The ZR1 8x focal length has a very useful wide-angle feature.
The ZR1 includes some interesting art modes including a cool pinhole effect.
It’s fair to say that for years now, Panasonic has been the Rodney Dangerfield of the digital camera world: they don’t get any respect. They’ve certainly done much in recent years to bolster their credibility in the advanced photographer (aka prosumer) category – particularly with the high-end Lumix G1 and G1H interchangeable lens cameras.
But the new Panasonic Lumix ZR1 should go a long way to strengthening the company’s position in the popular ultra-compact segment currently dominated by Canon Elphs and Nikon Coolpixes.
The ZR1 ($279) is a pocketable point-and-shoot digital camera, measuring in at a trim 2.1 x 3.9 x 1 inches. At 5.6 ounces with battery and SDHC memory card, it’s almost imperceptible in a jacket pocket. Yet with a 12-megapixel, 1/2.33-inch CCD imager, an 8x optical zoom and a nice array of features, it packs a punch.
Above Average Picture Quality
The ZR1’s image quality is excellent in most shooting situations, rendering well-saturated, color-accurate photos. As the lights dimmed, I noticed that skin tones tended not to reproduce as well, but overall, it’s hard to be disappointed with the photo quality of the ZR1.
Click on this image below to see the high resolution file.
The camera features a range of automatic high-sensitivity ISO options for shooting in low light without a flash. Generally, we'd recommend keeping the ZR1 at a maximum of ISO 800 for shooting in dim conditions. Though there will be some image noise in your photos at this ISO setting, the effect shouldn't be too distracting.
You can push the ZR1 to an extreme ISO setting of 6400 for taking photos in near total darkness but you will see lots of ugly noise in your shots. Even at ISO 400 with the ZR1 there will be some softening in the details, so it’s best to engage the higher ISOs sparingly.
On the movie front, you’ll find the standard VGA resolution recording at 30 frames per second with an option to record widescreen movies. But with no option to record HD video, the widescreen feature seems a tad out of place.
Real Intelligence
While you won’t find much in the way of manual controls to tweak your photos, the ZR1 offers several “intelligent” features that let the camera do the work for you. Topping the list is the Intelligent Auto mode, which can match a scene mode to shooting environment, engage image stabilization, automatic exposure, auto ISO and several other camera technologies to get the perfect shot.
If you want to fine-tune your picture taking, the camera packs 29 (count ‘em) scene modes for nearly every conceivable photo environment. A few artistic modes are included, such as a pinhole effect, as well as a very useful high dynamic range mode which evens out exposure in shots with high contrast.
In addition to standard face detection, you’ll also find facial recognition which allows you to program faces into the ZR1. When it comes upon them in a future scene, the camera will automatically recognize them – it works most o the time – and give them focusing priority. Pretty cool.
Another helpful feature is travel mode. You can input the time, date and location of a trip and the ZR1 will group all those photos together when you play them back in slideshow mode.
Quality Wide-Angle Optics
The ZR1 may be diminutive but it packs an 8x optical, 25mm (35mm equivalent) wide angle zoom lens into its slender frame. While the focal length is certainly impressive on a camera of this size, for my money the wide angle zoom is equally appealing, if not more so.
Panasonic has been pushing wider-angle lenses on their compact cameras and it’s truly an under-appreciated asset, allowing you to swallow up more of a scene in your field of view.
Panasonic has also made enhancements to its Mega Optical Image Stabilization system. The new version, called “Power O.I.S.” is said to be twice as effective as the original in reducing blur. The original stabilization system was quite effective in its own right.
I took the ZR1 on a tractor ride through farm country and found that, provided you didn’t zoom, the “Power” stabilizer worked quite well (it works fine when you zoom too, just not when you try zooming while simultaneously in motion). Whether it worked twice as well as the original system, however, was hard to say.
The ZR1 also features what Panasonic calls an “extended optical zoom” button. Press it, and the zoom will extend to its maximum position. If you press it again, the ZR1 employs a digital zoom technique, cropping down the 12-megapixel image to the middle 3-megapixels.
Press it a third time and the zoom retracts completely. This struck me as a fairly extraneous feature. It’s not as if it takes terribly long to zoom conventionally and the extended zoom button takes up precious real estate on the ZR1’s back that could have been put to better use (more on that below).
Snappy Performer
The ZR1 is a fairly speedy for a camera in its class. It starts up at 1.1 seconds and auto focuses quickly in both bright and low light environments. You’ll enjoy a shot-to-shot time of roughly 2-3 seconds. Set it to burst mode, and you can snap along at 2.3 frames per second (fps) for up to five photos. It’s no Digital SLR (DSLR) Camera, of course, but casual users should be able to get the shot.
Intuitive Menus
One of the strengths of the ZR1 is an intuitive in-camera menu system. The mode dial offers options for Intelligent Auto, standard auto, a My Scene (which you can program to automatically activate your scene mode of choice), scene selector, movie mode and a clipboard function. Through the 2.7-inch LCD, you’ll find the rest of the camera’s settings arrayed in a clear, user-friendly interface.
Cramped Design
Given the size of the camera, there simply isn’t much room for many external controls. That said, the shutter button and the mode dial are bunched too closely together. I found myself inadvertently switching modes when I moved my finger to the shutter.
Panasonic also squeezed in buttons for a quick menu, display and a toggle between playback and camera. Those would have been better served in the mode dial and/or accessed in-camera.
What We Really Think
All in all, Panasonic’s Lumix ZR1 is a solid entry in the ultra-compact field and at $279 it's well priced for its good feature set, above average image quality, and compact style. The ZR1 boasts more than enough resolution for poster-sized prints, a superb, wide angle, long zoom lens and a nice assortment of user-friendly technology. You’ll need to look past a few cumbersome design elements and restrain yourself with the ISO, but otherwise the ZR1 is a stand-out point-and-shoot. Maybe now Panasonic will start getting some more respect.
Pros
• Impressive image quality
• Long zoom lens with wide angle
• Compact and portable
• Plenty of scene modes and photo features
Cons
• Cramped design
• Noise and soft details at high ISO
For more specs on the Panasonic Lumix ZR1, click here.