Can someone explain unexpected ZS3 behavior?

[YouHaveChosenWisely]

I was in Costco today playing with a ZS3. It was exhibiting some odd behavior.

(1) After power on, it was in B/W mode. I could change it to color, but after a power cycle it was back to B/W mode. Is this normal?

(2) I erased all the pictures in internal memory then tried to take a picture. When I pressed the shutter button, the screen went blank, all the buttons were unresponsive, even the on/off button. Eventually it came back to life, but there were no pictures in memory.

Can anyone explain what happend? I am trying to decide between the ZS3 and Canon SX200.

Thanks.

[tim11]

You should have asked the staff there.
I don't think any camera has default mode of B&W. There must be a reset switch.
I don't quite understand (2). Maybe you pressed the shutter in long shutter which makes the camera unresponsive for a while. Are you sure there is no picture or just a picture of blackness?
Regardless your 2 points above should conclude nothing about ZS3.

[YouHaveChosenWisely]

Tim11,

Thank you for your reply.


You should have asked the staff there.
I don't think any camera has default mode of B&W. There must be a reset switch.
That is a good idea. I would have asked the staff, except it was getting late and no one was around.

I was somewhat confused as to why it came up in B&W mode. I was hoping someone here might be able to account for it.


I don't quite understand (2). Maybe you pressed the shutter in long shutter which makes the camera unresponsive for a while. Are you sure there is no picture or just a picture of blackness?

I was just trying to take a fully zoomed picture. There was plenty of light. There was no picture at all; not even a black picture.

After playing with it for a while I was able to take a fully zoomed picture. It came out very sharp and well focused. That says a lot about the image stabilization capabilities of the ZS3.

Regardless your 2 points above should conclude nothing about ZS3.

I agree. Most likely it is a sign that I don't need a new camera at this time :).