What a camera!

This is one great camera!

I got this 5 Megapixel camera (which I'll refer to as the "TZ") to replace my dying Fuji Finepix 2800 (2.1 Megapixels), which is several years old and very outdated--this gives you an idea as to where I'm coming from with my review. I'm no photographer! I just wanted something to take good tourist/family pictures, good video, and had a good zoom capability. When I came across this camera in Best Buy and saw the 10x zoom, I was immediately interested. So I did a bunch of research and quickly came to the conclusion that this was worth getting. So far, even with my high expectations, I haven't been disappointed.

There is very little about this camera that I don't like. I'll start off with the zoom.

What I like: 10x zoom is way more than the apparent standard 3x I see on most other digitals these days. When I considered the size of the camera, I figured the upper reaches of the zoom would be disappointing. But the whole range (non-digital) is great. (Note: In one particular setting, 12.5x zoom can be achieved. From the manual: "If the picture size is not set to the highest setting for each aspect ratio, a maximum of 12.5x optical zoom can be achieved with no picture quality deterioration.") My main problem at 10x or 12.5x zoom is getting the auto focus to lock on quickly. The zoom itself is activated easily by a swivel ring surrounding the shutter button--push it left to zoom out, and right to zoom in. It is reflected on the bottom of the user screen by a small bar ranging from W (wide) to T (tele). As you zoom, a vertical white bar slides across the bar away from the W toward the T and you are provided with a numerical value telling you exactly what zoom you're at. The zoom ring control really can't be in a more convenient place, which makes zooming and snapping as easy as possible, without unnecessary finger fumbling. Also, the mechanics of the zoom are almost silent and barely felt when holding the camera. Typically, I only know it's happening because I can see it happening on the screen. There is no noise or vibration.

What I don't like: sometimes, especially during video, the zoom control seems to take a second to kick in. I'm not sure why it's sluggish, but the lag isn't bad and will only hurt you if you're in a huge hurry to zoom in and snap a picture. Overall, this is easily my favorite feature, and I use it quite a bit.

Now, the TZ actually has the capability to get up to 50x zoom. Pretty amazing, right? Well, not so much. The camera boasts a 4x digital zoom. The digital zoom feature can be activated by the same zoom ring used for the optical zoom. Simply go into the menu settings and activate the digital zoom feature. The next time you zoom, the last part of the zoom bar (mentioned above) will be colored blue and dedicated to the digital zoom. Digital zoom will make your resolution a bit grainy, of course, but for kicks I tried testing the capability on a small can of spackle sitting about 5.5 feet from me. I focused on the back of the can where the directions are and snapped a pic at 10x zoom, and another at 50. At 10x, I captured the can plus a good deal of surrounding environment and I could barely make out the small-print directions on the back of the can. At 50x, all I got were the directions and I could clearly read everything. Pretty impressive, but then again that picture is in no way representative of the graininess that would be apparent with a different subject and lighting conditions.

Video: I wasn't sure what to expect with the quality or duration of this. Keep in mind, I was used to the Fuji, which gave me only 30-second blocks of video that opened in Media Player in this outrageously small window (even with the MP window maximized). The video was sort of jerky and very low quality. But now I have the TZ video.

What I like: The TZ video opened in a Quicktime window which I could expand to almost any size with great quality, and the duration is dependent only on how much memory is available. One counter counts up (for how long you've been recording), and another counts down to let you know how much time you have left. Zooming is fully functional in this mode.

What I don't like: zooming while in video mode really does a number on the autofocus. There's a very noticeable lag while it catches up to what you're trying to zoom into (or out from). Plus, if you're panning and moving the camera around, it's a bit choppy on playback. Lastly, I've noticed that the mic is weak. It doesn't pick up sounds/conversations that it probably should. If the camera operator says something, it's clearly audible on playback. The other half of the conversation is hit or miss, especially if there's other ambient noise present. All in all though, I was extremely happy and impressed. Now, all of this is with the 30 fps mode. There's also a 10 fps mode which drastically reduces the file size, but is a bit jerky and the sound sometimes loses synch with the picture.

Bells and Whistles:

- Image Stabilization. I'm not sure what to make of this. There is a whole button dedicated to this function, so I figured it was important. There are two modes: one for continuous, the other for only when you press the shutter. There is a cute little demo feature which shows you how shaky the current image on the user screen is with and without it. I was pretty impressed (and started wondering if I had Parkinson's) until I decided to sit the camera down on a table and see what it showed. What do you know? The image still shook. It shook less than when I was holding it, but why was it shaking at all? There was no earthquake going on. I've taken a few pictures with the feature on and off, and can't seem to see a real difference, but those were under good conditions, so I've yet to come to a solid conclusion as to whether this is more gimmick than function.

- Hooks up to my TV via an AV cable. Nice feature, and to be expected on a camera these days. The TV mimics the user screen, so just use the camera normally, i.e., access the video file or pic you want and change the display if desired (to get rid of the extraneous information overlay).

The camera itself:

- I think the camera looks sleek and stylish. It's fairly small and solidly built-- it feels heavy, which could be good or bad, depending on your outlook. For me, the small case and heavy weight imply quality.

- There is no viewfinder on this camera-- all the operator has is the user screen. This is one feature I actually miss from the old clunky Fuji I had. The viewfinder lets you see very clearly what you are shooting. This is important in bright, sunny conditions. I've found that on sunny days, picture taking becomes difficult in that I can't clearly see the screen.

- The buttons/controls are easy to use. Next to the user screen, there are dedicated buttons for deleting, menu, menu scroll (up/down/left/right), and display/lcd mode (for screen info overlays). The scroll buttons double up in picture mode to provide flash control, exposure control, a self-timer, and a review function to view the last picture taken. On the top of the camera, clustered with the shutter button, are the on/off control, image stabilization control, zoom control, and camera function wheel. The camera Mode Dial (covered below) is the only thing on the camera that feels cheap to me. It's a bit flimsy.

- Mode Dial: Allows you to switch between Normal picture taking mode, Macro mode, Video, Simple mode (for beginners; just displays the basic functions in the menu to make operations simple), Playback mode, Scene 1 mode, and Scene 2 mode (these Scene modes "allow you to match the picture to the scene being recorded." I.e., it allows you to allot a frequently used setting to your picture taking. Scene mode 1 allows the programming for Babies. I do actually have a little girl, and did program her age into the camera (the age limits you to folks born in 2000 or sooner). Scene 2 allows for environmental settings, e.g., scenery, sports, self-portraits, night, soft skin, etc. I did attempt to see a difference in the soft skin setting, using my 9-year old as the subject and using the soft-skin setting vs. the portrait mode. I didn't see a difference.

- Both battery and memory card slide into a compartment accessed on the bottom of the camera. Battery and card are small, allowing for a lighter, smaller camera. My old camera took 4 AA's. What a difference! What I also like is that when you open the compartment, it takes an extra step to release the battery and/or memory card, so they don't come spilling out when the panel opens. I was originally concerned that the single LIon battery would be a problem in that it would die at an inopportune time and that I'd be stuck camera-less while waiting for a recharge, but I found a way around that (see below). The camera comes with 13.4 MB of internal storage, which isn't much, but enough to get by on for a little while if all you're doing is snapping pictures with a computer nearby.

What's included: The AV cable, lens cover anchor line, hand strap, battery, battery charger, battery case, and USB cable. I don't like that there's no shoulder strap, but the camera is small enough that you can get away with just the hand strap.

Keep in mind, there is much more to this camera, but most of it is more technical than I can speak to. For instance, I haven't messed with the exposure setting at all because I have no idea what that will do. The manual is pretty thorough, but the technical things are a bit beyond me-- it definitely caters to someone a bit more advanced than I. If you want to read up on any of the other features, the manual can be found at Panasonic's website.

I found a good deal for this camera online--$60 cheaper than what Best Buy was asking, and with the money I saved I went ahead and bought a 512 MB SD card and an extra battery. The guy at Best Buy tried to convince me that getting their extra $70 maintenance plan would be worth it once I had to replace the battery, which costs about that much (according to him). I picked up a generic LIon battery online for around nine bucks. That dried up my concern about the battery. And while I found a great deal on the SD card, if I had to do it again, I'd have looked for a 1 Gig card. The great video quality makes the files huge-- a 3.5 minute video clip is 200 Mbs, so I find the SD card filling up much more quickly than I'd anticipated.

Update: About 2 months before my 1-year warranty expired, the camera began misbehaving. The flash would not properly synch with the shutter, giving me under- or overexposed pictures. I gave the problem a month (to see if it would clear up or to determine if it was a particular setting that was causing it) before calling Panasonic customer service. It did not take too long to navigate through their menus to obtain a knowledgeable rep for this camera. The woman I spoke with was very helpful, and walked me through several steps, including resetting the factory default settings. Nothing worked, so she gave me the address of their repair facility. I had to pay for shipping, which I wasn't too thrilled about.

The repair process, which I was told could take up to 8 weeks, only took half that. My only complaint is that the repair facility held on to my camera for a good 4-5 days before logging it into their queue (so attempts during that time to call and verify receipt of the camera were futile). About four weeks after shipping the camera, I got it back with the problem fixed.

So, over a year after purchasing it, I am still very happy with it. I was very tempted to purchase the new TZ-3 that's out, but Panasonic took out the zoom-during-video feature that I love. Needless to say, I hope my TZ-1 lasts me another couple years! I really do love this camera (still!).