Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 camera review

“This became available from Panasonic a week ago..I pre-bought it when my other Lumix had been stolen. Here's a very extensive professional review of it for those who like to read...I read it all, by the way, before I chose to buy this camera....
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz3/

You can google and read other reviews but I wanted to mention a couple of things that make this camera absolutely awesome...

The Leica lens is 28-280mm: 35mm film camera equivalent...this wide-angle lens is wonderful to have...I used to shoot with it with film all the time...

This Lumix is a 7.2 mp with optical image stabilization...the later means no more blurry pictures...well, no more blurry pictures MOST of the time...

The thing I don't like about it is it's specialized, rechargable battery...I was willing to suffer that and I think it will work out for me...I bought another battery...

The thing I just discovered while reading the manual is that you can get this camera, useing the Extended Optical Zoom (EZ), to shoot pictures at 12.6X optical and 15X optical with no loss in picture quality...and, should you choose to add the digital zoom when using the EZ that jumps to 40X or 60X...that's one helluva zoom...what the camera allows you to do is choose between 3 things...the regular optical 10X zoom, 2.5m (translates to 2.5 million pixels) EZ or 4.5m EZ. When you set it, for example, to 2.5m EZ a picture will only be taken of a 2.5m sized central part of a 7.2m area, meaning that the picture can be enlarged further....

First I took a picture at no zoom of the house across the street and far away from us that's being built:



Then I took one using the 60X option:



cool, huh...should be awesome for wildlife...”

“That was awesome. May be replacing my first digi camera soon- Does it do video as well?”

“yep..however, the zoom cannot be adjusted while shooting during motion picture recording

It's priced, right now, around $350 but I'll bet you can find it for less in a week or so...after all, it just came out!
last edited: 4/17/07 12:14:59 PM”

“wow!”

“That is a hell of a zoom!

If the people in that house do anything out on their deck, you can see it.”

“Yeah...and the camera wasn't on a tripod...I was hand-holding it...I will never buy another camera that doesn't have image stabilization...think of all the cool wildlife shots you could get with this baby...I want to head for Glacier right now!”

“Digital zoom = cropping in camera. Don't forget, you're not manufacturing pixels at 60x where they don't exist, you're only making them larger. The same thing can be accomplished in Photoshop after the fact.
That said, it looks like an awesome camera. I hope you are able to share some amazing photos with us. Happy shooting.”

“As Wounded Knee said, "If the people in that house do anything out on their deck, you can see it.”

And I bet they would be willing to buy all the copies at the right price to keep you from posting it on U-Tube!”

“I have thought about getting this camera too. When my canon went missing a couple months ago I picked up a pretty inexpensive Panasonic Lumix that has 6X optical zoom and also has image stabilization. I was suprised at how nice of a camera it is for just over $100. Then I saw this TZ3 and thought it would be perfect for the next big vacation.”

“hubcap, that's the model camera I had stolen...it's just fine and you can't beat the price...you'll like it alot should you choose to go that way...I prefer using AA batteries, myself...I had to buy a second battery for the TZ3 and they're around $45...

and yes, hobbit, I know the difference between digital and optical zoom...I prefer the camera to using Photoshop...it's called "instant gratification"...LOL...not that I can afford Photoshop...I have Paintshop Pro...
last edited: 4/18/07 5:32:38 PM”