Great Zoom, Poor Picture Quality. (Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5)

Member Name: JJJJ

Product:	Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Date:	28/09/08 (481 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reliable and Metal.

Disadvantages: Grainy (noisy) images.

The Panasonic Lumix TZ5 has been a heavily marketed camera.

As a designer, I end up buying a lot of cameras, and was eagerly waiting to get my hands on this model after reading many positive reviews.

My initial reaction to the TZ5 was good, as the camera felt solid with its all metal body. However, some of the controls feel a little fiddly, and I found them to be somewhat awkwardly placed.

The Leica optics on this model are very good, and the 10x zoom gives a focal length which puts other cameras of its size to shame. This range is equivalent to 28-280mm on a regular camera, and represents a real wide-angle to telephoto versatility.

The image quality is the big let down for the TZ5, with very pronounced noise levels at all sensitivity modes. Even setting the camera to ISO 100 results in moderate noise throughout the tonal range. ISO 1600 is pretty much unusable except for very small prints - overall a huge disappointment.

It seems that while Leica have produced an excellent lens, Panasonic haven't been able to back it up with a decent set of electronics.

One redeeming feature of the TZ5 is the hi-def movie mode, which can capture detailed moving images - although they can be a little grainy at times.

I found the battery life to be very good, with Panasonic claiming around 300 shots per charge - this is impressive considering the battery draining LCD screen is 3" in size.

Also on the plus side, Panasonics little shooter is very reliable. I took it with me to the incredibly muddy and rainy Bestival, and although getting splashed and dirty on numerous occasions, it kept on shooting without complaint.

Overall though, this camera was a disappointment to me. On paper it looked amazing - the zoom range is amazing for the cameras size, and the construction is excellent. However, the image quality is quite frankly bad, and this is by definition the main purpose of a camera. Therefore I can't award this model any more than 3/5.

Technical Stats:

Camera Effective Pixels: 9.1 Mega pixels

Optical Zoom: 10x

Digital Zoom: 4x

Aperture: Wide: F3.3 / F8.0 (2 steps) Tele: F4.9 / F11 (2 steps).

Optical Image Stabilizer: MEGA O.I.S.

ISO Sensitivity: 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600.

Motion Picture: 4:3 Aspect Ratio: 640 x 480 pixels, 320 x 240 pixels 30 fps, 10 fps / 16:9 Aspect Ratio: 848 x 480 pixels 30 fps, 10 fps HD（16:9 Aspect Ratio）: 1280x720 30fps, 15fps / HD（16:9 Aspect Ratio: 1280x720 30fps, 15fps.

LCD Monitor: 3.0" Polycrystalline TFT LCD Display.

Battery: Li-ion Battery Pack (3.7V, 1000mAh)

Summary: Better in theory than in practice.

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