Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5K 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

We received this camera as a gift, and it seemed a wonderful replacement to our poor, broken Photosmart camera. Unfortunately, the problems with this camera aren't immeadiately apparent. The problems are deep seated form-factor and software issues that become constant annoyances farther down the road.

Problems:
1) Buttons are awkwardly located, making it easy to accidentally press the wrong button.
2) Power options for extending battery life are non-existent - the camera simply runs until it dies (without much advance notice).
3) On-camera menus are not intuitive.
4) Movies are in the quicktime format - nothing plays quicktime except intrusive Apple software.
5) Pictures are NOT auto-rotated in windows. You have to use panasonic's "special" software, or otherwise rotate all pictures by hand.
6) Tech support is snotty and unhelpful.

The first problem we noticed with the camera was the awkward positioning of buttons and dials. Both of us are always pressing the wrong button by accident when trying to take a picture. With the menu and navigation buttons right next to where you place your thumb, it is easy to accidentally enable some random feature that we wouldn't otherwise ever use. For me, this problem is especially apparent when taking vertical pictures.

The second problem is the lack of power save options. When travelling, a power plug is not always available, so it is convenient to turn off power hungry features such as the display when you don't need them. Although the battery does last a long time, and the power problem could be rectified by plugging the camera in every night, it is easy to forget. With our previous camera, we could disable the screen when we had forgotten to plug in the camera so we could still take pictures all day on low power. This camera, however, doesn't have that option. Furthermore, it doesn't alert somebody to its lack of power until it has maybe 10 minutes remaining... and then off it goes (at noon on the most picturesque day of the trip).

The third problem is a minor annoyance. We are always struggling to find the right options in the menu. Maybe the features are there, or maybe they aren't... but the menus are crazy.

The fourth problem has to do with Panasonic's use of the Quicktime movie format. We really wanted a new camera so that we could take movies of our 1-year daughter. Unfortunately, all of the cute movies we've recorded are only viewable in Apple's Quicktime. They aren't convertable to any other viewer either. I don't know about other people's experience with Quicktime, but it either crashes my computer outright or hogs processing and network time, preventing other software from running. The result is that we can't watch all of these cute movies we've recorded.

The fifth problem is the auto-rotate feature. The camera has an auto-rotate, right? It is advertised as having one.... too bad they don't use it to rotate the pictures. Instead, they set some software bit in each image that is only readable by the panasonic software. If I want to show pictures to a friend, I have to either rotate everything by hand in windows beforehand, or try to navigate panasonic's clunky, poorly designed software.

Finally, the last problem is with the panasonic tech support. I've contacted them three times, and only received an answer once. And that one time (in reference to the Quicktime problems), they simply told me tough... rather than trying to help me work around the issue, or giving me any contact info from apple or...

The DMC-TZ5 camera "seems" ok at first glance, but the design and software issues associated with with the camera make the experience overwhelmingly negative in the long run. We will most likely be buying a new camera.

It has a 10X optical zoom. Great. But what is the point if the quality of the pictures is so bad?
How bad: first pictures I took: a person with a blue sky in the background. How standard can be such a picture? On the pictures, the sky was like a bad gif picture with only a few numbers of colors. Tthere was not a smooth gradient of blues, but 4 or 5 bands. Never saw that on my previous point&shoot cameras. This happened using different modes from Auto, to IA.
The blue was also wrong, really not a blue sky.
In most pictures, some colors are over saturated. It's not uncommon to have some areas completely white. Never saw that too on my previous cameras.
Speed also is disappointing: I have a class 4 memory card (= fast card) but saving the picture is quite slow (between 1 to 2 secs) making it difficult to take many pictures in a short time (like your son running on the field).
Focus is also a big problem: the camera has lots of problems focusing: often takes 1-2 seconds, even in simple conditions.
The zoom cannot be used in macro: in 10x you have to be at 7 feet from the object to be able to focus.
A final point: my camera, after three days, is dead. My fault: a few drops of water killed it. So don't take it out if there is even the slighter chance of light rain.

I bought this camera as a point-and-shoot second camera. I had seen some pictures that a friend of my Dad's had taken, and they seemed good.
I handed the camera to my nephew to take pictures of my son's Eagle Court of Honor. The camera was set to Intelligent Auto, and my nephew is pretty tech savvy.
The pictures were terrible. Many were blurred beyond usability. The color was way off. The .jpgs are filled with artifacts.
This camera may take better pictures than this under different circumstances, but the intelligent auto setting was terrible for an indoor event in a large hall.
All in all, an extreme disappointment. I wish I had handed him my Canon Digital Rebel SLR.

I wanted a camera that was small enough to carry for daily use (and this is), one that had a phenomenal zoom (and this one does), has a good burst feature and is easy to use.

The lag in this camera is beyond frustrating. For once I wanted a camera that was quick enough so I wouldn't miss the shots I wanted and in this department, the Lumix is no better than any other compact I've ever owned. The burst feature has severe lag prior to taking the first shot and the lag is awful between shots. And that's in burst mode! The lag between shots while not in burst mode is positively disgraceful. And by the time you are finished changing the settings, the opportunity for the shot you wanted are long gone.

The Lumix is a complete waste of money and time. For those who want a higher functioning camera, it's best to just go out and buy one. For those who want a compact camera, go get something less expensive because the extra money for the Lumix is a complete waste. Anyone want to buy a gently used camera?

I was expenting something else.
I got this camera i trade for my kodak M1033
AND now i feel bad i did.
I traded because of the 10x zoom.
i dont like the picture quality of this camera.
I only used for 2 days
maybe its me im not doing something right.
I own a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 and it was much better then this one (6 mp)
so i dont know. i may change my mind when i use it more.