PHOTO QUALITY. This 20-megapixel advanced point-and-shoot camera captured images with very good quality. Pictures were very sharp, which means you can see even tiny details and very subtle patterns in the image. In low-light situations without a flash, pictures were not quite as sharp as those of most recommended models. We judged this model very good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; very good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym. And good for low-light performance without a flash, such as capturing a birthday party. Photos taken in our low-light performance tests displayed little image noise; subjects retained most of their correct detail and color.
FLASH. The Lumix DMC-ZS200 captured flash shots that were good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate subjects very well, both near and far. The flash also has excellent, very even coverage.
LENS. It has a moderately long 15x zoom lens that can be helpful when you need to zoom in to capture your subjects. The lens also has very wide-angle (24mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature with a long zoom lens; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting zoom set at 4x in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. Shooting telephoto in well-lit scenes, this model did a very good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed excellently and almost never produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were excellent.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS200 powers up very quickly.
VIDEO. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS200 takes excellent video. It also captures 4K-UHD video at 3840 x 2160 60p or 30i. As for sound, it captures excellent audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. Like most advanced point-and-shoot models, this camera does include an electronic viewfinder, which means you have flexibility when composing your photo or video; this viewfinder has very good quality. This advanced point-and-shoot is thinner than most in its class.
