Great Little Superzoom Digital Camera

I was looking for a digital camera that would replace my 35mm film SLR camera. Digital SLR's are still very expensive, and the technology keeps advancing. So I decided I would buy a small, relatively inexpensive "superzoom" camera instead, and wait for a while to make a bigger investment in a digital SLR. I wanted to find a new camera that would do almost everything that my SLR set-up used to do, and I found several. The one I chose was the Panasonic DMC-TZ1S.

The TZ1 cost about $300, is quite small, and has a 35mm film-equivalent 36-300mm zoom lens. The Leica lens is high quality and takes good, sharp pictures. The TZ1 has image stabilization, which makes it possible to take clear handheld shots at the highest zoom level, as well as indoor shots in darker situations. It uses SD memory cards, and as a 5 megapixel camera, will hold about 200 pictures on a 512MB card.

This camera does not have a viewfinder, but instead has a large, fixed LCD screen on the back. It is easy to see lots of fine detail while indoors, but does become somewhat washed out when outdoors. Still, I found it to be quite usable in bright sunlight outdoors. It has enhanced view angles and can be seen from below if held above your head in a crowd. A swiveling LCD would make it a little more useful in some situations.

There are lots of exposure settings and modes to choose from, which makes it very likely you can capture whatever shot you need to: macro, portrait, burst mode, digital zoom in combination with the optical zoom -- even video mode. I've tried most of them, and they work very nicely. Like all autofocus cameras, you need to be aware of what the camera is actually focusing on, and the system can be fooled, but feedback is provided on the LCD via red/green bracketing of the area it thinks you want in focus, and an audible chirp. It also has a “simple” mode which provides very little feedback, letting the camera handle almost everything. This mode works great for all but special shots, and removes a lot of the clutter from the LCD, allowing you to focus on composition instead.

Picture quality is excellent, much of which is due to the Leica lens. I read many reviews and looked at many sample pictures for other cameras, and the Leica lenses on Panasonic cameras really make a difference. The images are very sharp and clear. I have not seen any of the “purple fringing” in high contrast areas, as seen on many other cameras’ pictures. Digital noise is sometimes a problem on non-SLR (i.e. less expensive) digital cameras, but I have not seen any excessive noise for this camera, though I have not taken many low-light pictures yet.

Accessories included with the camera are a lens cap, lens cap strap, handstrap (not a neck strap), a proprietary-sized battery, battery case, and charger, and cables to hook it to your computer (USB) or a television. It does not come with an SD memory card, but it does have a small amount of on-board memory, enough for about six pictures at full resolution. It also comes with five different software programs for storing or manipulating images. The programs are quite usable, but I personally just offload the pictures manually by USB connection, and use other software for editing.

I would have to put a few things on the minus side. Real photo enthusiasts would want to be able to get pictures off the camera in RAW mode, for better ability to adjust them afterwards. This camera does not support transfer of pictures in RAW mode.

Also, in video mode, the memory card I was using could not keep up with the camera for more than a minute or so. I was using a fairly fast Sandisk SD Ultra II card, so this was a little surprising, but I expect you would run into this problem on other cameras as well. Besides, if you wanted the best video performance you would buy a video camera.

Finally, the wide end of the lens would be a lot more useful if it went down to 28mm equivalent. There are other superzoom cameras out there that go down that far, and up to 420mm equivalent on the telepohoto end. But they are more expensive, and not nearly as compact.

In summary, it’s an excellent little full-featured camera, while I wait for the ideal digital SLR to come down to my desired price range. On the other hand, will I ever want to carry all that SLR gear again?
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The Panasonic website has full specifications and information:

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&itemId=96360
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You can find discussion of the TZ1 by photo buffs, and some great amateur pictures as well, at:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1033
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