Panasonic DMC-ZS45 LUMIX 20X Zoom Camera with Wink-Activated Selfie Feature (Black)

Absolutely beautiful camera and it's a bang for the buck. Had some trouble with it getting frozen in iA mode but it was just a matter of formatting the SD card and the camera was good to go from then on. I use DSLRs but got this for my girlfriend and I was actually amazed by the picture quality and also the lens stabilization. She was impressed too she didn't have to apply filters or any editing with her phone.As of video, some people say it's bad in low light but I actually found the ISO noise pretty decent looking at 1600 and oddly didn't need to go up to 3200 in extreme low light. The zooming is amazing even while recording as it zooms in and out very smoothly and keeps the image amazingly stabilized. Audio is pretty good too and so is the wi-fi sharing.I would absolutely recommend this product to anyone looking for much better selfies and social media content as well as for vlogging. Also, the product is very sturdy (almost all metal), little heavier than you'd imagine (which I like), and with the wrist strap it feels good and safe in your hand. I would even have it as a second camera always ready in my pocket.

I just loved this camera. I bought this as a gift for my sister who's not too tech savvy, hence before giving it to her I had to explore the product myself to see if all the functionalities were working as advertised. I especially like the wireless function. It does take very colorful pictures. I'd probably not recommend this to someone who uses a DSLR all the time but for those who likes taking colorful pics with a very simple point and shoot camera this has to be a great product for them. The added bonus if the 20X optical zoom. However note that unless you're using a tripod, you're likely to end up with a blurry picture if you're using the full 20x zoom. For the price I paid I think this is a very good product.

I bought this Lumix DMC-ZS45 more to complement than to replace my old PowerShot Canon camera. The feature that attracted me to the Lumix was the ability to rotate the monitor in order to see yourself when taking selfies. I bought a refurbished camera and so far its performance is satisfactory.The camera comes with a very basic foldout owner’s manual. If you want to take advantage of and learn more about the camera's different features, it’s best to download the manual from Panasonic’s website. I found that the camera is user friendly once I understood that settings may appear and/or change according to the recording mode I choose. I’m not an expert at photography so I usually set the camera to IA (intelligent auto mode) and let the camera do the figuring out. The settings on the dial are for recording modes that go from automatic to allowing you to select your owns setting for aperture, shutter, and exposure. Also it allows you to access the scene and creative modes. Portrait, Soft Skin, Scenery, Night Portrait, Baby, Pets are a few of the recording modes included in the Scene menu. Creative Control Mode allows you to add effect filters (black and white, sepia, etc.) to the pictures you’re taking. To set any of these modes, however, you have to fumble through a menu, which means it may take some precious seconds or minutes if you’re trying to go from “Portrait” to “Scenery.” I think this is probably one of the biggest disadvantages of the Lumix. With my Canon, I can make the same switch by just turning the dial. I also found the flash of the Lumix to be weaker than the Canon. Under some conditions and settings, it will fire twice and if you’re not aware of that, your subject probably would have moved by the time it goes off the second time.Overall, I think the camera takes good pictures and it saves them to memory faster than my Canon. I’m sure it helps that I’ve given the Lumix a high speed memory card (SDHC UHS-I card). The main appeal of this camera is the ability to take selfies. The camera goes into Self mode shot as soon as you flip the monitor to face yourself. The wink detector works well (if you wear glasses, you need to remove them if you’re the one winking at the camera) but it’s not a quick wink that it’s going to activate the camera’s countdown. You have to close one eye and keep it so until the countdown starts. You can set the camera to take up to 4 selfies in succession and choose from 3 defocusing patterns (background blurring), but you have to make sure you’re inside the frame. Anything outside the frame is blurred. The camera may freeze if you accidentally set the dial in between two modes while doing a selfie. I found out that taking the battery out and then putting it back in will restart the camera.I usually transfer my pictures to my PC by using the USB connection cable that’s included with the camera. It’s easy and fast. I don’t want to worry about passwords or about the safety of transferring data over Wi-Fi. I’ve only had this camera for about a month and I’m still playing with it. But so far, I like it

The hardware on this camera is everything I need but the user interface/features are lacking.Note: I am running the most current version of firmware available (1.2).- It will shoot 10 fps in burst mode but for only one second while I need 3 secondsThere are 3 main burst modes 2 fps, 10 fps, and high speed (fps varies with available light). The 2 and high speed modes can take 100 images while 10 fps can only take one second worth of images. Annoying. The similar ZS-25 from 2013 could also take 5 fps as well and was not limited to 10 shots.- The WiFi interface is cumbersome. Entering password information is done with arrows on the back and the WiFi password is forgotten immediately if you're unable to get it to connect with your computer. Hope your usernames and passwords are easy to type because you'll be doing it a lot while setting up.- PC WiFi transfer feature is cumbersome. When attempting to transfer multiple images it required 3 key presses for each image. I'd recommend skipping the WiFi setup and use the USB cable instead. (minor annoyance that the charging connector is not standard USB)- Burst mode and video are inaccessible when the screen is flipped up. Instead only a limited palette of options are available to the user.I liked the filters although I can't see using them much and the interface was about what you'd expect from a point and shoot. This would be a handy vacation camera but if you're buying it for specific features you'll want to find the advanced user manual and review the features before purchasing. With a dedicated software team this camera could be a fantastic piece of kit but I'm guessing that Panasonic will not assign that level of priority to the ZS45.

I bought this camera for a trip I was taking. The camera worked great. It is small and takes good quality photos. The camera does use a specialized charger. I forgot the charger, but fortunately the person I was with had the same exact camera and it worked out.The charge does hold for a long time.