such a difference from my last camera (Casio Exilim). That camera was awful at selecting the target for autofocus, so we'd get a lot of pictures with blurry faces but some very sharp leaves in the background.

This camera, on the other hand, seems to do a great job at picking the correct object. I've only been using it a day or so, maybe my opinion will change after a while, but it all looks good right now.

Video mode: This is one of my biggest things for me as all my digital cameras have been used to record home movie snips. The previous camera used MPEG4 streams in AVI format which was very convenient for me. That camera could record up to 2 hours continuously (2GB file).

This camera, however, can only record about 19 minutes in 2GB. This is a significantly higher data rate than the old one. Also, it's using MJPEG. The upshot is, that I will *need* to convert the video files every time. From Apple MOV/MJPEG -> AVI/XVID.

So, there is a large difference in duration for each movie (I have 8GB card which will hold 78 minutes total with this camera). It may sound like I'm going to diss on the camera, just setting the scene....

I ended up compromising on the resolution of the movie mode. I wanted 1280x720. This camera does 848x480. The 720p cameras cost almost 2x as much.

So I eagerly took some movies, downloaded programs to convert it and recompress it. The results were way beyond what I had expected. Once converted to AVI the file reduces in size by about 30% but maintains the same level of quality.

Video compression artifacts are MUCH lower than my old camera. The resulting quality of the movies is FAR superior to the Exilim camera. Little to no edge fringing, little to no flickering on edges (the other camera had this sometimes). Similar contrast scenes are not smudged, detail was not lost due to compression.

Although I disagree with the file format, I don't want to use MOV files, the choice of using MJPEG was a decent one. Yes, the files are much larger, but the quality is worth it.

I have always been aiming for about 1.2GB/hour for my movies and now the target is 3GB/hour. The difference in quality is worth it. And besides, I have a huge hard drive that needs some filling!

So, yes. Recommended.

Well, I have a couple other cameras around the house, which are a couple Kodak easy share 3.1mp el cheapo's, but did their thing......or so I thought till I got my hands on this bad boy! I am just blown away at the top notch quaility of it. Takes great pictures and boots up right away. It also takes video really well, but just make sure you are in a well lite room or area. I wanted to get a camcorder as well, but don't think I will need to now. Especially after putting in an amazon order for the SDHC 4G Ultra 2 memory card that will give me plenty of space for pics and time for vids. I also suggest that card for compatiable cameras, as it is a steal for under a 20 dollar bill! I only have had this a few days as I had to sell some car audio stuff and man did the pictures do it justice and already have most of it sold on an online forum. I believe it did help as I have had people ask me what kind of camera I was using. I did pay a little more at Best Buy to purchase it, but did give me a chance to "test" out some of the other cameras I was looking at. Ended up paying 180 for it, but in my mind, well worth it! Plus I needed it that night, lol! I say for under 200 dollars this camera is hard to pass up. Now if I can just find a case for it so as not to scratch it. Oh yeah another note that was nice in this price range, is it has a rechargeable battery and pack, so just put it in the pack, plug in wall and bingo, bango! No more double A's and only getting 30 pics out of it to find you need to change them out! I hated that!

I bought this to replace my Fujifilm FinePix F30 because it broke. That camera was great especially for nightime/clubbing pictures so I was debating whether to repair or spend money to buy another one. I'm glad I got the Lumix. It's a lot smaller so I can fit it into my jeans pockets when I hit the town. The intelligent mode is perfect for someone like me who doesn't want to fiddle with settings. There are a ton of features. I especially like the facial focus recognition. The quality of the pictures are awesome especially for a smaller camera. You can attribute that to the Panasonic's Leica lens. There are probably other cameras with better fluff but go with the best quality lens in the Lumix and you won't be disappointed.

This is my first digital camera, and thus far I really like the ease of use and quality of the pictures. I also like the size & weight; fits nicely in my pant pocket.

I am not a spontaneous buyer - I researched the heck out of small, point and shoot cameras. I told my wife I wanted it for her but I really wanted a camera that took good pictures in a multitude of situations, including low light and I wanted to carry it in a small case on my hip.

I attended collage for graphic design and have above average experience with cameras but when it comes to buying a camera, I want the best value for the money. I visited multiple digital camera review sights but I ended up using http://www.steves-digicams.com/ the most. I began with his best camera list under ultra-compact and narrowed it down. After I got it down to three based on features and price, I went out to the stores and tried them out.

The Samsung L210 was eliminated because I had a hard time with the controls. This left the Canon Powershot SD750 and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3. I was looking for the least expensive camera I could find. I walked into Circuit City and they had both these cameras. I went from one to the other and back again, using different settings, taking pictures and analyzing the cameras function and use. The FS3 won!!! It cost as much as the cheap looking Samsung L210 but was superior to the Canon Powershot SD750.

I purchased a 4GB Kingston SDHC SD4 with it and it holds almost a thousand pictures at max setting. However, I did have some trouble. I went immediately on a trip and had little time to test my new toy. When I got there I was taking pictures but I threw the camera to my son, who asked to see it (in the Samsonite case of course). He began to receive an error indication a problem reading the card. I then noticed that I lost a bunch of pictures. I was very disappointed. I continued to lose pictures after testing the function and thought it might be related to throwing it or the SD card. I had my PDA there with an older smaller SD card so I swapped it out. I did not experience any more errors or picture loss again.

Upon returning home I was disappointed that I had bought a huge 4GB card that did not seem to work with my camera. However, upon going to Panasonics support site I found an SD Formater that I installed on my Windows Vista computer. After formatting the card and evaluating the cards performance using the same methods to test for the error, I have yet to lose any more pictures. It seemed only do it when the camera was in review mode and when zoomed all the way out until the calendar of days showed. I would then get a read error on the card and loose some pictures but not anymore. Obviously Panasonic only recommends Panasonic SD cards but the Kingston was only like $17 bucks.

The bottom line - buy it. You cannot go wrong. It has tons of features, takes great pictures and my favorite is the excellent indoor, low light pictures. The flash pictures are great also, very soft and even. All at a price you can't beat... Joe

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS3S 8MP Digital Camera with 3x MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

The price was right, and I liked the idea of having a Leica lens. I haven't been disappointed - the camera takes excellent photos, indoors and out. It's lightweight, easy to use, and uploading the photos to the computer couldn't be simpler.