New camera time!

So FedEx delivered my new camera today. I'd been waiting to get this for almost a year, but I had been holding off for the price to drop low enough. It's the Panasonic DMC-ZS3 (known as the TZ7 outside of the US), which is two generations newer than my previous camera, the DMC-TZ3.

It's still got some very similar physical aesthetics, although it's a bit smaller now, while Panasonic has succeeded into making the angle both wider and longer, from 28-280mm to 25-300mm. Of course there's also the increase of image size, up to 10.1 megapixels, and better video quality. There are many other changes that I'm excited about for this camera, which remains the top of its "compact ultrazoom" class in digital photography reviews, although I'm sure Panasonic will announce their next generation replacement before or at the upcoming Photo Marketing Association trade show.


For my own edification, this is my current history of digital camera purchases:

Jan. 2010 - Panasonic DMC-ZS3 (10.1 megapixels)
Jan. 2008 - Panasonic DMC-TZ3 (7.2 megapixels)
Nov. 2005 - Konica Minolta DiMAGE X50 (5.0 megapixels)
Dec. 2003 - Panasonic DMC-FZ1 (2.0 megapixels)
~May 2000 - Olympus D-460 (1.3 megapixels)