We had a Lumix FZ20 with a 12x zoom, which we loved to death except for three major downfalls — it was big and clunky, it was slow to focus and wouldn’t focus at all sometimes, and it had a major noise problem in lighting that never bothered our previous cameras. When we heard that the TZ1 would give us a 10X zoom at 1/3 the size and without focusing problems, we obsessed for months waiting for it to hit the market. We’ve now had our TZ1 for a few months and have taken 2 long vacations and about 2,500 photos with it. Here’s our expansive list of thoughts…
Incredible: Having a 10x zoom that can go in a standard small case from Target and can be tossed in a daybag or purse.
Great: Panasonic has improved their focus system and added a focus assist light, and the old focus struggles are gone. The time needed to lock in a shot and capture it is now fast and accurate, and capturing subjects in low light isn’t a problem any longer. What a relief.
Life Saver: How did we ever live without image stabilization? Panasonic started this movement, and now many other brands are using it. When utilizing the full 10X zoom, this feature is just plain necessary without a tripod.
Amazing: The macro/close-up mode allows you to get close enough to a bee that a 4X6 photo is all bee and the veins in its wings are crisp and clear. Our photos show things on raspberries that we couldn’t even see with our naked eye. This feature, more than any other, makes people say, “What kind of camera do you have?!”
Major Downfall: Our greatest joy in this camera is the 10X zoom. But it has also proven to be our greatest disappointment because it is unusable over large distances. We didn’t have this problem with our larger FZ20, and we can only assume that it’s because the TZ1 lens is about 1/3 the size. If you want to zoom in on your child 25 feet from the water’s edge, or a bird 15 feet up in a tree, you’re in business. But if you want to zoom in on a mountain top, or crop a scenic vista, you’ll be greeted with print quality that rivals the old 110 film format of 1980. Everything gets fuzzy and washed out, as if the photo was taken through a window with the sun bouncing off it.
Marjor Downfall 2: For some reason, Panasonic can’t seem to get past their problems with noise in less-than-optimal lighting conditions. We’ve owned Pentax, Olympus, and Minolta cameras and never had this problem with them. Outdoor photos at dusk, night photos with a subject more than 6 or so feet away, and indoor photos in a room larger than about 10X10 all turn into a grainy, spotted mess. The “starry night” setting helps in specific circumstances, like shooting a city skyline at night, but there’s still some noise to spare. And if there’s anything red in the shot, forget it. You can manually lock in a lower ISO to counteract this effect, but then you get a photo that’s too dark to use anyway — not to mention that the whole purpose of a point-and-shoot camera is to eliminate manually setting things.
Unnecessary Hassle: While the menu system is easy to navigate, we wish we had to use it much less. The scene mode wheel at the top includes only three of the usual suspects (auto, macro, and movie) and leaves out all other obvious modes that should be at your fingertips (portrait, scenery, sport, night portrait [flash] and night scenery [no flash]). Reaching any of these requires digging through the menu. There are two “open” settings on the wheel that you can pre-set to these choices, but two isn’t enough and those “open” spots would be much better utilized with unusual/personalized settings like baby (records your child’s age to the day), underwater, etc.
Hassle Saver: In contrast to the bizarre shortage of settings available on the mode wheel, there is an extremely handy dedicated button for adjusting the exposure value. Too much sun? Too much shadow? Without having to go into the menu, you can bump the exposure up or down, one to three increments at a time, to achieve the balance you want.
Worry Saver: There’s a great review setting that not only plays back your shot for a couple seconds after recording it, but also zooms in on it for a couple seconds to show what your quality will be after printing at 4X6. We used to think things looked fine on the little screen, then realized they were blurry after reaching print size. Now we know right away if we need to retake the photo.
Good and Bad: The 2.5-inch screen is big and wonderful, and it does a better job of gaining up and down than our previous digitals have. However, it’s still hard to see in bright sunlight and we often gamble on whether we framed a shot as we wanted. The biggest inconvenience is that we often don’t find out until later that we took some blurry or overexposed photos.
Irritating: The detached lens cap drives us mad. If you have even one other thing in your hands (like the case you just pulled the camera from), removing the lens cap becomes an ordeal. And once it’s hanging from the strap, even the slightest breeze will blow it in front of the lens. I understand the lack of an automatic “door” for the lens saves on battery useage, but it’s so not worth it.
Appreciated: The battery charger is ultra-tiny and requires no cord. The prongs flip out from the back to plug into the wall directly. This is a huge plus for us because we hate that we have to pack a whole bag in our suitcase just for chargers — the cell phone, iPod, shaver, back-up camera (made that mistake once and never will again), etc.
Bonus: Of all the batteries we’ve owned over the years, this one lasts the longest. We’ve had 200-photo travel days where we haven’t even had to use the spare we always carry. Another bonus is that the batteries are affordable, relatively speaking.
Confounding: We’ll never understand why every camera over $200 isn’t weather resistant. For just a few bucks more, they could be manufactured for the real world where simple things like rain and snow happen, and where real people do things like drink something cold on a hot day and get condensation water on their hands. Olympus seems to understand this, but their photo quality isn’t as high. Why should we have to choose?
Overall: Despite the number of negative comments above, we really do love our TZ1. If the two “Major Downfalls” above were remedied, we would even give the TZ1 5 stars. Our current 4 stars is based on “The Big Picture” (yes, bad pun intended). Considering the $300-ish price point, and the fact that a point-and-shoot does all the work for you, you can’t expect the moon served to you on a platter. Given the size of the TZ1, we can hardly believe our good fortune in having a 10X zoom packed in. Given that it’s an automatic point-and-shoot, we can hardly believe our good fortune when we see the gorgeous photos we turn out with little to no effort on our part. And we can hardly believe that we got all of this for just over $300. The pros far outweigh the cons, and when this camera is good, it’s VERY GOOD.
Product Description
Wow! A compact camera with 10x optical zoom lens. It’s got a 35mm equivalent of 35mm to 350mm. That covers wide-angle to long telephoto. Let’s explore the Panasonic DMC-TZ1K Lumix 5 Megapixel Digital Camera. It also has dual-mode Mega Optical Image Stabilizer. A built in computer-processor adjust for normal hand movements. That means fewer blurry images and more sharp ones. 5 Megapixel means capturing sharp details in still pictures. It can also capture movies at up to 640×480 VGA mode. All images can be stored on an SD memory card. There’s a large, bright 2.5″ LCD screen for taking pictures and playing them back. There’s also a built-in mic for capturing sound and a speaker for listening. You can also transfer all images to your PC or Macintosh computer or view them on your TV. Optical Image Stabilizer – Dual ModeAuto and Manual Focus modes Programmed AutoExposure Scene ModesDial -Simple, Normal Picture, Economy, Macro, SCN1, SCN2 – (Portrait, Sports, Food, Scenery, Night Scenery, Night Portrait, Fireworks, Party, Snow, Baby, Soft Skin, Starry Sky, Candle, Soft Skin, Baby, Moving Image, PlaybackRecording FormatStill Image -JPEG (design rule for camera file system), DPOF corresponding / Still Image with Audio -JPEG (design rule for camera file system) + QuickTime / Motion Images -QuickTime Motion JPEGBuilt-in Multimode Electronic-Flash 2.5 Diagonal Polycrystalline TFT LCD DisplayOn Screen Menus in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional), German, Italian, French It is PictBridge compatible Recording Media – SD Memory Card or MMC Built-in Mic and Speaker for sound Output for USB and TV Unit Dimensions (H x W x D)2.29” x 4.41” x 1.58” / Unit Weight 8.5 ounces
Click Here to see more reviews about: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1S 5MP Compact Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)
After using this camera for a longer period of time, I have a bit more to say about it than my initial review. While I originally touted the manual controls, I found that they were not as useful in real world situations as they were while simply getting to know the camera. This camera performs well in daylight, but shots requiring a flash will drive you nuts because of the long recycle time.
