PANASONIC LUMIX ZS200 4K Camera 15X LEICA DC Vario-Elmar Lens DC-ZS200K (USA BLACK). Optical Zoom

In the last years, I was hesitating to choose a pocketable zoom camera between Sony RX100 VII and Panasonic ZS200, for occasions when I meet beautiful natural sceneries or animals during my daily life without the DSLR or mirrorless camera in my hand. After trying ZS200 for a month, I can say clearly now that this is absolutely what I'm dreaming of, and it's certainly the best portable camera with such a powerful zoom (24-360 mm, 15X!!!) one can find on the market. My main points are:Pros: * 1" large sensor;* 24-360 mm (15x) the most powerful zoom lens;* numerous professional features similar to your DSLR or mirrorless;* fixed built-in viewfinder (less chance to fail like the pop-up one);* very sharp images from wide angle to the longest zoom (see attached images cropped from 100%originals);* half price of the same class pocketable camera.* very strong material and make.Cons: * relatively slow lens;* slightly bigger;* a little complicated menu and setting.Conclusion: Don't be scared by the negative reviews online, if you are an experienced DSLR user and a landscape lover. This is not an ordinary point-and-shoot, it's really a pocketable professional tool which will expand enormously your creation's chances(convenience) and ranges (15x long zoom). I would give it a perfect score of 10 stars if I could!!!

Good camera with good lens. Needs a tripod for night shots.

I had a recent trip to London, and did not want to cary around my much bigger FZ1000. I picked up this one as more of a travel camera, and because it also has a 1" sensor. It's not as good as the FZ1000, but is usually good enough to get the job done. It worked well for me on the trip, as long as I set everything manually. Picture quality is pretty good, and it has good low light performance. I've also had good luck taking pictures with this at concerts. It's definitely better than a typical point and shoot, but not as good as a full size camera.

I previously had Canon, Casio and Sony compact digital cameras until I switched to the Panasonic LUMIX travel zoom cameras which I liked for their image quality, ease of use and great zoom range. This is my third Panasonic travel zoom camera with this one replacing a ZS50. The ZS50 was good but it had a small image sensor and I was looking for better image quality along with low light performance. The ZS200 is slightly thicker and heavier than the ZS50 but it feels more solidly built. With the introduction of the ZS200, this is the first compact camera which I thought combined a large sensor with a zoom range that would be large enough for travel photography, so I purchased it for an upcoming vacation. The previous ZS100 had a more limited zoom range and produced unacceptable “softer” images based on reviews. A co-worker of mine has a ZS100 and complains about the camera producing soft images with a lot a purple fringing occurring around foliage. The lens and image processor are different between these two cameras.I just came back from a 23 day trip to Greece visiting Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, Delos, Meteora, Delphi and used the ZS200. I used SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB Class 3 95MB/sec SD cards and took 5,200 photos (24GB) with the ZS200 using 16:9 format for widescreen displays, 8MP jpg, high-quality setting since am not planning to make any large prints or do any post production modifications. I set the camera to full intelligent auto+ mode for ease of use while traveling and found the camera easy to use in terms of start up, shut down, focusing, image stabilization and framing the view using the screen. Regarding Image quality, I feel that this camera takes excellent images in terms of sharpness, color rendition and low lighting when placed in full auto mode. Compared to all the other digital cameras that I have had, the battery life of this camera is truly remarkable. After a full day of taking over 300 photos, constantly zooming, cycling on and off the camera, the battery still had two bars left. If you just take photos with no videos, then I don’t ever see a need for having a second backup battery if you charge at night like I didI am not a fan of the touchscreen because it is too easy to mistakenly bring up the side menus and make unwanted adjustments to the camera. The on-off switch could also use more resistance since I mistakenly turned it on in my camera bag several times. It would be nice to have some water and dust resistance incorporated but maybe Panny is saving these features for future versions. I also installed a Peak Design Leash Camera Strap Black (L-BL-3) which works better than just a hand strap in being able to walk with the camera hands-free on my neck or over my shoulder and take images on the fly. There are some major features like manual modes, RAW format and 4K video which I am not interested in and did not use. I am a casual travel photographer and this camera on full intelligent auto+ mode works for me. Having owned three Panasonic LUMINX cameras, I have not had any problems which required me to contact Panasonic for servicing so I cannot comment on their quality (or lack thereof) of customer care. I may just have been lucky in getting perfectly functioning cameras but I am not complaining:)

This camera replaces my Panasonic DMC-LX5 which I love. My needs are one hand operation, wide range from telephoto to macro of course, great image quality. I've only own this camera for on month and used it intensively on a six day hiking trip. Very happy with all the results including easy panaramics. This is a pocket camera with myriad functionalities. I didn't know it well and fumbled around quite a bit - turning on various features unintentionally and unable to turn them off. But you learn quickly and start to master it. I was once a serious photographer- think film and even view camera - but no longer. I shoot most when I'm in nature hiking. More than suiting my needs it is inspiring me to doing more with it.