Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1

...digital cameras out there… the Panasonic Lumix TZ1. Price tag there: about £400. That calmed me down straight away… Although, it never left my mind…
So once back in London, I browse the net for reviews about that camera, and prices, and I found it for about £250! Therefore, the Panasonic went up in my list of (unneeded but wanted) list.

WHERE DID I BUY IT?
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I bought it on shopping4cameras.com, ...
...technical data I found on Panasonic website.


BATTERY LIFE
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Well, I was just astonished. I just charged the battery once fully since I have it! It lasts ages, and you have many options to tweak to save even more power (time your LCD screen stays on etc). It also recharges super quickly, in about 2-3 hours!!!

SOUNDS
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The camera has some sound effects, ... more

BACKGROUND
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I haven't thought about digital cameras for a long time (after I got my Konica Minolta dimage Z1 reviewed at this URL: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Minolta_DiMAGE_Z1__Review_5433573/SortOrder/5). I was so happy with the quality of the pictures I took with this camera, that getting a new one was out of my mind; I've always been told that big lenses = great quality pictures, which was confirmed by my Minolta… Although, big lenses = big camera, which is a pain in itself… I am an avid fan of concerts, and "sneak" a camera in is always a tough job with the Minolta.

Then, a few months back, as I was walking in an airport duty-free, I saw a digital camera, big lens, but compact. As tiny as some digital cameras out there… the Panasonic Lumix TZ1. Price tag there: about £400. That calmed me down straight away… Although, it never left my mind…
So once back in London, I browse the net for reviews about that camera, and prices, and I found it for about £250! Therefore, the Panasonic went up in my list of (unneeded but wanted) list.

WHERE DID I BUY IT?
***************************
I bought it on shopping4cameras.com, because it was the cheaper I found. I paid £250 for it (including a 3-year extended warrantee) in August 2006. Today, on the 11/10/06 it costs £129.66 (bastards!) with the 3 year extension warrantee, £199 without.

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
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A camera. Yes, a camera. It comes in 2 colours, silver (which I got) and black (for a tenner more). Although I heard it get scratched easily, and it is silver below.
Don't expect women to throw their bras or knickers at you when you show the camera. For me they did, but that's normal, it's me.

To come back to the camera, it is fairly small, and could fit in a jeans pocket (however, expect some genital area discomfort). But compared to the Dimage, it is super small (trying to fit the dimage in jeans' pocket might be used as a castrating tool in some countries that still use the technique). I have been told that when choosing a camera, you need to consider the lens' size, and the Lumix TZ1 is the the smallest camera with that sort of lens in the world.. The size is 112 x 58.1 x 40.2 mm (4.4 x 2.3 x 1.6 inches) , and the weight approximately 262g.without batteries or recording media.

FIRST CONTACT WITH THE CAMERA
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Well, open your hand and grab it dammit! The camera is fairly ergonomic. It fits nicely in every hand, and it is fairly easy to use. The controls and dials are laid out for clear, intuitive operation. The screen is very clear (2.5" with angle mode).
It hasn't got too many buttons, so it is easy to take your first pictures without reading the instructions (and I am a muppet in digital photography, so…). However, if you want to use the full potential of the camera, I advice to read the instruction manual, which is clear and complete.

The menus are very understandable and easy to explore.

WHAT DO I GET WHEN I BUY IT?
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You get:
- The Lumix TZ1
- Battery charger and battery (very good life span)
- Lens Cap
- AV Cable
- USB Connection cable
- AC Cable
- CD-ROM
- Strap

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BUY EXTRA
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Well, the case. I got one for £10 in a Currys

You also should buy an extra battery, as it is always annoying when your battery run out in the middle of a concert or just before you want to take a pic..

And finally I you should invest in a SD card.

OK OK, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CAMERA???
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Well, I am fully satisfied. It is easy to use, the pictures are great…

The LUMIX TZ1 is a super-compact, 5.0 megapixel with a massive 10x optical zoom. Other features include a large 2.5" LCD monitor and Optical Image Stabilizer.
The lens is a LEICA which are meant to be the best around.

10x Optical Zoom
The DMC-TZ1 is equipped with a 10x optical zoom (equivalent to a 35mm-350mm zoom on a 35mm film camera) lens in a compact, easy-to-carry body. This powerful zoom lets you easily capture and magnify subjects in distant locations, and also produces impressive photos with soft-focused backgrounds. The zoom lens crystallizes Panasonic's optics technology, using 3 aspherical lenses to achieve compactness and boost optical performance.

The 10x zoom ratio can be extended up to 12.5x in 3-Megapixel image recording mode with minimal deterioration, by intentionally using the central part of the CCD. This powerful zooming function allows you not only to easily capture and magnify subjects in distant locations, but also to take impressionable photos with soft-focused backgrounds.

There is also a 4x digital zoom, which can extend your zooming to 40x (optical + digital)

MEGA O.I.S.
Blurred images have two main causes. One is hand-shake, and the other is subject movement. Since the majority of blurry images are due to hand-shake, MEGA O.I.S. is effective in most shooting situations, such as zoom shots, dimly lit indoor shots, nighttime shots, or macro shots. However, when taking indoor shots of moving subjects, like children or pets, the movement of the subject tends to cause blurring. Here, you can use high sensitivity shooting to prevent hazy motion effects and get great photos every time. The anti handshake feature is great and works well.
And the high sensivity too. I took some really nice pics in concert (dark venues), even when zooming!

High Sensitivity
TZ1 allows shooting at a manually adjustable sensitivity setting of up to ISO 800 in full resolution, thanks to the greatly improved noise reduction levels which are achieved by the separate detection of both chromatic and luminance noise by the newly developed high performance image processor, the Venus Engine III.

2.5" LCD with High Angle Mode
The large 2.5" LCD monitor has a total of 207,000 pixels, which gives it high resolution. The difference is easy to see, with much greater clarity, both when shooting and during playback. The High Angle Mode makes the display extremely easy to view from bottom angle, for example, when taking photos raising a hand upward to shoot the subject over the crowd (YAY for concerts. I have used this feature, and it works a treat!). This option can be set instantly by the independent button.

Mode Dial/Scene Mode
The mode dial makes it easy to take great shots in almost any situation. Or choose Simple Mode and just point and shoot. A variety of scene modes settings optimize baby portraits, food picture, landscapes, night scenes and many more; you have a preset for almost any situation (almost too much if you ask me), but you get 2 spaces on the little wheel on top of the camera to store your 2 favourite scene mode. For example, I set the "landscape" on one, and "portrait" on the other. I was not too interested in taking pics of food or underwater (as I don't dive)… Of course, this is tweakable, so you can assign whatever you want.
I think they could have afforded to add a few more spaces to store a few more scene modes…
For the people who want more technical info about this camera, I attached the technical data I found on Panasonic website.

BATTERY LIFE
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Well, I was just astonished. I just charged the battery once fully since I have it! It lasts ages, and you have many options to tweak to save even more power (time your LCD screen stays on etc). It also recharges super quickly, in about 2-3 hours!!!

SOUNDS
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The camera has some sound effects, which can be turned off if wished. There is little sounds when you move in the menus, take a picture of switch on / off the camera.
There is no use, just to show off (or annoy other people). I personally turned them off.

MEMORY CARD
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This camera uses the SD cards (secure digital). They are fairly cheap nowadays, you can get a 2GB for under £20 (7dayshop.com, see my review!).
With a 1GB, you can store about 450 pictures in high quality, and about 12 minutes of video in high quality (I use the lower quality for videos, and it is good enough for me, and I can shoot 30 min), You can double the amounts of pictures in lower quality.

CONS
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So far one thing I noticed is that sometimes the video feature behaves funny. Some videos are cut just after starting once downloaded onto the PC... This might be caused by me, but I am not sure... I'll have to look into that more.
Although, this happened only twice, the rest of the videos were fine. I'll try to update that.

CONCLUSION
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I would definitely recommend this camera for the people with low budget, willing to get good quality stuff.
I personally enjoy using this camera, and I am fully pleased with it. The pictures I've taken are fantastic. I will attach some in the next few days.

MORALE
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Apparently, if you wear rubber soled shoes when stroke by lightening, the electricity will go out through your rectum, leaving you with severe burns in the anal area.

Thanks for reading...

J

For the techno geeks, here are the specs:

Dimensions (W x H x D)
Approx. 112 x 58.1 x 40.2 mm (4.41 x 2.29 x 1.58 inch)
Weight
Approx.262g with Battery and SD Memory Card (0.58lb)
Camera Effective Pixels
5.0 Megapixels
Image Sensor
1/2.5inch, 6.37 Mega Total Pixels CCD
Optical Zoom
10x
Focal Distance
f=5.2-52mm (35mm Equiv.: 35-350mm)
Lens
LEICA DC VARIO-ELMARIT
Optical Image Stabilizer
MEGA O.I.S. (Mode1 / Mode2)
Focusing Area
Normal: Wide 40cm/ Tele 200cm - infinity, Macro/Simple/Motion image :wide 5cm/Tele 100cm - infinity
AF Metering
1point/1point high speed/3 point high speed/9 point/Spot
Focus
Auto Focus System, Normal/Macro (Dial), Continuous AF On/Off
AF Assist Lamp
Yes
ISO Sensitivity
Auto/80/100/200/400/800 (High Sensitvity Mode : 800 / 1600)
White Balance
Auto / Daylight / Cloudy / Halogen / White Set White Balance Adjustment ( 150K step, -1500 - +1500 K) (Except for Auto set)
Exposure
Program AE
Exposure Compensation
1/3 EV step, -2 - +2 EV
Backlight Compensation
Yes (at Simple mode)
Auto (AE) Bracketing
+/- 1/3 EV -1EV step, 3 frames
Light Metering
Intelligent Multiple/ Center Weighted/ Spot
Scene Mode
Dial: Simple, Normal image, Macro, SCN1, SCN2 (Portrait, Soft Skin, Scenery, Sports, Night Portrait, Night Scenery, Self-portrait, Food, Party, Candle, Fireworks, Starry Sky, Beach, Aerial photo, Snow, High Sensitivity, Baby1, Baby2, Underwater) motion image, Playback
Shutter Speed
8-1/2000 sec (Starry Sky Mode : 15, 30, 60sec)
Self Timer
10 sec / 2sec
Auto Review
1sec / 3sec / Zoom
Review
1x / 4x / 8x
Colour Effect Mode
Cool, Warm, Black #38; White, Sepia
Recording Format
Still Image: JPEG (Design rule for Camera File system, based on Exif 2.2 standard), DPOF corresponding image with audio: JPEG (Design rule for Camera File system, based on Exif2.2 standard) and QuickTime, Motion image: QuickTime Motion JPEG
Recording Image Size
Still Image: 4:3 Aspect Ratio: 2560 x 1920 pixels, 2048 x 1536 pixels, 1600 x 1200 pixels, 1280 x960 pixels, 640 x 480 pixels, 3:2 Aspect Ratio: 2560 x 1712 pixels, 2048 x 1360 pixels, 16:9 Aspect Ratio: 2560 x 1440 pixels, 1920 x 1080 pixels, Motion Image: 4:3 Aspect Ratio: 640 x 320 pixels, 320 x 240 pixels, 16:9 Aspect Ratio: 848 x 480 pixels
Image Quality
Fine / Standard
Motion Image
:3 Aspect Ratio] 640 x 480 pixels, 320x240 pixels 30 fps, 10 fps, 16:9 Aspect Ratio] 848 x 480 pixels 30 fps, 10 fps,Max. recording time depends on the memory card capacity
Burst Shooting Mode
Full-Resolution Image, 3 frames/sec or 2 frames/sec Full-resolution: Max. 5 images (Standard mode), Max. 3 images (Fine Mode)
Unlimited consecutive shooting
Yes
Still Image Rec. with Audio
5 sec
Audio Dubbing
Max. 10sec
Real-time Histogram
Yes
Guide Line
Yes
Flip Animation
Yes
Economy Mode
Yes
Built-in-Flash
Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced On/Off
LCD Monitor
2.5 inch Polycrystalline TFT LCD Display (207K Pixels) Power LCD mode, High angle mode
Playback mode
25-thumbnail display, 9-thumbnail display, Calendar Display, zoomed playback (16x max.) Image Rotation, Slide show (duration is adjustable, also manual controllable), Playback of favorite pictures, Resizing (selectable number of pixels), trimming, protection, DPOF print setting
OSD Language
English,German,French,Italian,Spanish,Polish,Czech,Hungarian,Japanese
Recording Media
Built-in Memory, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard
Microphone
Yes
Speaker
Yes
Interface
DC Input, AV Output (NTSC/PAL), USB
Direct Print
PictBridge
Power
Li-ion Battery Pack (3.7V, 1000mAh) (Included) AC Adaptor (Input: 110-240V AC) (Optional)
Battery life (approx.)
250 pictures (CIPA Standard)
Included Software
LUMIX Simple Viewer, PhotofunStudio -viewer-, ArcSoft PhotoBase, ArcSoft PhotoImpression, ArcSoft Panorama Maker, USB Driver
Standard Accessories
Battery Charger, Battery Pack, Lens Cap, AV Cable, USB Connection Cable, AC Cable, Strap, CD-ROM

 

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