Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

The Panasonic DMC-TZ5 is exactly the camera I was looking for. I can put in a pocket or purse and go. We just took it on a trip to Yosemite. It was very easy to use and the pictures are great! The 10x zoom is fantastic! I got a really good picture of the city of San Francisco -- from across the bay!! The image stabilization worked beautifully. We were on a tour boat in the bay in very choppy waters but you can't tell it at all from the photos of the Golden Gate.

Yes, it does have some purple fringing and it will tend to blow out highlights but for what it is I think it does a very good job and would highly recommend it. I gave it 4 stars just because of the fringing issue.

I wanted a compact camera with a good range zoom, hd video mode, great manual controls (with a good auto mode) & a larger LCD - and of course great photo capabilities.

Well, a camera like that just doesn't exist at the time of this review. The TZ5 is what I would consider the closest thing without breaking the budget.

I have used it for a few weeks, nearly non stop...here is my breakdown in order of most importance.

PROS --

1. the 10x Zoom is fabulous, especially with a camera this size. not to mention that it has great stabilization (the best I've ever seen) , great for video mode and low light conditions.
2. the intelligent Auto mode really does work well. the exposure, flash intensity & auto focus are consistently good in most all pictures (not as great in low light though, but still better than anything else under $300)
3. the LCD will make you completely forget there is no viewfinder (I rarely used one anyway) - it's so large and sharp, you really can see detail well.
4. best picture quality of any point & shoot I have used.
5. can zoom in and out & auto focus while in video mode
6. low light auto focus - this is very good as long as you aren't zoomed in and the subject is 4ft or so away. because of the infrared beam, it will consistently focus well even in near absolute darkness.
7. Accessories are cheap (an extra battery is only $8, and a good fitted hard case only $15)
8. $$$ - the price is sooo good right now, there really isn't anything that can compare to this camera's features (as long as those features are what you're looking for)


CONS - (if these are important to you, you might want to consider waiting for something else)

1. Video mode (audio) - this is absolutely the biggest downfall of the camera. to start things off the mic is in a stupid spot, and if you aren't covering it with your left index finger, there still is no shot of getting decent audio. ------- the audio sounds tin-like and full of background noise. it's also extremely muffled, so much so that it can be hard to tell what people are saying unless they are loud or really close. most everyone sounds like they have a mild lisp. (in ideal conditions, the sound is ok after I boost it with software)

(would it have been too expensive to put a better mic in this camera? I would have paid more for it without thinking twice)

2. Video mode (video) - although it is HD, the quality isn't that fabulous especially at data rates of upto 25mbs - which eats a 2gb sd card up in 8minutes - there's no way I can afford to keep the original files...they have to be converted to h.264 to save hard drive space. - the video also records bright light reflections as a white vertical bar from top to bottom of the video (ie - light from the sun & reflecting off of cars etc.)

3. Few/no manual controls - the manual controls are few and hard to use. I would have really liked manual focus on this camera. It would have given room for a lot more creativity - especially when zoomed in low light conditions, where the camera has a tough time focusing.

4. Zoom noise recorded in Video mode - most of the time a little zoom noise is recorded. while zooming back to 28mm loud clicks are almost always recorded at the very end - also the zoom speed isn't always smooth)

5. Low-light auto focus (while zoomed in only) - I think that most every compact has an issue with this. this camera is better than most I've used. It really has a tough time focusing on objects in low light conditions when the camera is zoomed past half way.

6. camera size - the camera is bigger than most point and shoots, it was bigger than I expected, but still fits in a larger pocket. (some compromises have to be made to fit 10x zoom in a camera)



I have much more to say, but I don't think too many people have that kind of time, so hear is a quick conclusion...


If you want a mostly pocketable camera that packs a 10x stabilized zoom, a great auto mode, a bright/large LCD, a zoomable video mode and beautiful pictures (compared to other point & shoots) and have no other requirements...this IS the camera for you...

If you want more manual control, a really good video mode and audio that you can hear without tons of background noise...you would be wise to look elsewhere.

IN SHORT - If you are buying this camera for it's HD video - DON'T!!!

8/10 stars

My dilemma: I need a camera that I can pocket, or I don't HAVE a camera. But my father is a photographer; if I bring home a less than excellent camera I will hear of it.
Indefinitely.

This is the first camera I've found to be both Excellent and pocketable.

Admittedly Dad isn't going to drop his Minolta, but he bought a TZ5 for my mother.

The TZ5 inspires envy with it's huge screen, effective zoom and compact size. Depth of field is displayed whenever the zoom is activated.

Two drawbacks: 1 No viewfinder. Only an issue in bright light. 2 A perceptible pause between hitting the shutter and taking the picture. The first is, alas, a price paid for a compact. The second, a real flaw, seems to be the nature of almost all digital cameras.

I bought this camera the week it came out. Be advised the are occasional firmware updates. You will need a SD or SDHC card to do them. They are available at http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/download/TZ4_5/index.html

On 28 October 2008 AD the firmware was version 1.2 They have versions for bith Macintosh and Windows.

Not only would I recommend it, I have.
DAB

Es bueno contar con cámaras de alta tecnología y poder tomar tus fotos con una Lumix TZ5 y verlas en tu álbum bien claras y nitidas y poder tambien seleccionar el tipo de foto desde el menú de la cámara.Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5A 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)

We received this camera as a gift, and it seemed a wonderful replacement to our poor, broken Photosmart camera. Unfortunately, the problems with this camera aren't immeadiately apparent. The problems are deep seated form-factor and software issues that become constant annoyances farther down the road.

Problems:
1) Buttons are awkwardly located, making it easy to accidentally press the wrong button.
2) Power options for extending battery life are non-existent - the camera simply runs until it dies (without much advance notice).
3) On-camera menus are not intuitive.
4) Movies are in the quicktime format - nothing plays quicktime except intrusive Apple software.
5) Pictures are NOT auto-rotated in windows. You have to use panasonic's "special" software, or otherwise rotate all pictures by hand.
6) Tech support is snotty and unhelpful.

The first problem we noticed with the camera was the awkward positioning of buttons and dials. Both of us are always pressing the wrong button by accident when trying to take a picture. With the menu and navigation buttons right next to where you place your thumb, it is easy to accidentally enable some random feature that we wouldn't otherwise ever use. For me, this problem is especially apparent when taking vertical pictures.

The second problem is the lack of power save options. When travelling, a power plug is not always available, so it is convenient to turn off power hungry features such as the display when you don't need them. Although the battery does last a long time, and the power problem could be rectified by plugging the camera in every night, it is easy to forget. With our previous camera, we could disable the screen when we had forgotten to plug in the camera so we could still take pictures all day on low power. This camera, however, doesn't have that option. Furthermore, it doesn't alert somebody to its lack of power until it has maybe 10 minutes remaining... and then off it goes (at noon on the most picturesque day of the trip).

The third problem is a minor annoyance. We are always struggling to find the right options in the menu. Maybe the features are there, or maybe they aren't... but the menus are crazy.

The fourth problem has to do with Panasonic's use of the Quicktime movie format. We really wanted a new camera so that we could take movies of our 1-year daughter. Unfortunately, all of the cute movies we've recorded are only viewable in Apple's Quicktime. They aren't convertable to any other viewer either. I don't know about other people's experience with Quicktime, but it either crashes my computer outright or hogs processing and network time, preventing other software from running. The result is that we can't watch all of these cute movies we've recorded.

The fifth problem is the auto-rotate feature. The camera has an auto-rotate, right? It is advertised as having one.... too bad they don't use it to rotate the pictures. Instead, they set some software bit in each image that is only readable by the panasonic software. If I want to show pictures to a friend, I have to either rotate everything by hand in windows beforehand, or try to navigate panasonic's clunky, poorly designed software.

Finally, the last problem is with the panasonic tech support. I've contacted them three times, and only received an answer once. And that one time (in reference to the Quicktime problems), they simply told me tough... rather than trying to help me work around the issue, or giving me any contact info from apple or...

The DMC-TZ5 camera "seems" ok at first glance, but the design and software issues associated with with the camera make the experience overwhelmingly negative in the long run. We will most likely be buying a new camera.