Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

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 DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

I haven't used/seen the black or silver cameras, but the blue color looks very nice and adds texture to the camera making it easier to grip. The TZ5 isn't as compact as some other cameras like the sd870is, and therefore isn't as pocketable. However, for the vast majority of applications, and as a travel camera, it is the perfect size. You can use this camera easily with one hand, in contrast with smaller cameras like those in the canon digital elph series. All of the controls are easy to use and access and the majority of camera looks/feels of very high quality (exceptions: the power switch and the AV door on the side are a little sketchy, also the tripod mount is plastic). The screen on the back is beautiful, but lacks anti-reflective coating like the sd870is. As other reviewers have noted, the improvement in resolution is most obvious when reviewing the photos in play back mode. When taking pictures, the increase in resolution isn't as obvious. However, this is the best screen I have ever seen on a point and shoot camera.

Menu System:

This camera is very easy to use, and the menu system is very logically designed. The Q-menu button allows access to features that you would want access to more often/quickly (e.g. white balance and ISO settings). I can't say enough about the usability of this camera, it certainly outdoes the canon. Additionally, the graphics of the menus have been improved compared to previous panasonic cameras.

Photos:

There are various scene modes to take advantage of, but the most important new feature to note is the intelligent auto mode. In the intelligent auto mode, if you are taking a picture of a person, the camera detects the face (the face detection works extremely well by the way) and puts the camera in portrait mode, automatically removing red-eye if a flash is needed (not only with a pre-flash, but digitally as well! Nice!) -This feature is available outside intelligent auto mode as well-. If you are taking a close-up of a flower or other object, the camera is automatically put in macro mode, and if you are taking a picture of a landscape the camera is put in landscape mode. It is rarely fooled and works extremely well. In the intelligent auto mode the camera automatically adjusts the ISO (which can be scary above 400). In the camera settings you can adjust the MAX ISO you want the camera to go to while set in automatic ISO. However, in the intelligent auto mode, the camera will take the ISO as high as 800 if it needs to (this doesn't happen often). The intelligent auto mode is absolutely fantastic for novices that don't want to have to worry about tinkering with the camera settings.

How is the picture quality? Very good. In fact I was extremely pleased with it until I compared it to the canon sd870is. Of course, most of the differences are not evident until you start analyzing the photos at 75-100% magnification. However, viewed at 100% the TZ5 dispalys more noise at all ISO settings than the canon and I prefer the smooth appearance of the photos produced by the canon cameras. The color saturation was only *slightly* better with the sd870is, but the sd870is tended to expose the pictures better in some situations, and was rarely bested by the TZ5.

The macro mode on the TZ5 is very good but not as good as I was expecting. The canon allows you to get much closer and tends to make *slightly* better photos in this mode. However, for the majority of people that aren't going to analyze every aspect of the photo, the TZ5 will do more than an adequate job.

Lens:

This leica lens is one of the shining points for the TZ5. The zoom is incredible, fast and quiet. Also, unlike the canon there is very little distortion and also unlike the canon, I never noticed any blurred corners. The ability to go from 28-280mm is an incredible feature. I do wish that the lens was faster (only f3.3 - 4.9) compared to the sd870is (f2.8-5.8). In addition, this allows the canon to produce more depth of field (which I prefer). Overall, this is an easy win for the TZ5, no other compact can compete.

Video Mode:

I was very excited to see the videos that this camera produces. I would call them good with average sound quality. Yes, it is nice that they are such high resolution (and you can zoom during video), but the overall quality of the videos is still lacking. I made a 640x480 video with both the sd870is and the TZ5 (obviously the TZ5 can attain much higher resolution at 1280x720, but for testing purposes I wanted to make them the same resolution; the canon can only make a 640x480 video) and the canon embarrassed the TZ5 in both video quality and sound quality. On its own and for what it is, the high definition video from the TZ5 looks good, but it won't stand up to scrutiny. Don't buy this camera for the HD video capability and expect miracles. As others have noted, this is a point and shoot camera with video recording capability, not a stand alone high definition video recorder. *As a side note, make sure you turn off the continuous focus feature for the best videos, otherwise it is always focusing in and out*

Overall, I am very impressed with this camera. The lens is first rate, the design of both the camera body and its software is excellent. While the photo quality is very good, I would like to see photo quality (color saturation, exposure and detail) more similar to the canon and of course, like everyone else, I was hoping that the HD video would have been better. Focusing takes noticably longer than the sd870is and startup time, while great, isn't as good as the sd870is. Despite the mentioned negatives, I definitely recommend this camera. When I travel what I am I going to take with as a compact camera? It is going to be the Panasonic TZ5.

I am sure I forgot to mention something, so If you have any questions or comments about this review, please post them and I will reply when I can! Thanks!

*Make sure you buy a high speed sd or sdhc card for this camera. It requires a high speed card for the HD video. I bought the SanDisk 4 GB Extreme III SDHC Card with MicroMate USB 2.0 Reader, and it works perfectly. Have fun!

Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

However, the TZ5 has a 3 inch LCD while the TZ3 & TZ4 only have 2.5 inch. That was a deciding factor for me.

If you need a camera where you look through a traditional view finder to frame your photos, this is not the right camera for you. I prefer using the LCD screen, so I don't miss this feature.

I find the Panasonic menus easy to use to access all of the varied features. If you just want to use it as a point-and-shoot, it's easy to do. If you want to experiment, the features are there for you to play with...

There is another feature on Panasonic that is an absolute MUST for me. It is possible to set the flash "off" so it doesn't go off when you don't want it to (i.e., in places that restrict flash photography). Some of my friends have cameras where they have to turn the flash off each time. And they forget...

Another reason I opted for the Pansonic FZ/TZ series is the easy to use battery charger/rechargeable battery. The batteries that hold their charge for 1-3 days, but I do carry a spare. I'm not a fan of carrying around AA or AAA batteries.

Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera-Panasonic DMC-TZ5A 9.1MP 10xOp Zoom Digital Camera

...

came with 3 deflated air bags, and a camera box that was loose in the package.