Costco Coupon on ZS1

Costco is offering $50 off the Lumix ZS1 (incl. 2GB card), valid June 15 - July 5. $50 off what they don't say. Since Costco moves a lot product (or they don't carry it), I'll speculate that Panasonic needed to devote considerable manufacturing resources to fill Costco's inventory requirements, hence not as many ZS3s were made as might have otherwise been the case.
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lzc

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Do you know what the price is for the ZS1 camera at Costco? I just ordered one online from amazon, and will return it if the discount makes a difference. I did not see the camera on Costco's website, and could not reach anyone over the phone, so could not find a price. There does seem to be a range in the pricing for this camera.

I was in Costco last Friday, and the ZS1 was $279.99, including a leather case and a 2gb card. With the $50 coupon, that brings it to $229.99--not bad!

I'm considering waiting for Costco to stock the ZS3, which they'll, hopefully, have after a few months--and discounted a few months after that.

Can you refresh my memory on the differences between the ZS1 and ZS3?

One thing you can be sure of with Costco is that they carry limited models, and never two models of cameras that are nearly identical. In fact they will probably blow out the ZS1, and you will never see that again either. For P&S models, they know there are new ones coming constantly and buy a huge batch and then that's it.

I've been a member for 19 years, my friend from high school has worked there over 20 - my info is solid. If you are even thinking of it... then get the ZS1.

BTW - thanks to the OP, I'm going to go get one for my girlfriend
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They had the TZ4 first, and then several months later they got the TZ5. Eventually, they had a $70 off coupon for the TZ5, making it $199.99 with a case and a 1gb card.

I hoping the same will happen, and after selling the ZS1, they will get the ZS3. (But I have no inside info!)

The ZS3 has the new light video (I don't remember what it's called), which uses less memory space and is in HD with stereo. It also has a 3" screen, rather than a 2.7" screen, with twice the resolution (in playback on the camera). I think the ZS3 is 12 mp and the ZS1 is 10mp.

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Which color ZS1 did they have at Costco? Did they have a display model that you could try out?

I paid $260 online for mine, and it came with a Panasonic coupon for 4gb card and carrying case.

I'm not sure how long it will take for them to get the ZS3, since all the other stores I visited have not received them, and are not sure when they will come in. If the ZS3 was going to come in the next few months, and if it would come with say a $70 rebate, I would definetly wait for the ZS3 since it is a much improved camera.

Costco is offering black only. I bought one. After sales tax, something you avoid with most mail order, I figured the memory card and camera case came free. That's it. No great deal, although if the camera was defective, dealing with Costco would likely be easier.
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lzc

It was black and fully charged, so I was able to take a few pix with the 40mb internal memory, look at the menus, etc. It has a slightly different feel from the tz4 and tz5.

I went to Costco today and picked up the Zs-1.

This is my first Panny. I have been pretty much a Canon and Nikon person but I wanted a small camera to put in my pocket or small case when I don't want to carry my DSLR around with me. The ZS-1 seems to be great thus far. The menu's are pretty easy to navigate and I like the histogram feature and the fact that you can + or - EV.

Everything with these small compact cameras is a compromise but this one appears to be solidly built and the 12x optical zoom really sold me on it.

Maybe should have waited for the ZS-3 but you know what, at this point in time, HD and Stereo video is not that big of a deal to me.

The costco where I live had about 100 of these on display. They took $50 off at the register. Nice.!

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Just went and purchased it at Costco. $50 discount came with a coupon book that you can pick up at the membership desk. But with CA tax rate, I ended up paying about $255 for it. So really not that much of a discount from Amazon. It did come with the 2gm memory card/carrying case, instead of having to mail in for the 4GB/carrying case offer that comes with the Amazon deal.

But ultimately the most important thing is that Costco has a 90 day return policy, and Amazon has only 30 day return policy.