Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 Review

Dear Jeremy (or should that be Yo Jeremy),
Sorry to bleat on old chap, but do you think you could possibly refrain from using your modern day vernacular. We 'ordinary' chaps have great difficulty in understanding your 'hop-hip' lingo! As this is a forum for camera users and not 'Gangsta' Rappers from Queens would it be possible for you to use a language that we all understand. That means constructing sentences that are grammatically correct and consist of words that have been spelled correctly.
Greetings and salutations!
Crapitoutjim

i purchased the tz5 over a year ago and have taken it on several holidays that have put this camera through a good workout. over the last 14 months it's been to alaska, where its capabilities with landscapes, video, zoom, indoor conditions and temperature were tested. to costa rica, where humidity, abuse, and ease-of-use were issues. and to family events (wedding and graduations), where its indoor/outdoor capabilities, its face detection mode, its next shot recycle speed and its light metering capability were challenged.

it is my hope that a review which describes the use of this camera over a longer period of time will provide better and more useful information than a brief 2 month feedback period. before i give a few detailed examples, the bottom line here is that 1) i bought this camera based on the original article by trusted reviews .... a very accurate evaluation by the way, and 2) this is one hell of a good camera and i highly recommend it (a 9 out of 10).

on a beautiful partly cloudy day onmy alaska cruise i took a video of a pod of orcas (killer whales) that were swimming past the ship. they were about 200 meters from the ships so i used the 10x zoom and the hi-def (720p). along with the "mega image stabilization" the resulting video was spectacularly clear. the movement from my handshake and the ship were minimal. when i viewed the video on my 52 inch LCD TV the orcas were in focus, clear, and remained centered on the screen. there were no artifacts or pixelization during the transient movements or the zooming in and out. all of my other videos have been of similar high quality...including one of my son's fast moving skateboard stunts.

the biggest video limitations i've discovered are the mono audio (it's now stereo on subsequent models) and the low light capabilities. the microphone is on top of the camera (i presume to give the best omni-directional pick up capability), but it's also exactly where one would place there finger to hold the camera. but even with the mic uncovered the audio pick-up range is limited to a max of about 2 meters. the stereo on later models should help with that. i took several 720p videos indoors on the cruise ship and although they are a tremendous improvent over my old tape video cameras, the clips are still mild to moderately grainy (depending on the amount of lights on in the room) and contain a small amount of video noise. but none of the videos over the past year have been unwatchable. they've all been moderate to high quality regardless of whether they were taken indoors or outdoors.

in both costa rica and alaska i used the auto, the IA, and the different scene modes for photos. the camera never faltered in any of these modes due to the climate. it got below freezing in alaska and over 35 C/80% humidity in costa rica. on our hikes, kayaking, zip lining, cycling and bush pilot excursions in those locations the camera was dropped several times, kicked twice, and generally banged around in the back pack. it's a tough, well constructed camera. the quality of the shots were excellent regardless of what the subject was. in both alaska and costa rica, the a/b comparison shots i took of the same shot in the auto, IA, and scene modes were all excellent. yet there were subtle differences between each. generally speaking if one is taking shots of general composition like your kids in a park or a building the auto or IA mode is best. but if one is composing a shot that generally fits one of the many scene modes, i found the scene mode (for example, landscape, sunset, portrait, etc) provided the best results. one needs to experiment to gain experience with evaluating the shot conditions and modes in order to know which mode to select. but regardless, if one selects a less than ideal mode the camera and software is so good that your shots will still be excellent. i've taken thousands of a/b comparison shots and you're only splitting hairs in the difference of quality in the photos. thus, for most people the auto or IA mode is fine.

the stabilization has 2 modes and i prefer mode #1 where it stabilizes constantly. in mode #2 the stabization is only activated when the shutter button is pressed. since the camera has a 10x optical telephoto lens i've used it to take photos of bald eagles that were a qtr kilometer away and glaciers that were 2 kilometers away. these are extreme challenges for the camera but the photos were very good quality. they could not be blown up beyond a standard photo size becuase one could then see the graininess but otherwise for everyday sharing and viewing they're very good. in my niece's wedding on the beach the 10x telephoto and mega stabilization produced photos of the couple from a balcony that were crystal clear and with bright, true color saturation. it should be noted that Trusted Reviews mentioned that the Leica lens produced no barrel distortion at 10x and it's absolutely true. since the lens is also a true wide angle (28mm i believe) i was able to frame the entire family during indoor shots. the flash is very good with an effective range of approx 4-5 meters and it didn't over expose the shots when the shot was a short distance away. however, after about 100 wedding photos (all taken at minimum compression and full megapixels) were stored on the 16gig high speed sd card the next-shot recycle time starts to be longer than i'd like. i missed a few "kodak moments" because of recycle time delay.

the light meter is very good and challenging shots like an object being illuminated partially by bright sunlight and partially in shade under costa rica's rain forest were well balanced, clear, noise free, and with good saturation. other tough shots like shooting out over a bright sunlight lit meadow from under the rain forest canopy were equally excellent.

in summary, i've taken tens-of-thousands of shots with this camera and it's just about a perfect all purpose camera. it has the mega-zoom, high quality lens capability like a 35mm SLR but is small and easy to cary and use like a point and shoot. combine the hi-def videos i've taken and i never take my camera bag full of different video/still equipment anymore. i wish it had a viewfinder to make taking videos easier, especially of fast moving objects, i wish the audio was better (now rectified with stereo in tz6 and tz7) and i wish the next shot recycle time was faster. but i give this camera a 9 out of 10. the later models have received excellent reviews as well by most critics, but not all. but critics are people just like everyone else which means it's all subjective and that you need to read several evaluations like i did before making your choice...especially at these prices. my experience over the last 14 months has definitely paralled what the critics have observed about the tz5, both it's strengths and shortcomings. out of all the shortcomings, the lack of a viewfinder is what bothers me the most.