Panasonic Lumix DCM-TZ5 (Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5)

Member Name: Brightonbelle

Product:	Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Date:	13/02/09 (302 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well built, Great zoom, Fab pictures

Disadvantages: Not so good video in poor light

I bought this camera as a replacement for my Olympus Mju which although took great pictures and video, had no internal microphone so the video footage had no sound! Anyway I was specifically looking for a camera with a high pixel quality, that shot pretty much unlimited video footage WITH sound and that also had a high spec optical zoom for when you can't get as close to a subject as you would like - anyone who has been to a Disney parade will know what I mean! It also needed to be fairly compact in size or like the video camera it would rarely come out of the box let alone get all the way to holiday!

The Panasonic Lumix DCM-TZ5 seemed to tick all these boxes so we ordered it from Amazon with a spare battery, a leather case, a sandisk high capacity memory card and a mini tripod. All came swiftly which was great and we set it up to recharge. First impressions were GREAT it looked great, felt heavy enough to be built decently but not so heavy it would be a burdon to carry around. We had read various reviews before buying to say that the video capture was grainy and the sound quality not so good, but for our needs it was perfect I think if you really want brilliant video quality you would have to go for a stand alone video camera, but then they don't always take great still images so in the end it comes down to personnal preference ours was photographs so we chose this.

The video capture is great in good light and the sound quality is good enough but do be careful not to put your finger over the microphone , which is easily done due to the position of it. The selection dial has an auto image setting which you would probably use for pretty much every shot as it will pre-select the type of shot you are taking (very clever) even someone with NO camera knowledge would literally be able to point-and-click in this mode and get a great picture. It also has the afore mentioned video shot which will allow you to video capture in segments of 15 minutes . Then there are 2 shot modes which will remember a favourite mode that you like, for example when I took my son to the zoo I had it set up for inside shots (when you were inside taking pictures behind glass etc) and outside shots eg the monkey enclosure , this means you can just click between the 2 settings each time you need them and it automatically remembers the shot you wanted VERY clever!

It has a great panoramic feature which allowed me to capture the entire benidorm skyline in 2 photos which is amazing and the zoom is just out of this world after having a camera with only 3 x optical zoom and then go to 10 x optical zoom the difference is unberlievable I could see the ferry, I could see the name of the ferry, I could see the man on the ferry, I could see what make his sunglasses were!!! The battery life is sufficiant for a days use however we did purchase an extra battery for holidays such as Florida where you are going to use it heavily and don't want to run out. The camera has lots of features which allow you to edit images whilst they are still on the camera and it does come with a fairly basic editing program which i'm not as keen on as Microsoft Picture It so I don't really use it.

All in all this camera comes highly recommended and out of the 3 digital camera's I have had this is by far the best and well worth the money.

Summary: Great little all rounder with superb zoom

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