Panasonic DMC-TZ5 Black Digital Camera

I purchased a TZ5 this year as a gift because I have had experience of another Panasonic model, the TZ3, which I purchased last year, also as a gift. The TZ5 is incredibly well designed and built and above all very easy to use. It is ideally suited to the point-and-shoot customer who may have little experience of photography.

I am a keen photographer and for me the TZ range offers the best set of features of any digital compact camera presently available. It is a 9.1-Megapixel camera which means its images can be increased and printed at A4 size, possible larger, without noticeable degradation in quality, i.e. the individual pixels becoming detectable by the human eye.

The feature I appreciate most is the 10X wide angle 'optical' zoom capability supported by a 4X 'digital' zoom capability. Some compact cameras prefer to have a greater digital zoom capability at the expense of a lower optical zoom capability. I have always believed that optical zoom capability must always take precedence and the TZ5 has this in abundance.

The TZ5 has and equivalent ISO range (light sensitivity) to meet even the most demanding situations although I wouldn't consider using it in very low light conditions without flash.

The TZ5 also has a large, bright 3-inch display which I found easy enough to use without resorting to the user guide.

The TZ5 also has 'in camera' Red Eye Correction and Face Detection and it can be used in near total darkness. The camera has a small internal flash and can be used with a more powerful 'off camera' flash unit, if required.

The TZ5 can also be used to record short video clips, with sound, but this requires a large SDHC memory card, either 8 or 16Gb recommended.

The TZ5 has a standard tripod mounting point for those occasions when the zoom is being used near its maximum (7 - 10X) and shake must be minimized to produce a sharp picture. But if the camera has to be handheld in such circumstances the TZ5 is fitted with OIS (optical image stabilization) which will compensate, to a degree, for camera shake. OIS may not prove to be as effective if used where vibration is present.

Most, if not all, of the camera's features can be programmed by the user or switched on/off, if required.

The camera comes as a Lumix Li-on battery and charger plus leads for transferring pictures and videos to a computer or laptop. There is also a comprehensive user guide and software on disk.

The TZ5 has about 50Mb of internal memory which is essential for initial testing because no SD/SDHC memory card is supplied in the kit. This is a pity given the low cost of SD memory cards.

Finally, the TZ5 comes in a range of colours but I think it looks best in 'basic' black.

The TZ5 has received rave reviews in every one of the popular camera magazines I have read and to top that the TZ5 has received the prestigious EISA Award for Best Product 2008 - 2009.

I really am very impressed with this camera.

The picture quality is really impressive, and the OIS does seem the help steady minor shakes, though I will always believe a good tripod is the best investment a photographer can make.

It's a little bit on the thick side, but just small enough for pocket use, even with the optional 'leather' case, which isn't leather, but is decent.

The display is a real treat after tiny ones, 3 inches of lcd makes life so much easier.

The video performance is the most suprising thing, stunning sharp pictures, only let down by left channel only sound.

Battery life is long enough not to irritate and a 4Gb class 6 SDHC card holds over 700 full resolution pictures, (shop around, I found one on here for under a fiver!)

Proably has many options you will never use, but they are there if you want them.

Great camera, easy to use, and looks really smart.

Normally I use large DSLR or a bridge camera, but I wanted a small camera that would fit in my pocket when I don't want to carry a large camera with me, this camera is just about small enough to fit into a large pocket.

What attracted me to this particular model was its 10x zoom range from 28mm to 280mm (35mm equivalent) and its reasonable 9.1mp resolution.

I went out and took some pictures with this camera, and some more almost identical pictures with a Canon EOS DSLR, and the pictures from the Panasonic fared very well in comparison.

I was expecting the picture quality from a 10x zoom on such a small camera to suffer, but I was pleasantly surprised, the pictures were sharp throughout the focal range, even at its longest focal length, and there was no apparent chromatic aberrations, (colour fringing around high contrast subjects) plus the image stablizer worked well in all but very dim light conditions.

As in all compact cameras the image censor is very small, and cramming 9 or 10 megapixels onto such a small censor often causes problems with digital noise, especially at higher ISO settings, This camera also scored very well here with digital noise not apparent at all at ISO 100 or 200. gradually worsening at higher ISO settings but still well within acceptable levels for a compact camera, the cameras built in noise reduction causes some fine detail to be lost at higher ISO settings, but this is only apparent at higher magnifications of the image.

At very low light levels this camera performs reasonably well compared to some of the competition, and flash exposures are excellent, full of detail and well exposed.

The autofocus is reasonably fast and accurate in most cases, only struggling in very low contrast or difficult to focus subjects, and the face detection works well, macro will focus as close as 5cm at the 28mm setting.

The camera itself feels solidly built, the menu's are logically laid out and fairly easy to navigate, and you will soon get to grips with it.

There are more than enough modes on it to keep the budding photographer happy, with 2 auto settings and 22 auto scene modes to cover most conditions, and an exposure compensation setting of (+/- 2 at 1/3 stop increments) for those awkward situations when one of the auto modes will not give a correct exposure, although there is no manual setting.

The LCD monitor is a large 3" monitor, and is very clear, making it easy to compose your pictures and to view pictures afterwards, although such a large screen could be vulnerable to damage so a good quality padded camera case is recommended.

A seperate optical viewfinder would have been a welcome addition to make taking pictures of moving subjects easier to take, especially at longer focal lengths, but most compact cameras do not have them anymore.

It does have a video and sound recording function, but I have not tried that yet, so I cannot comment on that, except that the microphone is positioned on the top left of the camera where it could easily be covered by a finger.

PROS

Well built and easy to use.
Better picture quality than many compacts.
10x zoom covers the most usefull range from wide angle to a decent telephoto.
9.1mp resolution is more than enough for all but the biggest enlargements.
It is compatible with SDHC cards.
Large clear screen.
Video and sound recording function.
A printed manual, not one of those pdf files on a disc.
Image stablizer.
User settable ISO.
Enough exposure modes to cope with most situations.
Good as a second camera when it would not be practical to take a larger camera.
Good price for what you get.

CONS

No SD card supplied, so you will need to buy one seperately.
No viewfinder other than the LCD screen.
Microphone could have been sited better.
No manual exposure setting, but the exposure compensation does help.
Can be a little complicated at first for novice users, but the manual is good.
A little too big for small pockets.

Verdict.

This is a good camera for anyone who wants to replace a cheaper outdated camera with something that will take decent pictures and has a good zoom range, and for anyone who wants a small camera as a backup to a larger camera.

All in all this is a very good little camera for the price, with very little to be said against it, and it comes highly recommended.

This review can also be seen on Ciao! under the name of Markh5682