Customer Reviews:
 Great point & shoot camera, best for the money July 24, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
 I love this camera July 23, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I took this camera on a five-country European trip in July and took about 1,000 photos with it. The photos come out just great in IA mode. Press down and the camera makes its first assumption on what it is you're focusing, if that's not correct, release and try again. Face recognition works great, too. And most important to me was that it takes great photos in low light without a flash. I had the flash off for all my shots. I got the camera in blue which is done in a powder-type of coating. I didn't care for that at first, but now I like it because it makes the camera a little grippier and it looks great.
Two things that could need fixing:
1. When taking a movie, the zoom makes a noice when zooming in and out.
2. When reviewing your photos, holding down the advance button should fast-forward you through the photos. It only does one at a time. When you have 4 or 8 gig cards, that can be a lot of clicking through.
Overall though, I love this camera and would buy it again.
not bad July 22, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Pros-
easy to see on/off switch
physical switch to move to review pictures from taking pictures
great optical zoom
very good pictures
easy computer hook up
big LCD screen
easy to understand settings
seems sturdy
fast zoom button
Cons-
microphone placed where hand would naturally go
a bit heavy and large
not much in manual choices
overall a good camera and one I would recomend.
Very Versatile Camera - Fragile Protective Lens Cover July 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm loving my Panasonic DMC-TZ5. I agree with others about the fine versatility and daylight image quality. Unfortunately the TZ5 uses the same automatic lens cover mechanism as the DMC-TZ3. This is a too fragile mechanism. Like other TZ3 owners, eventually my TZ3 lens cover failed to fully open/close. I'm hoping I get at least a couple years out of the TZ5 before any failures. Fingers crossed.
 Extremely disappointing image quality July 21, 2008
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
I read the reviews of this camera on the various digital camera sites. While they all mentioned a high level of noise, they still recommended it. So I bought it. How bad could the noise be?
The answer is "very bad". I wasn't expecting miracles from a compact camera. But... indoors, outdoors, low light, bright light, flash, no flash, zoom, no zoom... the images coming out of this camera were decidedly, noticeably subpar.
I loved the build quality, zoom, features, size, weight, and styling. I really wanted to like this camera. But I had to return it. I bought a PowerShot G9 instead, which I am very happy with.
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