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

I bought the Panasonic TZ5 because I usually buy Canons and wanted to see what else was available in the compact camera market. I wanted a camera that was lightweight and pocketable - two words that I would not use to describe my Canon G9. I wanted image quality that was good enough "as is" - clear detail and accurate color without requiring me to fix it. I was not concerned with lots of manual control - I have my G9 in my bag (but not my pocket).

I was not especially impressed with the TZ5 when I played with it at the local Best Buy, but I attributed that to the floor model being pretty beat up. After receiving one from Amazon, I compared the results with my wife's SD870 IS; both inside the house and outdoors. Indoor pictures were very yellow with the TZ5 - none of the white balance settings yielded good results. Outdoors, the TZ5 tended to wash out images and lose fine detail. In automatic mode, the Canon consistently turned out better pictures (in my opinion) than the Panasonic.

In the end, I'm going to return the TZ5 and get an SD880 IS. The Canon is smaller, lighter, and produces better looking pictures; too bad it can't also have that fantastic 10x Leica zoom lens.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC TZ5 with 10X optical zoom was purchased in May 2008 from Amazon to replace my outdated 6 year old 4.1 Megapixel Canon Elph. This review is based upon 6 MONTHS of use.

I wanted more than the 3X from conventional compact digital cameras. After traveling to places such as India, Portugal, and Cancun, for example, 3X is not versatile enough to capture some of the landscapes, landmarks and distant subjects that I wanted to capture.

To be honest, resolution was not a factor in purchasing a camera but with 9.1 Megapixels, this camera was more than adequate for my purposes since I only print 4x6" photographs.

OPERATION:

This camera is great as a point and shoot camera. Shutter lag is reasonable for a camera of this class, unlike others I experimented with before buying this one.

FEATURES

Battery life indicator: You may take this feature for granted but my prior camera (Canon Digital Elph), did not have a battery life indicator. When traveling, battery life is a very important factor so that you don't miss shots. I bought 2 spare batteries with my camera.

The 27 megabytes of internal memory is inadequate for any practical purpose allowing for only about 8-10 photos at high resolution or a few seconds of video.

This camera has a user friendly menu system that is easy to navigate given the 4 directional buttons and central menu/enter button. There are two scene modes, Intelligent automatic mode, movie mode, clipboard mode and custom mode. A quick menu button is great for on-the-fly adjustments.

The intelligent auto-mode is where I keep the camera, for a majority of photographs keeping the operation simple - this is the point and shoot mode for a majority of casual users, like myself. On this mode, picture size (9 MP, 5MP, 3MP and 0.3 MP), aspect ratio (4:3, 3:2, and 16:9), burst mode, and color mode (standard, natural, vivid, black/white and sepia), can be toggled in the menu.

The custom mode allows me to change other factors such as ISO, continuous auto focus, metering mode, white balance, audio recording, and intelligent exposure, to name a few.

The glass LCD has various modes to allow you to see the settings, a 9 segmented partition and no data. I like seeing a histogram in real time to determine the color range of the photograph.

The auto-focus mode has face detection, 3 area high speed, 1 area high speed, spot, 1 area, and 9 area. I personally keep it in face detection unless I am taking a photo of a landmark or other outdoor subject.

Movie mode is versatile and I use this as a back up camcorder for times when I want to take a quick video. However, due to the small microphone, the sound quality is not optimal for say, a piano recital or speech where sound is essential. The picture quality is excellent. The aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9), picture mode (30 fps/16:9 high or low quality 15 fps/16:9 high or low quality), white balance, metering mode and auto-focus mode can be adjusted.

QUALITY

Picture quality is excellent for the purposes of casual use (i.e. parties, performances, events, stills, pets, children, outdoors. Zoom photographs is limited by low light given the built in flash.

Movie mode is a versatile feature since it records in high definition 720p. The video format is in Quicktime mode. Image quality is limited by low light.

CONSTRUCTION:

The body is made of metal and has a nice heavier weight that allows me to hold it steady. The textured grip in the front allows me to operate the camera one handed.

A toggle switch allows the user to take photos or view the photos. This is a convenient and well thought out feature since cumbersome menus (or even multifunctioned buttons) on other cameras make this reviewer/user confused. This camera, once you understand what button to use doesn't require the user/operator to have to look at all of the buttons to operate it.

There are 3 output ports, including AV out/digital, component out and DC in. The battery cover is easy to open and close. The small Lithium battery and SD card fit in the same compartment. In the past 6 months of heavy use, I have not had problems with getting the battery or card out.

There is an eccentrically placed port to allow mounting on a tripod. The location is not useful for handheld tripods but works for conventional full featured tripods.

PROS

Image quality
10X zoom for a compact camera
720p HD quality movies
Solid construction
Vivid glass LCD screen
Menu system and 5 button navigation
Excellent battery life
Battery life indicator

CONS
Poor sound quality with video
Low light limitations with zoom and video
Wheel selection feature turns 360 degrees (needs to be 'locked' to operate)
Slightly heavier than its compact counterparts

RECOMMENDATIONS:

If you want to use this camera for HD video, I highly recommend SDHC memory cards. I purchased 2 Transcend SDHC cards with this camera:

Transcend 8 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS8GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

The biggest pitfall I found (since I do not use the USB connection to upload to my computer) is transferring my photos using a USB card reader. The high capacity SD cards, SDHC, are recognized by the card reader. I bought the following reader since it can read my SDHC card and my old memory cards:

15-1 USB 2 (XD CAPABLE)

Instead of the Panasonic battery, the follow battery, I purchased, is a more economical alternative for a mere fraction of the cost of the original OEM:

Li-Ion Battery for Panasonic CGA-S007 / CGR-S007

If you want to use this camera for HD video, I highly recommend SDHC memory cards. I purchased 2 Transcend SDHC cards with this camera:

Transcend 8 GB SDHC SD Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS8GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Instead of the Panasonic battery, the follow battery, I purchased, is a more economical alternative for a mere fraction of the cost of the original OEM:

Li-Ion Battery for Panasonic CGA-S007 / CGR-S007

VERDICT

For the low price, versatility for a compact point and shoot, this camera goes above and beyond for its price point and is an excellent value.

Two thumbs up.

UPDATE:

I took a snowmobiling trip in Utah and the camera worked well in the freezing temperatures (temperatures were in the low teens and single digits) without a problem. I was able to take some breathtaking photos of the snow-capped mountain ranges and my family. The LCD worked flawlessly. In addition, the motion picture capture also worked well.

I wanted to get a camera that was closer to a DLSR in quality and features, but that wasn't bulky. I wanted to get a camera that I could not only use casually at home and around town, but also on vacation where I tend to take a greater variety of camera shots. The TZ5 checked all the boxes and then some!

Other reviews compare it to the Canon sd870is and other cameras so I won't go into that here. Here's how I see it:
Pros:
- The lens and 10x optical zoom. Simply fantastic. I know, you may think you don't need the zoom. And I agree, for the most part, you probably don't. I'm certainly no professional photographer, but I thought about it, and those occassions when I do need more than your standard 3-4x zoom actually comes up more often than I would have thought - whether video taping an at bat for a baseball game or taking a close up photo from a moderate distance. And since I bought it, I have wound up using the zoom far more than I would have expected. Particularly in the 5-8x range for a variety of shots. This is key since many other comparable cameras only have zoom up to 4x.

- The wide angle! This is my first wide angle camera and boy does it make a difference from your standard point and shoot! I won't go back. It's more than just getting more into a shot, in many cases, its the difference between getting a shot framed properly or not. Getting the whole background or building or whatever into the shot or not.

- Pre-set camera modes are great. The TZ5 has 15+ pre-set camera modes that really are great for different environments. What's even better is that you can set two of those modes into the dial at top for quick access. This way, you don't have to keep adjusting the mode for each shot. For instance, at night, I pre-set the dial at top to "candle light" and "night portrait" and can quickly take shots that way.

- Great picture quality. I've read various commentary on the superiority of the Canon picture. I haven't done side by side comparisons but what I can say is that I've taken a lot of photos and am very satisfied. And anyways, I'm skeptical of some of these side by side comparisons on photo quality. So much of a photo is the setting, light, etc that you shouldn't be using the "standard auto setting" to get the best picture regardless. I doubt those comparisons adjusted each camera appropriately for each shot.

- Crisp, large 3" LCD screen. This is one of the primary differences between the TZ4 (comes with 2.5" screen) and TZ5.

- Long exposure shots are really, really cool. This camera takes amazing low light, night time shots. The exposure is 15 or 30 seconds but literally (if you don't move for that long), you can get AMAZING night time shots without a flash and with really cool light effects.

- Very cool "burst shooting". This is indespensible for action or fast moving shots. You can do normal burst shooting of any camera setting at about 2.5-3 pics/second and you can do it continuously! You can also do a high-burst at 6 pics/second at 2 megapixel quality. I got great shots diving off a boat in mid-air with this.

- For the lens and quality it's relatively compact. While its bigger than your standard compact point and shoot, its still small enough to fit in your pocket. Its about the size of an old school ipod, though thicker, and its way better than slugging around a DSLR. And the design is ergonomic.

And now some Cons:

- HD video recording. The quality of the HD picture on playback is great. But there are two shortcomings with this feature. 1) Sound quality is as you would expect for a camera. So its sort of like HD picture/low tech camera sound. It won't replace your HD camcorder, but its certainly good enough for casual recordings. 2) Takes up a ton of memory. I got a 16GB card and that will record about 30min of HD video. Not a lot if you want to take a lot of pics as well on a vaca. I just wind up taking normal non-HD videos, which works fine.

- Auto zoom on video recording is annoying. You need to turn the feature off when taking video, otherwise your video will be in and out of focus as you zoom. But the ability to zoom WHILE taking video is a differentiator for this camera vs. others. Also, some of the features still a work in progress. For instance, the auto face detect works some times, but not others.

- There are not many manual adjustments you can make- primarily shutter speed/exposure and other standard features common in most point and shoot cameras. Obviously I wouldn't expect this to be as flexible as a DLSR, but just something to keep in mind.

- Camera has two automated picture shot modes (where it takes a picture by itself) and the delay is either 2 or 10 seconds. I use this mode a lot - this way everyone can get into a pic! I wish they had longer delay time and more lead up warning to when the picture is going to be taken.

In summary, I would highly recommend this camera for anyone who wants the ability to take a wide variety of high quality pics but doesn't want to lug around a big camera. The cons are far outweighed by the pros. Don't hesitate - you will love this camera!

I am an "OC" kinda guy. I like to be sure that I get the most for my money when I make a purchase. I outline exactly what I want and what I expect from my purchase BEFORE I start shopping. I spent 7 months reading, comparing and researching all similar Ulta Compact and Compact cameras before I made my choice. I would have been even happier if this camera had 10 Megapixels instead of 9.1 ... only so it matched others that I was comparing (I compared 12's too, pics generally were NOT as good). Frankly, I am extremely happy with the fabulous pics this camera produces. I FIRST thought that I wish it were "a little smaller" - now I am very happy that it is not. If it were much smaller I don't believe it would be as easy and comfortable to use. Yes!. I handled nearly a dozen of its competitors, as well. I read every review (Pro and Users) I could find anywhere (online, magazines, trade journals). Be carefull with some of them. I put a lot of "weight" in reviews by the Pros, HOWEVER I found that many of the things they said about this camera were not true. Some of their comments caused me to "pause" and almost not buy this camera. Some talked about features they wish this camera had, that others did have ... only I found that SEVERAL such features ARE present in this camera. Some features that they reviewed as a "Negative", after learning how to use them turn out to be a great "POSITIVE". The ZOOM is very sharp and the Wide angle really helps me get shots that would NOT be possible with other "similar" cameras! You won't need the flash as much as with other cameras. The camera can adjust the ISO (as well as many other settings, in "IA" mode) to give you great shots when you can't use a flash (and you can set it to 6400 ISO for very dim non-flash shots). I was happy with my long-arrived-at choice the day I bought it. If I knew THEN what I know NOW ... I would have bought it much sooner! I enjoy it more everyday! I planned to use my "PRO Camera" (a $2500.00 Olympus system - 18 months of research) for "all the things that this camera would not be able to do" ... NOW I know that this Panasonic will do a fine job for 90 to 95% of all the camera tasks that I want to do! AND it is much much smaller and lighter! I find I am using my Pansonic more and more everyday!. I do suggest you get a couple of 1300 Mah batteries and a couple of 8 Gig LEXAR (Yes, the brand matters - they are much faster 20 Mb/sec) SDHC cards if you plan to do lots of serious picture taking as I do. This camera has an excellent battery life compared to others, but I take LOTS of PICS and videos and need the extra batteries. You can stop looking now. You WILL enjoy this camera! (By the way MROCK makes a perfect case for it and a spare battery and spare memory card, I am now looking for a very small case, when I want to take just the camera in a pocket). Have FUN with it!

4.5 stars. After about a thousand shots I have found that this camera has really held up to my expectations. It takes great photos, it's easy to convince the camera what you want it to do, and focusing is a breeze compared to most P&S cameras I've owned and tried lately. And the screen on the back is nothing short of utterly beautiful--high resolution and large size make for easy picture taking and reviewing.

Performance:

I get good sharp photos on at least 80% of attempts (and I rarely use flash so that's quite something considering some of the conditions I shoot in). I typically use the Auto mode (dial selection with the red camera icon) and move the camera around to lock the exposure with a half-press of the shutter button. For nine out of ten tourist shots this works great, and it is pretty good in macro mode as well. It's sometimes difficult to convince it to use a faster shutter speed without using one of the other (virtually indecipherable) scene modes. I really wish I could specify a minimum shutter speed so I could guarantee an un-blurred shot.

As for the special scene modes, unless you need something in there that you can't set yourself, I suggest ignoring these unless you want to memorize a ridiculous array of special conditions for each mode. The complexity of what it enables and disables in each mode is ludicrous, there are even modes that limit the image size selection for no apparent reason. For example, in Intellegent Auto mode you can use any size except 7 MP... Whatever.

User Interface:

The user interface on this camera is second to none, extremely convenient access to most settings, and very easy to use. This one has even figured out how to put the red-eye flash settings in the same place as the other flash settings (why everybody doesn't do that I can't imagine). I NEVER find myself fumbling around trying to find a setting, almost everything I need regularly is a one-button toggle, or an easy quick-menu accessible with a single button press. One downside is that the mode dial selector is easy to accidentally move while pocketing the camera so if you're not paying attention you may likely shoot some pics in an unintended mode (this is perhaps the most significant problem I've had with this camera). One really nice thing about this camera is that the power switch is an actual switch and no other buttons or actions will turn on any function of the camera. This means it doesn't turn on accidentally in your pocket and waste batteries or extend the lens unnecessarily (a flaw that has Canon owners ruining lens motors at an alarming rate).

Optics:

While I was wishing they'd focused their efforts on a wider aperture lens (for more light gathering capability) rather than the super wide and super zoom features, I must say the optical range of this camera is incredible. I took a four day trip to NYC and I was never left wanting for wider angle shots or more telephoto. I took everything from cityscapes and zoomed pics of building tops to self portraits and wide macro close-ups, there was so much flexibility--more than any lens I've ever owned (SLR included). The macro works great too, and can focus on subjects amazingly close, you can get a full-frame picture of a quarter from a half inch away. I snapped a shot of a flower's innards and didn't even realize until I got home that I'd also captured a caterpillar buried deep within the folds of the flower's petals. Incredible. One downside to the super-wide aspect though, you'll notice a significant distortion around the edges where the fisheye effect is quite apparent, especially in city-scapes with parallel buildings that appear to tilt toward each other. I was able to correct this somewhat by not zooming to the fully-wide setting.

Battery:

Battery life seems to be quite good. On first charge I shot over 300 pics and the battery indicator still read full. I was afraid that it would suddenly decline leaving me with little warning, but 300 pics is pretty good anyway. Now, after a four-day vacation snapping upwards of 250 photos a day, the longest day concluded with one of three battery bars depleted, two bars remaining. If that's a reasonable estimation of remaining power then I am suitably impressed. For reference, I use stabilizer mode 2 (on all the time), continuous focus mode OFF, and flash on maybe 5% of my pictures. I also turn it off between shots if it's going to be a minute or more.

One note for new buyers: The battery does not come pre-charged, so be prepared to spend two hours reading the manual while your battery charges before you can use the camera. Sorry folks, you can't bring it home from the store and start using it right away--but it does charge quickly.

The best thing about the battery though is the tiny little travel charger that comes with it--no clumsy cords, just a very compact block (smaller than a deck of cards and just a tad thicker) with flip-out prongs that plugs into the wall with the battery snapped in. It easily fits unnoticed in my travel kit.


*** A few significant details you may not see elsewhere: ***

1. Since image quality drops off quickly at ISO settings over 200 I was glad to find that it had a way to specify a max ISO in the auto ISO mode, but unfortunately the lowest option is 400, which it chooses for nearly all indoor shots. Also, some modes ignore this setting so even though you may think you'll always be under 400, you won't in certain scene modes. For example, many of the shots I took in 'sport' scene mode from a moving boat were shot at 800 despite having set the max to 400. This ISO limit appears to only apply to automatic mode (the dial setting with the red camera icon). Further hindering ISO control is the fact that it does not tell you what ISO your picture will be taken at, even after exposure lock with a half-press, even with maximum display info selected. It will show you the chosen aperture and shutter speed, but it doesn't reveal ISO until after the picture is taken.

2. I can not understand why they do this in the first place, and it's even more frustrating to not be able to turn it off or choose some options in this 'feature': This camera subdivides your photos into separate folders of pictures and as far as I can tell there's no way around it. If you don't ever mess around with the files on the card, it will take 999 pictures per folder. This is not a huge deal if your average outing/vacation is less than 999 pictures, but with today's unlimited file name length I would really rather keep sequentially counting file numbers limitlessly, and not use folders to break them up. I can not imagine why they think everyone would want this (or anyone for that matter). I could almost understand if they separated them by date or some other criterion. With other cameras I have always just had them all in the same folder, that way I don't have to go switching around looking for the photos, they're all in the same place.

3. Amazon's price on this camera fluctuates on a daily basis, both up and down. Since I started looking last week the price started at $270, went up to $296, and is now back to $284. I have no idea why, but if today's price is closer to $300 you might consider waiting a day or two to see if it gets better.

Those are the main points I wanted to share at the moment. I may be back with more info after a few thousand shots.

A brief background on my purchase... I initially started this quest to find the most compact camera with the most SLR-style features I could get. The natural choice for that pursuit is the Canon G9 which was the front runner until I played with this TZ5. It handled simple point & shoot operations so much better than the canon while inside the store that I was swayed to consider this Panasonic more seriously. The downside is that it offers virtually no SLR-like features. My first priority was to get a portable, pocketable camera, which both of these models fit, but the panasonic moreso. I wanted good point-and-shoot performance with the option to get more creative when I want. Since embracing the digital revolution eight years ago I haven't even touched my film SLR again, not once. But I miss the manual control so much. In the end this Panasonic P&S won me over, I think the Canon is not quite there yet to be what I want for manual control. It's a little clumsier in terms of user interface, and it's gone after way too many megapixels at the cost of low light capability.

In short, this Panasonic is a great camera, I would buy it again in a second.