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We clicked with:
Big, bright LCD
Excellent lens, with genuinely wide mode
Rich feature set... in places
Mega OIS works well
Remarkably low noise
Shots in the dark:
No manual mode
Heavy noise-reduction
Power on switch easy to use by accident
Price Comparison: Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
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The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 is perhaps the ideal Christmas camera. It's been heavily advertised (making it popular for photographers and muggles alike), has a really, really huge zoom and an equally huge three inch LCD. It has all the latest bells and whistles (20 scene modes, high ISO and image stabilisation) and a few not normally on the photo radar - like a range of aspect ratios and even a decent movie mode. It might be chunkier than the average slimline design, but this 7.2 megapixel camera is still pocketable and the extra weight and size make it the perfect stocking filler.
The letters 'TZ' in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 name stand for 'travel zoom' apparently, and it certainly fits the bill. The Leica DC Vario-Elmarit optical zoom is a 10x affair, with a 35mm equivalent reach of a whopping great 28-280mm. Coupled with Panasonic's two-mode 'Mega OIS' (Mega Optical Image Stabiliser) and a sensitivity range of ISO100-1250 available, plus good battery life, makes this an ideal travel camera.
28mm
280mm
Panasonic's regular noise reduction system kicks in fast here. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 keeps images noise free and colours saturated at high ISO, but this is at the cost of smoothing and detail-light images. Given that - despite a healthy set of picture modes and useful control over the camera in many aspects - there's no real creative manual control of the camera, the TZ3 does keep it's ISO settings as low as possible. It's sometimes impossible to avoid high ISO though and even at ISO200, the images start to display noise reduction. This appears to be a function of the Venus III processing system. It makes for fine images printed 6x4 or published on the web, but large prints will look very soft and smeary at high ISO.
That's really the only downside, aside from one minor niggle. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 has mostly good controls, with most of the functionality removed to the top-mounted thumbwheel and menu system actioned from the rear Nintendo-pad buttons. The exception is the power on/off slider switch on the top panel. This is surprisingly easy to switch on by mistake, slotting the camera into a bag can trigger it. However, the camera powers up fast (it's ready to use in just over a second) and has admirably low shutter lag, meaning you can grab shots of even the most recalcitrant subject.
It seems Panasonic has been listening to its audience. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 is less vivid than many previous Panny image makers. It still has that zing thing, but the highly saturated reds of previous generations are little more than a memory. In the main, tones are neutral and bright and it seems highlights are preserved whenever possible. There is a bracket mode, which can prove useful for images that turn either too 'moody' or too 'high key' (technical terms that can be neatly used to explain away under- and over-exposure).
We started by suggesting the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 is the perfect stocking filler. It is... especially for those with wanderlust. That huge zoom is excellent, and if you are posting your images up to a blog and never once intend on making huge prints out of high ISO shots, it's the ideal travel companion.
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