The TZ5, An excellent compact camera with good image quality (Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5)

Member Name: Markh5682

Product:	Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
Date:	21/03/09 (418 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good build & picture quality, Ease of use, 10x zoom, ISO can be set manually

Disadvantages: No seperate viewfinder, manual settings or supplied SD card, High ISO picture blurring .

Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ5EB-K

Overview

Normally I use large DSLR or bridge camera, but I wanted a small camera that would fit into 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, Whilst a compact camera can never match a DSLR in image quality, the pictures from the Panasonic fared resonably 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.
It does have a 4x digital zoom as well, but this is better left switched off as the picture quality suffers quite a lot when it is used, I did try the digital zoom out, just as a matter of interest, but the pictures were very poor and unusable.

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 fared very well here with digital noise not apparent at all at ISO 100 and very little at ISO 200. but It gradually worsens at higher ISO settings, (I keep mine set on ISO 100 for daytime shots) but it is still well within acceptable levels for a compact camera, the cameras built in noise reduction causes some fine detail to be lost (blurring) at medium and higher ISO settings, but this is more apparent at higher magnifications of the image.
This blurring might be an issue if you want to make big enlargements or crop down to small areas of your pictures.

At very low light levels this camera performs reasonably well compared to some of the other compacts, and flash exposures are excellent, full of detail and well exposed, I took a picture of my parrot using the flash, and the feather detail was rendered quite well.

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, whilst not true macro, will focus as close as 5cm at the 28mm setting and aprox 1 metre at the 280mm setting, giving you a reasonable close up, but focusing on small subjects such as a flower is a little hit and miss however, and you may need to try focusing more than once before taking the shot, but its large screen makes this easier to check beforehand.

The camera itself feels solidly built, and it has a reassuring bit of weight to it, the menu's are logically laid out and fairly easy to navigate, and you will soon get to grips with it, and it has an excellent printed manual.

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 that you are likely to encounter, 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, it is a pity there are no manual settings however, which would have made this camera much more flexible in use.

The LCD monitor is a large 3" monitor, and is very clear and bright, making it easy to compose your pictures, check the focus 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, making the taking of moving subjects easier, especially at longer focal lengths, but many compact cameras do not include them anymore.

It does have a video and sound recording function, with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels with mono sound, but I have not tried that out yet, (I will update this review when I have) so I cannot comment on that, except to say that the microphone is positioned on the top left plate of the camera where it is very likely to be covered by a finger, causing sound problems.

It comes supplied with a battery and charger, the battery has lasted reasonably well up to now, it also comes supplied with a USB lead to download pictures directly from the camera to the PC without having to remove the SD card.

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.
Some fine picture detail lost (blurring) especially at higher ISO settings.
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 compact 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, but due to the limitations of compact cameras, it would not make a good replacement a larger camera.

It is availlable for as little as £194.99, and is very good value at that price.

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

This review is also on Ciao! and Amazon under the same name.

Summary: Not perfect, but very good at the price, ideal for family and holiday photos.

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