Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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range for a variety of shots. This is key since many other comparable cameras only have zoom up to 4x.

- The wide angle! This is my first wide angle camera and boy does it make a difference from your standard point and shoot! I won't go back. It's more than just getting more into a shot, in many cases, its the difference between getting a shot framed properly or not. Getting the whole background or building or whatever into the shot or not.

- Pre-sets camera modes are great. The TZ5 has 15+ pre-set camera modes that really are great for different environments. What's even better is that you can set two of those modes into the dial at top for quick access. This way, you don't have to keep adjusting the mode for each shot. For instance, at night, I pre-set the dial at top to "candle light" and "night portrait" and can quickly take shots that way.

- Great picture quality. I've read various commentary on the superiority of the Canon picture. I haven't done side by side comparisons but what I can say is that I've taken a lot of photos and am very satisfied. And anyways, I'm skeptical of the side by side comparisons on photo quality I've read. So much of a photo is the setting, light, etc that you shouldn't be using the "standard auto setting" to get the best picture regardless. I doubt those comparisons adjusted each camera appropriately for each shot.

- Crisp, large 3" LCD screen. This is one of the primary differences between the TZ4 (comes with 2.5" screen) and TZ5.

- Long exposure shots are really, really cool. This camera takes amazing low light, night time shots. The exposure is 15 or 30 seconds but literally (if you don't move for that long), you can get AMAZING night time shots without a flash and with really cool light effects.

- For the lens and quality it's relatively compact. While its bigger than your standard compact point and shoot, its still small enough to fit in your pocket. Its about the size of an old school ipod, though thicker, and its way better than slugging around a DSLR. And the design is ergonomic.

And now some Cons:

- HD video recording. The quality of the HD picture on playback is great. But there are two shortcomings with this feature. 1) Sound quality is as you would expect for a camera. So its sort of like HD picture/low tech camera sound. It won't replace your HD camcorder, but its certainly good enough for casual recordings. 2) Takes up a ton of memory. I got a 16GB card and that will record about 30min of HD video. Not a lot if you want to take a lot of pics as well on a vaca. I just wind up taking normal non-HD videos, which works fine.

- Auto zoom on video recording is annoying. You need to turn the feature off when taking video, otherwise your video will be in and out of focus as you zoom. But the ability to zoom WHILE taking video is a differentiator for this camera vs. others. Also, some of the features still a work in progress. For instance, the auto face detect works some times, but not others.

- There are not many manual adjustments you can make- primarily shutter speed/exposure and other standard features common in most point and shoot cameras. Obviously I wouldn't expect this to be as flexible as a DLSR, but just something to keep in mind.

- Camera has two automated picture shot modes (where it takes a picture by itself) and the delay is either 2 or 10 seconds. I use this mode a lot - this way everyone can get into a pic! I wish they had longer delay time and more lead up warning to when the picture is going to be taken.

In summary, I would highly recommend this camera for anyone who wants the ability to take a wide variety of high quality pics but doesn't want to lug around a big camera. The cons are far outweighed by the pros. Don't hesitate - you will love this camera!

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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pocket camera does everything that all that bag of expensive 35mm hardware, and all those digital cameras, do and much more. I have never seen another camera, especially one that you can put in your pocket, that has such a high quality 28mm wide angle with a 10X zoom to 280mm.

It has amazing features that I have never seen on a camera before, but this is the first camera I have purhased one in a couple of years. I especially like the ability to add a 5 sec. voice clip along with the picture so you can remember what the shot was all about. Some of the reviews I have read say it has issues with some of the quality standards, but all I see is wonderful pictures...

For a full range, take every picture you will probably want, and still fit in your pocket, this is the only camera I have found that works.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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are a little more grainy and sound not as good, but i think if I put it on a high def TV, the tz5 would win. The Video is not choppy and the colors are nice. The videos are large, but they can easily be converted to another format that is smaller. The zoom is slower than expected in video mode only, but compared to all other point and shoots that dont zoom at all in video, I think it is fine. There have been some comments about sound Quality here, and it had me worried, but I must say, that for 8bit mono, its not horrible. I would put the sound q at 3 stars, as long as your just recording dialog.

The amount of features are incredible. I used the auto slide show, and my kids really loved watching, on the television, the automatic slideshow it created complete. It comes complete with 5 different music styles and several transisiton effects. Its quick, easy and fun.
The other feature that is not talked about much is the burst mode. It takes a about 2 pictures a second for as long as you hold down the button. It also has a High speed burst mode that takes 2 megapixel shots at about 4 or 5 shots per second. It kinda makes a flip book effect. its incredibly fast.

The camera is easy to use and the menues are well thought out and easy. My wife took the camera the first day we owned it to disneyland without me, and she had no instructions on how to use it. She had no problems using the camera, and took some great pictures and videos. She stayed with the IA mode, and that did all the thinking for her and the pics look fantastic.

Dont forget to update to the latest Firmware. ver 1.2 at the time of this writing. My tz5 had 1.1 loaded from the factory. And as many have mentioned it had some auto focus problems in video and stills, that were corrected in 1.2. Check the panasonic site to update it.

Hope this helps.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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attributes.

Playback on the HD level LCD screen has to be seen in person,..WOW!!

Speaking of HD, you can shoot movies @ 30fps in 720P,
(its really 30fps because you can see the fps in RivaTuner software)
With the TZ5 you can shoot 2GB if movies at a time, so depending on your quality level, that's around 9~15min. filming.
~ If the auto focus came On only after you Zoom, (for that 'refocusing moment') it would make movies even better.
My C.AF is Off on movies,... still great!


I noticed on night/flash photos you need to be aware of your finger is on the front, as not to partially cover the flash, just a heads up.

Overall, I highly recommend the Panasonic TZ5, it's as close to a perfect camera I can think of,..
it really is the pocket SLR.

ENJOY!


Also:
to go along with the TZ5, I have a 4GB SanDisk Extreme III card, BoxWave screen protector, Case LOGIC TBC-3 camera bag
& spare battery.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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suitcase as well.

The cons are not too bad, but annoying and simple to fix. After shooting a still picture, the camera, of course, shows you a still of what you've just shot. However, when you turn the camera sideways to shoot, say, a picture of the Eiffel Tower, the playback will flip the shot so that you don't have to turn the camera. Why have that gorgeous 3" screen if you're not going to use it? I'll readily admit this is a minor annoyance, to be sure. This is the default mode, and after some searching in the camera's memory, it can be changed to that the playback mode doesn't flip the picture.

When shooting video, the camera's default is to have continuous focus. Even if you're not moving the camera much, the camera will continue to go in and out of focus while shooting video, blurring everything. This is more annoying than the picture flip I mentioned. This is also correctable in the menu.

The third annoyance is the camera's memory reading ability. I have an 8 GB card, which is more than ample memory for anything. In fact, the camera can shoot about 33 minutes of video on the highest-quality setting - 720p, 30 frames/sec. However, when you go to shoot video, the camera only reads that there are 8 minutes and 30 seconds of video. This is no big deal; however, after you shoot, say, 1 minute of video, and the counter counts down to 7 minutes and thirty seconds, then you press the shutter release again to stop recording, the reading changes right back to 8 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum amount of memory recognizable by the camera. This makes you think that the video didn't get saved.

This thinking that the video didn't get saved is reinforced when you go to play it back, leading to my final annoyance, the camera's integration with my Panasonic Viera plasma TV. I didn't buy a Panasonic camera for this purpose, but as long as I did, I figured, "what the hey?" The TV has an SD slot in back, so you can take your memory card out of the camera and stick it directly into the TV and have a slide show of your pictures. Sounds good, right? But it doesn't play back video through the card slot.

To play back the 720p video on the 720p plasma TV, you have to use cables, and connect it to one of the inputs. The problem with this is that the cables provided aren't even composite cables - they're the standard red, white, and yellow - and this degrades the video quality. This is just plain dumb, dumb, dumb. The only way you can look at the video in all its HQ glory is on your computer.

All in all, these are minor annoyances, I'll admit. But they do keep me from giving the camera a 5-star rating.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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this camera (or any other camera with a big display on back).

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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Finally, after having a couple of opportunities to try this out, HD Video included, I was not impressed and began to miss my little SD200. My three or four year old Canon was a lot faster, smaller, and took better pictures, so I decided that I didn't need 10X optical zoom (I wanted small to begin with) and that I sacrificed to many things to have 10X optical zoom and HD video and returned it, promptly going out and buying a Canon SD870 and a water housing the same day from my favorite little mom and pop camera shop down in Encinitas. My Canon blows the Panasonic away in all aspects. I also want to say, the Panasonic required a proprietary cable to hook up to the computer instead of your standard mini usb cable, which I found annoying. I will never buy another Panasonic camera again and instead stick with what I know and has never failed me, my Canon.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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any setting other than the intelligent auto, and it took care of most scenes with great clarity and exposure. I took several videos and found them acceptable. This is where I found the only negative: the zoom apparatus makes a bad squeeking sound as recorded on the video. Sounds like a slow moving rusty door.
We met several other passengers who had the same camera and everyone thought it was great.
It got a little damp in Naples and Rome where it rained most of the day. However, it never missed a beat or presented a moisture problem.
Overall, I am very impressed and will use this camera over my Nikon D50 for most casual situations.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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poor image quality), Olympus Stylus 850 SW (reportedly poor video shooting, poor battery life), Pentax Optio V10 (No image stabilization), Casio EX-Z1080 (Reduced pixels compared to others, 38mm starting range), Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 (Reportedly falls short on image quality, no viewfinder, larger), Ricoh Caplio R7 (No optical viewfinder, very noisy, some barrel distortion when fully extended, poor customer service?, reported quality mediocre), Pentax Optio A40 (Reportedly poor autofocus), and Canon PowerShot A470 (No viewfinder, no image stabilization, weak zoom).

Unfortunately, doing all this research meant I didn't get the Lumix TZ5 till right before my trip to Amsterdam - I was literally reading the manual on the plane. I don't recommend this, but it does serve as a good crash test for what the camera could (and could not) do out-of-the-box.

As you probably know, this isn't an ultracompact but it is not as big as some reviewers make out. Could fit in a large pocket but it is rather heavy and unprotected in that environment so I got a LowePro case for it that sat on my belt. Worked well, allowed for extra batteries and SD card, and access was quick for candid shots.

Things that worked well:
* The Intelligent Auto mode worked pretty well for most situations. I suggest studying the exposure compensation settings since I had to use these often in high contrast and full sun situations.
* One handed operation works well.
* Menu system was pretty intuitive for basic functions.
* Zoom is amazing and E.Zoom setting was very useful. Be sure to read how to use the "extended optical zoom" which lets you go out to 16.9x at reduced picture quality (I believe you have to have picture quality set at max 9MB and this is then reduced to 3MB). I didn't use the digital zoom.
* The screen is gorgeous and the playback is amazing - many people commented on this.
* Taking video is pretty easy, though I would have preferred a button rather than having to rotate a dial. Be careful on playback to distinguish between what is a still picture and what is video - I accidentally deleted some video because I thought they were poor still shots, rather than the start of the video.
* If the dial is accidentally rotated, the camera will not let you take a picture until you correctly choose an actually setting.
* Fairly quick start up - not stellar but not bad.
* Can set up something called Travel Date, which will organize pictures by 1st, 2nd, 3rd day. This was useful when sharing pictures and to help you remember the chronology of the trip.
* You can zoom while taking video, although more slowly than with still shots.

What didn't work well:
* No matter what you read, the pretty LCD screen is no replacement for a view finder even when you use the Auto Power LCD option to compensate. In daylight, even on the brightest setting, the screen washes out. Another problem I had was I had to remove my glasses to compose on the screen, which was a hassle with rapidly-moving candid shots. This was the biggest disappointment and I took off one star for this.
* Certain functions of the camera will only work in certain settings. For example, you can only set the self-timer for 10 sec in IA mode, histograms cannot be displayed in IA mode, exposure settings can only be used in normal mode, extended optical zoom cannot be used in motion picture mode, etc. It can be frustrating, and you can miss a good shot, if you don't have all that memorized. I imagine all cameras are like this, but thought I would mention it since we are discussing an out-of-the-box experience.
* The door to the sockets on the right-hand side comes open easily (does not lock closed but only snaps shut), which is a hassle at times. I am concerned that it will snap off one day.
* In my opinion, the flash is underpowered.

Overall, I am happy with the TZ5 and impressed with the pictures and video it produced - especially since I had so little experience with it. My friend, who is a film maker by trade, was also impressed with the camera. It is bigger than I would have liked, but the trade off for a 10X zoom was worth it for me.

Do get an extra battery - I went through both batteries in 4 hours of shooting, mostly stills but some video. Big hassle to run out of juice in the middle of your day. A SD Extreme III 8GB was recommended in some reviews and it worked well for me, especially with shooting video. In doing research about buying a camera, one of the most helpful websites I found was the "What Camera Should I Buy?" forum at the Digital Camera Resource Page - [...]
In looking at the reviews here on Amazon for the TZ5, be aware that they are organized by color, so check each color for information about this camera.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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poor image quality), Olympus Stylus 850 SW (reportedly poor video shooting, poor battery life), Pentax Optio V10 (No image stabilization), Casio EX-Z1080 (Reduced pixels compared to others, 38mm starting range), Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 (Reportedly falls short on image quality, no viewfinder, larger), Ricoh Caplio R7 (No optical viewfinder, very noisy, some barrel distortion when fully extended, poor customer service?, reported quality mediocre), Pentax Optio A40 (Reportedly poor autofocus), and Canon PowerShot A470 (No viewfinder, no image stabilization, weak zoom).



Unfortunately, doing all this research meant I didn't get the Lumix TZ5 till right before my trip to Amsterdam - I was literally reading the manual on the plane. I don't recommend this, but it does serve as a good crash test for what the camera could (and could not) do out-of-the-box.



As you probably know, this isn't an ultracompact but it is not as big as some reviewers make out. Could fit in a large pocket but it is rather heavy and unprotected in that environment so I got a LowePro case for it that sat on my belt. Worked well, allowed for extra batteries and SD card, and access was quick for candid shots.



Things that worked well:

* The Intelligent Auto mode worked pretty well for most situations. I suggest studying the exposure compensation settings since I had to use these often in high contrast and full sun situations.

* One handed operation works well.

* Menu system was pretty intuitive for basic functions.

* Zoom is amazing and E.Zoom setting was very useful. Be sure to read how to use the "extended optical zoom" which lets you go out to 16.9x at reduced picture quality (I believe you have to have picture quality set at max 9MB and this is then reduced to 3MB). I didn't use the digital zoom.

* The screen is gorgeous and the playback is amazing - many people commented on this.

* Taking video is pretty easy, though I would have preferred a button rather than having to rotate a dial. Be careful on playback to distinguish between what is a still picture and what is video - I accidentally deleted some video because I thought they were poor still shots, rather than the start of the video.

* If the dial is accidentally rotated, the camera will not let you take a picture until you correctly choose an actually setting.

* Fairly quick start up - not stellar but not bad.

* Can set up something called Travel Date, which will organize pictures by 1st, 2nd, 3rd day. This was useful when sharing pictures and to help you remember the chronology of the trip.

* You can zoom while taking video, although more slowly than with still shots.



What didn't work well:

* No matter what you read, the pretty LCD screen is no replacement for a view finder even when you use the Auto Power LCD option to compensate. In daylight, even on the brightest setting, the screen washes out. Another problem I had was I had to remove my glasses to compose on the screen, which was a hassle with rapidly-moving candid shots. This was the biggest disappointment and I took off one star for this.

* Certain functions of the camera will only work in certain settings. For example, you can only set the self-timer for 10 sec in IA mode, histograms cannot be displayed in IA mode, exposure settings can only be used in normal mode, extended optical zoom cannot be used in motion picture mode, etc. It can be frustrating, and you can miss a good shot, if you don't have all that memorized. I imagine all cameras are like this, but thought I would mention it since we are discussing an out-of-the-box experience.

* The door to the sockets on the right-hand side comes open easily (does not lock closed but only snaps shut), which is a hassle at times. I am concerned that it will snap off one day.

* In my opinion, the flash is underpowered.



Overall, I am happy with the TZ5 and impressed with the pictures and video it produced - especially since I had so little experience with it. My friend, who is a film maker by trade, was also impressed with the camera. It is bigger than I would have liked, but the trade off for a 10X zoom was worth it for me.



Do get an extra battery - I went through both batteries in 4 hours of shooting, mostly stills but some video. Big hassle to run out of juice in the middle of your day. A SD Extreme III 8GB was recommended in some reviews and it worked well for me, especially with shooting video. In doing research about buying a camera, one of the most helpful websites I found was the "What Camera Should I Buy?" forum at the Digital Camera Resource Page - [...]

In looking at the reviews here on Amazon for the TZ5, be aware that they are organized by color, so check each color for information about this camera.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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poor image quality), Olympus Stylus 850 SW (reportedly poor video shooting, poor battery life), Pentax Optio V10 (No image stabilization), Casio EX-Z1080 (Reduced pixels compared to others, 38mm starting range), Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX55 (Reportedly falls short on image quality, no viewfinder, larger), Ricoh Caplio R7 (No optical viewfinder, very noisy, some barrel distortion when fully extended, poor customer service?, reported quality mediocre), Pentax Optio A40 (Reportedly poor autofocus), and Canon PowerShot A470 (No viewfinder, no image stabilization, weak zoom).





Unfortunately, doing all this research meant I didn't get the Lumix TZ5 till right before my trip to Amsterdam - I was literally reading the manual on the plane. I don't recommend this, but it does serve as a good crash test for what the camera could (and could not) do out-of-the-box.





As you probably know, this isn't an ultracompact but it is not as big as some reviewers make out. Could fit in a large pocket but it is rather heavy and unprotected in that environment so I got a LowePro case for it that sat on my belt. Worked well, allowed for extra batteries and SD card, and access was quick for candid shots.





Things that worked well:


* The Intelligent Auto mode worked pretty well for most situations. I suggest studying the exposure compensation settings since I had to use these often in high contrast and full sun situations.


* One handed operation works well.


* Menu system was pretty intuitive for basic functions.


* Zoom is amazing and E.Zoom setting was very useful. Be sure to read how to use the "extended optical zoom" which lets you go out to 16.9x at reduced picture quality (I believe you have to have picture quality set at max 9MB and this is then reduced to 3MB). I didn't use the digital zoom.


* The screen is gorgeous and the playback is amazing - many people commented on this.


* Taking video is pretty easy, though I would have preferred a button rather than having to rotate a dial. Be careful on playback to distinguish between what is a still picture and what is video - I accidentally deleted some video because I thought they were poor still shots, rather than the start of the video.


* If the dial is accidentally rotated, the camera will not let you take a picture until you correctly choose an actually setting.


* Fairly quick start up - not stellar but not bad.


* Can set up something called Travel Date, which will organize pictures by 1st, 2nd, 3rd day. This was useful when sharing pictures and to help you remember the chronology of the trip.


* You can zoom while taking video, although more slowly than with still shots.





What didn't work well:


* No matter what you read, the pretty LCD screen is no replacement for a view finder even when you use the Auto Power LCD option to compensate. In daylight, even on the brightest setting, the screen washes out. Another problem I had was I had to remove my glasses to compose on the screen, which was a hassle with rapidly-moving candid shots. This was the biggest disappointment and I took off one star for this.


* Certain functions of the camera will only work in certain settings. For example, you can only set the self-timer for 10 sec in IA mode, histograms cannot be displayed in IA mode, exposure settings can only be used in normal mode, extended optical zoom cannot be used in motion picture mode, etc. It can be frustrating, and you can miss a good shot, if you don't have all that memorized. I imagine all cameras are like this, but thought I would mention it since we are discussing an out-of-the-box experience.


* The door to the sockets on the right-hand side comes open easily (does not lock closed but only snaps shut), which is a hassle at times. I am concerned that it will snap off one day.


* In my opinion, the flash is underpowered.





Overall, I am happy with the TZ5 and impressed with the pictures and video it produced - especially since I had so little experience with it. My friend, who is a film maker by trade, was also impressed with the camera. It is bigger than I would have liked, but the trade off for a 10X zoom was worth it for me.





Do get an extra battery - I went through both batteries in 4 hours of shooting, mostly stills but some video. Big hassle to run out of juice in the middle of your day. A SD Extreme III 8GB was recommended in some reviews and it worked well for me, especially with shooting video. In doing research about buying a camera, one of the most helpful websites I found was the "What Camera Should I Buy?" forum at the Digital Camera Resource Page - [...]


In looking at the reviews here on Amazon for the TZ5, be aware that they are organized by color, so check each color for information about this camera.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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and some activity?

So I did some checking reading dozens of on-line comments and reviews, and while most reviewers mentioned the issue, none classified it as a deal breaker. The most interesting discussion was on the Panasonic Forum on DPReview where many reported they contacted Panasonic, only to be told "What problem?, This is the first I've heard."

Clearly if the camera has to revert to a fixed focus mode to take movies, this is a huge defect. While much about the camera is very good, this is a deal breaker for me. I did try making a number of videos in the fixed-focus fixed and they were slightly better, but, unfortunately a lot worse than my Canon Elph 900 that's several years old. As a result I have returned the Panasonic camera to Amazon and will wait for this either to be corrected or the next model that hopefully will not have this defect.

I would only recommend this camera to those that don't want to take movies. For stills it's hard to beat, but for movies it's unacceptable by any reasonable standard.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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and some activity?



So I did some checking reading dozens of on-line comments and reviews, and while most reviewers mentioned the issue, none classified it as a deal breaker. The most interesting discussion was on the Panasonic Forum on DPReview where many reported they contacted Panasonic, only to be told "What problem?, This is the first I've heard."



Clearly if the camera has to revert to a fixed focus mode to take movies, this is a huge defect. While much about the camera is very good, this is a deal breaker for me. I did try making a number of videos in the fixed-focus fixed and they were slightly better, but, unfortunately a lot worse than my Canon Elph 900 that's several years old. As a result I have returned the Panasonic camera to Amazon and will wait for this either to be corrected or the next model that hopefully will not have this defect.



I would only recommend this camera to those that don't want to take movies. For stills it's hard to beat, but for movies it's unacceptable by any reasonable standard.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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and some activity?





So I did some checking reading dozens of on-line comments and reviews, and while most reviewers mentioned the issue, none classified it as a deal breaker. The most interesting discussion was on the Panasonic Forum on DPReview where many reported they contacted Panasonic, only to be told "What problem?, This is the first I've heard."





Clearly if the camera has to revert to a fixed focus mode to take movies, this is a huge defect. While much about the camera is very good, this is a deal breaker for me. I did try making a number of videos in the fixed-focus fixed and they were slightly better, but, unfortunately a lot worse than my Canon Elph 900 that's several years old. As a result I have returned the Panasonic camera to Amazon and will wait for this either to be corrected or the next model that hopefully will not have this defect.





I would only recommend this camera to those that don't want to take movies. For stills it's hard to beat, but for movies it's unacceptable by any reasonable standard.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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and some activity?







So I did some checking reading dozens of on-line comments and reviews, and while most reviewers mentioned the issue, none classified it as a deal breaker. The most interesting discussion was on the Panasonic Forum on DPReview where many reported they contacted Panasonic, only to be told "What problem?, This is the first I've heard."







Clearly if the camera has to revert to a fixed focus mode to take movies, this is a huge defect. While much about the camera is very good, this is a deal breaker for me. I did try making a number of videos in the fixed-focus fixed and they were slightly better, but, unfortunately a lot worse than my Canon Elph 900 that's several years old. As a result I have returned the Panasonic camera to Amazon and will wait for this either to be corrected or the next model that hopefully will not have this defect.







I would only recommend this camera to those that don't want to take movies. For stills it's hard to beat, but for movies it's unacceptable by any reasonable standard.

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of this camera. There was one hang up though and I expected this so I knew what I was getting into - right out of the box I had to begin reading the instruction manual and adjusting the cameras settings to get the best picture quality.

Pros.
+ Small compact point and shoot with large 10x zoom
+ HD video resolution (720p capture with component cable playback)
+ Zoom while capturing video (option was not available in TZ3)
+ Ai setting makes the camera easy for beginners, just turn it on and shoot.
+ Large 3.0" LCD display screen makes reviewing pictures easy (the TZ5 also has a higher resolution screen then the TZ3)
+ 9.1 megapixel
+ Able to take pictures in different aspect ratio's 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9

Cons.
- Picture review button has changed from the TZ3 model. Now instead of easily hitting down on the 4 way directional pad you have to push a switch down to go into "review mode" to see the last picture you just took. I found this a little slower than the TZ3 and one more moving part that can break. For reference see the back of the TZ5 and notice the toggle switch from "capture to review" in the upper right hand corner.
- If the camera is not set to Ai then taking a good picture straight out of the box might not be perfect. You will want to spend a little time reading the manual and adjusting some settings to get a great photo.
- Will only us SDHC memory cards. Since I did not have a memory card this was not a problem for me, but if you are upgrading from an older camera you cannot use the old standard memory card. The new SDHC cards are faster and it is suggested that you get a high speed card (transfer rate) in order to capture HD video.
- ISO Images above 800 do have artifacts (static) in the image. This does not make the photo horrible or bad looking just noticeable if you blow up the image to a large size such as an 8x10. I knew this going in and most digital cameras have this problem, some worse.


After owning this camera for over a month I am very pleased with it and couldn't be happier. I hope this review helps and if you still need information or possibly some sample photos, then go to Google and type in "review Panasonic TZ5". You will see a few great websites that can help you decide what the best camera is for your needs.

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it actually produces a few keepers here and there.

All told its not a revolutionary camera and certainly not the super-slim ultraportable camera that you'd keep on your person at all times....but HD video in your pocket! And some decent pics too.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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it actually produces a few keepers here and there.



All told its not a revolutionary camera and certainly not the super-slim ultraportable camera that you'd keep on your person at all times....but HD video in your pocket! And some decent pics too.

Panasonic Lumix 9.0-Megapixel Digital Camera - Black

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reduced zoom range, and corner blurriness . The TZ 4 and 5 do nothing of the kind.

For what you're getting, a compact, POCKETABLE 28 - 280 Leica lens with IS, there simply is nothing like it out there. And that's before even looking at the HD movie mode, the surprisingly accurate intelligent scene selection feature, the brilliant LCD and the jewel-like workmanship.

This is the ultimate vacation camera if you plan to leave your DSLR home and travel lightly, and aren't spending all day in museums shooting w/o flash. I highly recommend this camera, especially if you lock in the highest possible ISO value at 400, turn the d