Super sharp pictures (as long as you have HD)
934013
Super sharp pictures (as long as you have HD). Easy to use and the investment is worth every penny.
3020039
This is a fantastic pocket camera that takes great photos and really good quality movies. Most of the other reviews accurately rave about this.

Here is what I don't like: Canon, in my opinion, made a poor choice with their movie file format (AVI).

I was in the market for a compact photo/video camera that I can easily carry with me for those casual evenings in the park with my 18 month old toddler or settings where you might not need HD quality video or SLR like capabilities. My SLR (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Canon-Digital-Rebel-XT/dp/B0007QKMQY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Canon Digital Rebel XT</a>) and my video camera (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Sony-HDR-SR5/dp/B000PQH1YW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Sony HDR-SR5</a>) were too bulky to lug around for such occasions. I was considering&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Flip-Video-Camcorder/dp/B0016BXRB6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Flip Video Camcorder</a>, but that seemed to lack good photo qualities.

Since most of my family lives far away, I also wanted the ability to easily share my home videos on sites such as youtube.

Movie mode records in AVI which results in HUGE files. They should have used MPEG (H.264)that uses compression while almost retaining the movie quality. A 35 second movie takes up approximately 68 MB of space whereas after conversion to another format such as WMV (using windows movie maker), it takes only 4 MB with an almost unnoticeable quality loss to my untrained eye.

The implications of choosing AVI over MPG (or other compressed file type) are:
1. Your memory card will fill up in no time (an empty 2GB card will allow 16 minutes of video)
2. You will have to convert it (compress) your video before you can upload a 5 minute video to youtube.

I understand that this is a camera and not a camcorder, but a simple change of format would make this device almost flawless!
4854162
The HD picture is spectacular, especially after I connected component video cables.  Regular TV is big disappointment, because it looks much worse than on our old fashioned CRT tube TV. While there is a fair amount of programming on HD, no St. Louis Cardinal games are broadcast on FOX Midwest, and there isn't as much HD programming as one would like.  But I think most NFL games will be in HD on FOX, so I'm still glad I got the set.  My biggest complaints are that the sound is softer on HD, so one has to readjust the sound when switching between an HD and analog channel.  Secondly, when there is movement, ie. a baseball player running to first, white lines (like the baselines in baseball, tennis, etc.)don't look right if there is movement.  When the movement stops, the lines look fine.  Overall, there is a fabulous picture on HD, and I highly recommend the set.
2223068
This Panasonic GF3 is a rather impressive camera that can take VERY sharp pictures with really good IQ/Dynamic range, and color overall. Besides my love for Photography I also enjoy using the best of the best cameras in their category if I can afford them. I have owned, or own the Canon S95/Fuji X100/ Sony NEX-5, Had the original E-P1, Had the GF1 prior.

I have been searching forever for a VERY SMALL camera that can take DSLR like pictures. Though the GF1 did have a little bit more manual control than the GF1 does, for instance even flash compensation..I can't seem to find that adjustment on this GF3. Even cheap point and shoots often let you change the amount of flash you will use, That's one con here.

Overall though, though using the same sensor as the older GF1 and GF2 my pictures from my GF3 look BETTER overall as to color, noise, IN focus, virtually no Moire pattern problems..the GF1 had a lot of Moire pattern noise, the GF3 seems much cleaner.

The GF3 has something called pinpoint focus. It works GREAT and so super fast. You choose ANY point on the lcd you want to focus on, drag the POINT where you want it. Press the shutter 1/2 way down..you can focus on just an eye or any small spot you like. The screen will first show you an enlarged view so you KNOW you have perfect focus..that's a great plus being able to have picture after picture IN focus. Also depending upon what focus mode you choose the focus speed is rocket fast on this camera and usually quite accurate. Pictures outdoors look as good as a high quality DSLR as to overall dynamic range, very little highlight clipping, color..and the 14 mm lens has virtually no purple fringing. The reason for just four stars is though the GF3 is pretty good up to 800iso ..you still see a bit too much noise and yellow splotches on jpegs indoors unless the light is rather bright or you use 400 iso and under. It's too bad there's no in camera image stabilization like Olympus does..another con if you are using the 14mm lens or the 1.7 aperture lens here. My Fuji x100 can use iso 2000 in poor light and still look amazing. BUT the x100 has a full sized sensor and is a fixed lens camera..and it's much more expensive and larger than the GF3, so not a fair comparison.

Overall as to overall picture quality, SMALL FORM factor, this camera with LARGE sensor is almost the exact same size as the Pana LX5 which I also own...you just can't beat the GF3 overall,as far as the camera you CAN take with you..vs some bulky heavy camera that will drag you down.

I have not used the video function as it is not important to me so I can't comment about that.

I like the pictures from this GF3 overall a bit more than my NEX-5 because the NEX-5 pics to me all look all a bit too soft..it mis focuses too often..and NEX color seems a bit too saturated..(Just not right). That said, the NEX5 blows away the GF3 on high iso..hence it depends how you are going to use your camera most.

Overall..I think most people will really like the GF3. Sure if you NEED a hot shoe..obviously it doesn't have one. For me if I'm going to use a hot shoe..It's going to defeat some of the SMALL factor, so why bother with a small camera like this in the first place. I applaud Panasonic for getting most things right here. The touchscreen works just fine, you just need get used to it. It's 2011..maybe this will be the way of the future, change is often painful..:)
Overall..this is an excellent camera..maybe a tad overpriced I feel..but an excellent camera on most points.
853103
Great picture! Compared to our Mitsubishi DLP the picture on the Sharp is incredible. The old restored black and white movies even look good. We have had a ZVOX sound bar connected to our old T.V. and it helps the sound on the Sharp but the Sharp sound alone is pretty good. If we hadn't used a sound bar before the Sharp speakers would probably have worked just fine. Not tinny and hollow like the Mitsubishi. We are very pleased with the Sharp...buy one if you are in the market for a good television. I do think the 240 HZ refresh rate is an improvement over the older 120 HZ versions and is a large part of the great picture.
1712852
This D-Link camera does with it says it'll do and all for a good price, however, the picture quality leaves you wanting more.

I purchased this camera because it's able to pan and tilt and works with the MyDLink app, which is a totally awesome and a useful free solution for mobile surveillance, and other D-Link branded options like the recording DVR solution. If I knew the picture quality would be so poor I would have gone for an HD model. The quality only drops when viewing in night vision mode.

Other then the huge concern for me, I actually like the features this camera offers. It's extremely customizable and will satisfy the Geek inside of anyone. It will do for now, but I plan to upgrade to an HD model soon.
4926871
I've had this RCA set for about a year.  The HDTV picture is superb; with the over the air local stations' HDTV selections sharper than the HDTV channels from DirecTV.  If all channels were broadcast in HD this would be a superb set.  However, most programming in non-HD (99%).  The TV comes with a DirecTV HD tuner....the high def channels as mentioned are superb, but everything else is less than average.  All the other non-HD stations (which is all the channels except 199 and the HBO HD station (509) are somewhat blurry and come in in much less detail/resolution than any of my other TV sets connected to DirecTV.  Since most of the programming is now non-HD, most of the TV watching will be non-HD programs, hence, resulting in watching a poor picture.  Had the RCA tech come out and check out the set, could find nothing wrong, and hinted that RCA knows they have this problem with this set and it seems to be related to the built in DirecTV HD tuner.  The way I found around this problem was to purchase another non-HD DirecTV tuner (got a TiVo unit) and connect it to the RCA TV.  I watch the HD stations on the built in RCA tuner and remainder of the DirecTV stations via my accessory DirecTV tuner.  The picture via the accessory tuner is much better but still not quite as good as the picture on get on DirecTV via my old Mitsubishi 35" TV.  The other built in tuner (the one obtaining local stations) is much better, and the over the air HD station reception in HD is superb.  The only other drawback is that there are no outputs from the back of the TV; this means one cannot hook up a VCR to tape any shows.  TiVo solved part of this problem, record shows on its disk and can connect VCR to the TiVo unit.
4631736
I love this camera--most of the time.  Great features, damned good lens, good quality pictures, superb wide-angle views, compact size, strong battery, etc.  Yes, the lack of a viewfinder is sometimes a problem, but not that often.  Most problematic for me is the lack of close focus.  My defunct Nikon could capture the fur on a bee half an inch from the lens.  The LX2 won't even give a sharp self-portrait at arm's length unless you're in very strong light--but beyond that range it's great.  The menu layers require a little getting used to, and (unlike my last) battery needs to be poked in till it clicks.  The Silkypix .RAW image software might be useful if you've no other, but is far less intuitive & useful than say, using PaintShow to refine your images in .JPG mode.
1670379
Addendum 3/30:  To correct the guy correcting me 2 reviews above. In regular mini-dv mode with widescreen, there is definitely a wider picture.  Focus on one item and switch modes, you will see the picture get wider.  HD mode is anamorphic 4:3 - stretched to fit 16x9, but keeps the aspect ratio so everything doesn't look stretched. I've run tests and know what I am saying. Do you?

Recently shot my Uncle's wedding in Widescreen, and played the video back on his widescreen TV. The aspect ratio of the image is accurate and not stretched.  Yes, this shoots in widescreen, but not in hi-def at the same time.

Original review:
My first "prosumer" camcorder I ever owned and I love it. The color reproduction is phenomenal and has great features.  A few caveats may scare away people looking for something more, but this is more of a VERY HIGH END consumer item. Not for the novice, but someone with more shooting talent than the average person. If you want a TRUE HD professional camera, spend 15+ grand and stop knocking this one.

A bother to me was that regular mini-dv can record in true 16:9 mode. While the HD mode is anamorphic 4:3. (Stretched to fit 16:9) The wide-angle lens can fix that for about $500 more.
But if you are transferring to regular DVD's, you can still shoot mini DV widescreen because DVD doesn't record in HD.

So, unless you are transferring to HD DVD, like blu-ray, you have the BEST consumer/prosumer widescreen camcorder available.
Rated at about 3lux, low light doesn't harm this baby much. I find the accessories can be pricey too, but that is the cost you pay when you go prosumer.  Everything else is for beginners and amateurs.

Tip: Get a long life battery.  Sony 970 is recommended for longest life, but the 960 served me well for a days shooting/standby with plenty time left over. Get the light too!

Did I mention women love men with big camcorders? {:-p

NP-970 Battery:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006G3BHW/ref=cm_aya_asin.title/002-0715528-1432846?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance
4751627
Very nice picture overall, excellent on HD broadcast.  Easy setup but somewhat baffled by some of the fine tuning options and what they really do.  Only problems I have are that the set does lose resolution quickly when viewing more than a bit off center and also a bit of motion blur for fast moving video, like some sports events (maybe should have paid a few more buck and gotten the 120Hz model).  But overall very satisfied, really an amazing upgrade over my old CRT set.
4913718
I have not run into the same problems with this camera as I have with other brands.  Although the color in the pictures is a bit dull, it still focuses extremely well, including in underlit areas.  The image is constantly adjusting to get the best shot possible, so that's a plus.

The coolest feature so far is the Panoramic Assist.  Using this feature, you take your first photo, then move the image to the right and you can see a ghost of the previous image showing up to the left, helping you determine where to line up your next shot.  It's pretty neat.

There are multiple modes on this camera along with Panoramic Assist, such as Face-priority AF, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night Portrait, Party/indoor, Beach/snow, Sunset, Dusk/dawn, Night landscape, Close up (Macro), Museum and Fireworks show.

The zoom isn't spectacular, only a 3x, equivalent to 18.6mm.  The digital zoom is a joke, as it is with all digital cameras.  Please don't use this feature on *any* camera!

Deleting images is a snap!  Take a picture, don't like it?  You don't need to go into the preview mode.  Simply click on the trash can button twice and scroll down to Yes and you're done.  Need to go back to shoot?  Hold the shutter button down halfway and you're back to where you were before.

The Nikon L11 also allows for video and, in my opinion, does a pretty good job of it.  You have the option of 160, 320 or 640.  Definitely nothing to produce a movie with, LOL.

In preview mode, if you use the zoom in button, it will zoom into the photo you are previewing (obviously), however, if you click on Menu, your photo will be cropped to that size that you are currently viewing.  A pretty neat feature.  Up, down, left and right can be used interchangably, as down and right are the same (going up in numbers), left and up go down in numbers.

The maximum off time is 30 minutes, which makes it ideal for uploading photos from your Eye-Fi.  You can also turn sleep mode off.  I have never had any issues with this camera uploading with the Eye-Fi.

I wouldn't highly recommend this little one, but it's recommended, nonetheless.  I will say that this camera is much better than some competitors that are price $100-$200 more.
2053970
Summarizing major issues:

Pros:

- High definition pictures. Colors are great, pictures clarity is really amazing at times (if you can get it focused - read more of this bellow).

- Great Design. Small and compact, so you can comfortably carry it with you inside a pocket or so. Stylish and good looking.

- Fairly easy to operate. Navigation in and between menus is straightforward and comfortable. On-screen display is great. The camera also has lots of "modes", which are presets of configurations designed for common photo opportunities.

Cons:

- First and foremost, *Really Bad Focusing System*. Unless you're an experienced photographer (and then again, even if you are), you may lay to it that this camera will take allot of getting used to. Blurry, out-of-focus pictures are common, and you're going to have to repeat shots until you get the hang of it. This is a major issue in comparison to other cameras I've been using.

- Mediocre automatic flash system. When using "automatic flash", in many cases the camera flashes unnecessarily, creating over-brightened images. You'll find yourself manually turning the flash on and off with this one.

- Weak x3 zoom just doesn't cut it, in my opinion.
315880
I didn't find the picture "great right out of the box". In fact, I had to do considerable fiddling and tweaking over several days to get what I consider a great picture, but I finally got it.

This (and probably every HDTV) TV shows up every flaw in the signal that you feed it. Don't even bother connecting it directly to your cable without a digital box, the signal is too noisy and you'll see it. Likewise with a garden-variety DVD player. I'm speaking of the 480I variety. Fortunately, the visual noise reduction does a pretty admirable job at low and medium settings. At high settings it smears the picture too much, and there's too much loss of clarity and sharpness in my opinion.

However with the digital box and an up converting DVD player, the picture is flawless, or nearly so. Outstanding black rendering, great contrast and brightness (in fact I had to back off the factory settings on each), and I really think the color is without peer. It's startling color reproduction. I don't find the factory modes very useful and as I said I had to tweak quite a bit to get a great picture, but who cares, I finally got it.
2949307
Clear sharp picture.  What more could you want?
3516035
The quality of this camera, in terms of resolution and it's over all quality, is very good! This camera really does have perfect HD 1080p quality. Just don't plan using this on recording your xbox 360 or ps3 gameplay, it's not as good or reliable. Great resolution!
2361596
I love this camera!  Bought it to replace my DSLR-like Panasonic DMC-FZ10.  The pictures it takes BLOWS away my old Panny and not because of 10 megapixel vs 4, but because of the USABLE ISO settings!  I took indoor shots at Christmas this year using no flash what-so-ever and using ISO 1600.  With my old camera, the images would've been so dark and grainy that they wouldn't have been usable.  With this camera, the pictures are great, crisp and have just a little motion blur in them, not to mention a GREAT DOF!  The kit lens isn't the greatest (I'm saving up to buy a lens with a similar focal length but with built-in image stabilization), but it's a good start.  Get this camera, use the kit lens for a while until you can afford to buy some really nice glass and you will have one AWESOME setup! :D
3429358
1) One of the best, low-priced P&S cameras around with FAST AF and SHARP images.

  Lens quality is very high. A touch of corner softness in full-wide, but not annoying or visible in most situations. Very high sharpness across the board and 16MP images shot with this vs. Canon & Sony P&Ss in this price range are more detailed and sharper. Simple things like blades of grass are rendered crisply with this model, soft and fuzzy with the other brands tested at this price range.

2) Realistic color rendition.

  Not over-saturated like Sony's. Real. Sand looks like sand, not super-orange. Grass looks like grass, not pop-green.

3) Fast system response.
  AF, menus, delete, etc. all work quickly and don't slow you down. Nice.

4) 8x zoom is a wonder! You can really zoom in and capture things, yet the body is so slim - like most 3-4x compacts. Shift down to a lower MP for capture (eg. 5-10MP), and you can zoom in even further! Nice if you know you'll only capture for 4x6" or screen (only 5MP is required), and you can zoom in much more.

5) Light!
  Almost too light for the size. At first, you think the battery is missing, but it's actually quite nice once you realize that's it. Form factor is slim and pocketable, so no issues taking it out in a shirt pocket.

6) Auto works well for low-light and regular situations. Just point and shoot! Pretty much does a very good job all day long, and little need to fuss with anything but the auto modes.

7) Would buy another if I didn't already give it away as a present and own multiple cameras =P 8x zoom + sharp lens + fast AF + very good image quality are the reasons.