Customer Reviews

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3A 7.2MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)

5 star:		(281)
4 star:		(110)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I have to get on the bandwagon here. This is a superb little camera, definately five stars! I also have the TZ1, which showed promise, but has limitations. In my review of the TZ1, I noted it had lots of "noise" and pictures shouldn't be printed much beyond 4x6 inches if they were to be sharp. I also wanted more manual controls.

The TZ3 fixes and improves almost everything about the TZ1 and adds some new, very useful features. The noise has been drastically reduced, the lens is better, the sensor is bigger, and the processor is not only faster, but produces better pictures. The TZ3 adds a very handy "function" button - or I should say function capability - the number of buttons is the same - which gives immediate access to five or so "most used" settings without having to go into the menues - of which there are several.

The TZ3 keeps the Mega Optical Image Stabilization and adds Intelligent ISO, increases the sensitivity without adding noise,(I have not tried the 3200 setting yet.), increases the size of the viewing screen, etc., etc.

The TZ3 is a "well-rounded," and very capable camera. There is simply no comparison between the TZ1 and the TZ3 as far as the quality of the pictures. The TZ3 wins hands down. In my opinion it also beats some big name, higher priced digicams - a couple of which I own - rather handily.

Of course, the big selling point for the TZ3 is still the 10X lens - now with wide angle capability - on a pocket-sized point and shoot camera. This lens is SHARP, and combined with larger sensor and the new processor yields some excellent results.

While there are no manual controls, per se, the camera seems to do very well without them. Pictures are sharp, exposures seem nicely done (haven't tried it at night yet, but low light forrest shots were excellent), colors were accurate, appropriately saturated, and vivid (OK. I like the vivid setting.), good contrast, etc. There are a variety of AF settings, settable focal points, and focus modes. There is also exposure compensation, and exposure bracketing available - and they work well! The live histogram is a welcome bonus. The TZ3 focuses down to about 2 inches in macro mode - again with excellent, sharp results. The TZ3 is very well speced out.

One nice thing that is gone is the lens cap on the TZ1. It was really not to inconvenient, but seemed always to be swinging in the wind to add yet another source of camera shake. The TZ3 lens includes an built in lens cover. Very welcome.

I currently own five top flight digicams (including this one), and have owned about that many others, I am most impressed with this one - for combined convenience and results. It is a quantum step forward.

I also have a couple of quite nice, and fairly complete DSLR kits. They are wonderful, and in a class by themselves, but when I want very nice pictures and the convenience of a pocketable point and shoot with a 10X, wide angle lens, or a back up for the DSLRs, the TZ3 is now my camera of choice.

Let me start with my credentials: I've been working for a major daily newspaper for 23 years. I've won various photo contests, from local and regional contests, to national and international contests such as NPPA, POY, as well as the National Baseball Hall of Fame (several times). I've literally traveled around the globe, covering news features and sports. So, please allow me to lend my own feedback on this camera, which I have owned for several months now. I've also started actively shooting with camcorders such as the Panasonic AG-HVX200 high-definition camcorder, and the Sony DCR-SR30 camcorder.

I'm a proud TZ3 owner (purchasing it with my own funds), and I've been using Lumix cameras since I was issued a DMC-FZ20, at my request. (That camera taught me about versatility when I went to the Superdome and the Convention Center to cover the plight of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, who struggled to survive the elements following the storm). I've also used the FZ30, and also own a TZ1, the older and less-impressive sibling to the TZ3. And I'd pick this camera, over even the Nikon D2Xs and D2Hs cameras, if I had only one camera to pack in order to cover any breaking news story as of the date of this writing. Why? Because the Lumix line of "bridge" cameras are the most versatile and quick-performing that I've experienced to date. With the pro SLRs, I'd need to carry lenses from a 17-35mm, 80-200mm, and 300mm lenses, to shoot images while all that glass is wrapped into the neat package of the TZ3. Yet the Nikons I own don't shoot video. The Sony camcorder shoots only 3 still images per recording session, which don't match the image quality of the TZ3. And the HVX200 is too bulky.

The TZ3 is a great run-and-gun camera. At a heartbeat, I can switch over to video and shoot some decent footage at widescreen mode (my preference), which is widescreen, at 848 x 480 (better than most hybrid cameras, which tend to shoot only in 640x480. The TZ3 is such a low-profile camera that you can shoot very candid stills and video when you want to capture people at their most human moments.

The body is so compact, I can do 3 very vital and exciting things: place it into tight spaces, shoot without attracting unwanted attention, and mount the camera on unusual items (most recently, a bass drum belonging to a high school student in a marching band, and it recorded video during the band's practice). I've also clamped it onto a wheel barrow and also placed it among stocked food in the refrigerator section. That yields such wide ranging perspectives that could hardly be accomplished with many other cameras and camcorders.

I like keeping the ISO setting at the minimum of ISO 100 or 200, for the digital noise can yell loudly at higher ISO settings. Most recently, I shot a gorgeous image of a moody scene at midnight, with street lamps and the moon being the only light sources on a fog-filled street.

Some drawbacks: I'm not satisfied with the way the camera captures images at the default setting because they seem too washed out. So I set the camera at 2/3rds stop under-exposure. It adds better tonal quality. And the audio quality lacks for the video. I wash the sound in some audio software to crank up the treble, and add some bass. It takes more time, but it helps bring back the muffled sound that gets recorded through a single hole on top of the camera.

The TZ3 is so compact that I carry it with me almost everywhere at work and wherever I go, because in a heartbeat, something could happen. If so, I'd be prepared to document whatever happens. Think about it: on my days off, I'd NEVER carry my Nikon pro bodies. And so this is great for sticking in your pocket for day trips, extended vacations, or a family gathering. If you can just remember that you can capture a moment, just pull the TZ3 out, and within about 5 seconds, you can record what could be some cherished memories.

Panasonic has taken the original TZ1 and made it even better. There's not much missing from this camera. 28mm wide angle lens. 10X optical zoom. 3" high resolution screen, excellent Image Stabilization, etc. All this in a fairly compact camera. Panasonic has also improved the "noise" on higher ISO's. Low light performance is better than on previous Panasonic models. The most important this is, the camera takes great pictures. Panasonic did take one step back in video mode on the TZ3. Unlike on the TZ1, you can not "zoom" while taking video. You can zoom before you start taking the video. This doesn't bother me, but some people find it important. Overall, this is the best compact camera I've ever owned.

Edit 01/30/2008: Just a note. The TZ4 and TZ5 will be out within the next 2-3 months!

I spent weeks researching cameras and had narrowed my search down to the Canon 800IS, Fujifilm fx31 and this Panasonic Lumix TZ3. I needed a camera that can give me decent low light photos and good movie capture. I was skeptical of the panasonic brand at first but their feature set and decent price won me over. I've been using my TZ3 for a month now and I'm extremely happy with it.

Here's an example why...I was in the 30th row at red rocks amphitheatre and was able to zoom in 10x to take close ups of members of the band I was seeing. No way could I pull that off with a 3x or 4x zoom. The high sensitivity ISO (3200) does serve a purpose, despite what critics say. It let me capture these musicians lit up very well in just the stage lights - there is some noise in those shots but its not noticeable in a 4x6 photo. The Fujifilm has been cited for its excellent low light capabilities but its lack of other features left me unexcited about its overall package. Now I know most folks don't buy a camera for concert photos but that's what I was looking for and the TZ3 didn't let me down.

I also picked up a 4GB memory card and I loved being able to take 30fps movies during our last family vacation. I'll never lug my videocamera around again. This baby will film excellent resolution movies for almost 1.5 hours with that memory.

The image stabilization seems to work well although I haven't really tested photos without it on. I just leave it on the second mode which offers more effective stabilization and I don't have to think about it. I used to get blurry pics once in a while with my old Canon S40 but haven't had a one with this Panasonic.

The numerous scene modes are also handy. Canon offers a handful but Panasonic gives you several more and even offers in-menu descriptions to remind you when to use a particular scene mode. Better than referring to a owner's manual. For new parents, the two baby shot modes even let you set up a scene that displays the age of up to 2 children on the picture so you can track their growth over time.

The picture quality has been excellent. You need to learn how to pick the right settings on some lower light or fast moving picture opportunities but for 90% of your shots, the point and shoot quality of the intelligent ISO mode is excellent.

The wide angle lens is great. It gives you more room to compose your shots and I don't know if I could go back to a simple 35mm again. The Canon 800IS is the only other compact that offers the wide angle. But Panasonic's 10x zoom sealed the deal for me. The zoom works quickly and lets you take shots you wouldn't normally take. You can also record in 3:2 ratio which is conducive to widescreens movie playback as well as 4x6 photo sizes.

I've used the included arcsoft software with an older Canon camera but have since migrated to google's picasa and haven't looked back. The photo-stitch functionality for creating panoramic images from multiple frames was a fun toy for a little while but for 99% of your photos, all you're doing is uploading to a repository, fixing a handful of the really good ones and that's it. Picasa is extremely simple to accomplish this and a great image management tool.

I also like the battery meter on this camera. I've yet to run out of juice because it tells me when I'm running low and recharge over night for the next day. Canons don't have a visible battery meter.

I could go on further about lots of little features which make this an extremely useful and portable companion. If you're reading this and am torn between this and something from the Canon line, be assured you won't be sorry with this one. It simply offers more bang for your buck and you won't be compromising much of anything. I'm looking forward to years of service from this little marvel.

I normally shoot with a DSLR, but wanted a small camera, with a decent zoom that I could slip in a pocket or put on a belt pouch to carry around with me all the time. This camera is the only one in the market that fitted my needs, and I am really happy with it. I give it half a star short of the full rating only because of one or two shortcomings.

The construction of this camera is solid, which is what one wants, and I don't understand some of the criticism about it being a tad too large or heavy. A 10x lens needs to be wel supported. The fantastic lens is the best thing about this camera. It is equivalent to a 28mm wide angle which is what I need for landscape shots and some professional uses. The 10x zoom covers a wide range of uses, and as promoted, this makes for a great travel camera. The macro capabilities are also great. I found battery life to be pretty good, the secret being to switch the camera off when not actally shooting. Some of the critcism about the low light capabilities is correct, but I find the problems associated with this camera to be no worse than other cameras that I have tried. Even my DSLR gives me grief in low light.

Negative comments on the image quality in other reviews seem a little exaggerated. The color rendition in this camera is very natural. The image processing engine IS too agressive and the images tend to be on the soft side, which is a bit silly when you have this great Leica lens. It's not a problem with small prints but you'll notice it on larger prints on less contrasty subjects. The information seems to be there, however, as they are easily sharpened up using Photoshop (or even using Preview on my Mac). Since I post-process all my photos, this is not a problem for me. I don't shoot video on this camera (that's what Camcorders are for) so I cannot comment on the microphone quality.

Drawbacks: I found the lack of a viewfinder to be the major drawback on this camera. I do not like holding the camera at arms length, even with its impressive shake reduction (although I note that most people like to take pictures this way and do not use their viewfinders. Even the bright LCD screen washes out in bright sunlight making it difficult to compose a shot. Note to Panasonic - put a viewfinder in upcoming models. or give the camera a swiveling LCD that is easier to shade. Also put a few more contols of the image processor so that we could sharpen up out pictures a little.

This camera isn't perfect, but for its size it has an excellent optical range. Even for the serious photographer types, it makes a great portable second camera.

Every digital camera seems to have one or two items that need improvement. I have discovered this camera's flaws now. This is an edited version of a previous review now that I have had more time with the camera.

I was a pro photographer at one time in my life, before the big transition to digital, so I still look for many pro features now that I have made the transition. As a setting for this review I will note what I own and how I shoot.

SHOOTING STYLE: landscapes, travel, macro, still life, documentary style portraiture. (no fast action or sports in general) I don't use a flash if at all possible.

CAMERAS I OWN: Canon PowerShot S70 & S80, Kodak P880 & Lumix DMC-TZ3 (in black)

OVERALL IMPRESSION: Excellent point & shoot for well lit scenes only. Fabulous lens, great zoom range and professional feeling camera.

PROS: Sharp lens (edge to edge & no flare or fringing) great color rendition in well lit scenes, super fast writes to SD, fabulous LCD and great build quality. The image stabilization helps a lot, although not as effective overall as I thought it would be. (This is my first IS camera) The charger and battery are super small and easy to travel with. Just looks nice too!

COMPLAINTS: I recently revised them, listed below:

1. Poor Firmware & Setting Design (poor low light exposure & metering))
2. In low light it not only meters incorrectly, but loses all color saturation and just produces POOR pictures. After sunset, put it away!
3. Honestly, just a "pain" to shoot with when you want to shoot in anything other than "idiot" mode. The lack of any customization forces you to shoot AROUND it's modes, not with them. Not a problem in well lit scenes, but low light forces many adjustments to get a properly exposed image.

Overall, the noise from the chip and the Venus III noise reduction is better than I expected, but it is there. With full frame photos you will not really notice it much. The images look sharp, good color realism and not too contrasty. BUT, if you crop in you will notice that some of that low contrast effect is the HEAVY noise reduction and overzealous file compression that result in a loss of a lot of fine detail (mostly in low light settings). (A 1GB card in my Kodak P880 at 7.1M can store 207 images, but in this camera I get 288 images! There must be some heavy handed compression to get images that much smaller on the Lumix and it shows.)

The lack of manual controls is maddening. You can't customize the auto settings in any meaningful way either. If you shoot with the standard program mode (red camera) or the auto-iso mode you can't get correct low light exposures!

EXAMPLE: I lent my camera to someone and they pointed out the poor metering. I thought they had a setting wrong but they did not. I fiddled with it for an hour and found that even though the camera can calculate the correct exposure, it WILL NOT TAKE IT in a basic simple mode! It bottoms out at a certain shutter speed to try and reduce hand shake. Great, so you get sharper underexposed images! The way around this is to shoot in the "Night Scenery" mode, but in this mode you are LOCKED into an ISO of 100. This makes no sense, since it is a "night" mode. With that low of an ASA the image stabilization is undermined and you get a better exposure, but now with hand shake! Even with a correct exposure, the noise and colors are so bad the picture looks horrible. Also, a weird glitch is that your shutter speeds beyond 1 second are doubled for some reason. (don't ask me why, but after it takes the picture it whites out the screen and then "counts-down" the same number of seconds as the exposure before it lets you take another image!)

Overall, this is sad given the AMAZING Leica lens on this camera. As another reviewer said, "Does this camera really deserve this Leica lens?" I hope a future Firmware will offer noise reduction, compression settings & lack of customizable options. Until they fix the low light failure of this camera I will limit the use to well lit scenes only, which is a huge handicap.

I owned the first generation DMC-TZ1. The DMC-TZ3 has some welcome improvements; wider angle, automatic lens cover, maybe 25% faster shot-to-shot. In particular, the wider angle is a really useful feature.

The camera's strength is in its versatile, daylight shooting. It does best with lots of light. Indoors, the flash coverage is just ok. Shot-to-shot flash recycle time is sometimes a pokey 4 seconds. Digital picture noise is noticeable with lesser light.

Setup Tips:
1. Use 3x2 ratio if you primarily print 6x4 photos.
2. Use vivid mode as normal mode looks washed out.

Update: 28-May-2007 The flimsy automatic lens cover has broken. I'm able to keep it stuck in the open position. Rather disappointing. The rest of the camera seems pretty durable though.

Update: 12-Jun-2007 The automatic lens cover has somehow fully healed itself. Over the course of two weeks of frequent use, it began to progressively return to its proper open and closed positions.

Update: 15-July-2007 The automatic lens cover has again failed. Unfortunately permanently. I've upgraded to a DMC-TZ5. It has the same lens cover mechanism -- fingers crossed.

First, I'm very picky. I carry a camera in my pocket at all times. I've been using a Canon SD400 for 2 years and an SD110 for 4 years before that. I got tired of waiting for Canon to add more zoom since 3x is not that useful. Well, the wait is over and I've left Canon. I wasn't sure but I got a 30-day money-back guarantee so I figured why not. Trust me it's not going back.

This camera has 10x optical zoom plus optical image stabilization. It has wonderful clarity and lots of controls and scene modes. Macro and movie modes are very important to me. I like to take macro shots and I've used my camera in place of a video camera for years. The macro mode is great and the movie mode is excellent. I can do a 10x zoom and get great clips. One issue is you can't zoom while shooting movies. Canon does let you zoom while shooting movies, but their picture quality goes down hill.

Another key for me is size. I carry a camera in my pocket all the time so size is important. While the TZ3 is a bit larger than the Canon SD line it still fits nicely.

This camera starts with a 28mm wide-angle lens too. This extends my creative range. The Leica lens has great clarity too. The Lithium battery lasts a good long time and the camera has a battery meter so you can see how you are doing. With my Canon I never knew until the red battery warning light went on.

One complaint is that the controls are almost perfect, but not quite. I am a serious amatuer photographer and I like control. The camera has a fast setting change mode but one control is missing from that menu - exposure mode. To go from center-spot exposure, to average, or to center weighted you have to bring up the main settings menu and the setting is buried in the middle. Oh, well. Not a huge issue.

It has a nice exposure bracket feature that's easy to set when you're not sure what exposure would be best.

The 3 inch screen is amazingly clear and the camera has a 'bright' mode which really helps in bright sun.

Tips: I usually shoot at -2/3 (have for a long time) to get more contrast and dynamic range. I also tend to shoot in 'vivid' mode for more saturation, but I've found that 'natural' mode is pretty good. Unlike another reviewer who said 'natural' was washed out.

I promptly took my new camera on vacation to Costa Rica and took close to 1000 photos and video clips on a 2GB card. I was very pleased. What more can I say? Sorry Canon. I couldn't wait any longer. 10X rules!

(P.S. I also finally decided to fully test Google's Picasa and I must say I like it a lot. At first it seemed odd, but I got over that. I no longer have to load up Photoshop to tweak my shots. I can fix the shadows, fill-flash, and hightlight to get full dynamic range and strong contrast with just a couple clicks. I can also tweak the color temperature and saturation easily too. Oh, and how about the 'straighten' tool? It's incredibly handy and it automatically zooms in to crop off the black edges. I haven't used photoshop in over a month now. PLUS you then just select the shots and upload them to Google with no limit on the number of shots or the sizes or any of those annoying limits like on Flickr. Plus the Google viewer shows the shots at the largest size the viewer's screen can handle. Plus you can easily zip through the shots with just the left and right arrows. There are so many reasons to love it. Of course, I would like more. I wish I could control the page layout for albums and set the background color for an album. It would also be nice to be able to organize the albums into groups or categories. I'll bet they add that ability eventually. You can check out some of my shots on Picasaweb. I'll put up an album of the most amazing shots there too at http://picasaweb.google.com/daniel.endy )

If only the Lumix TZ3 had the instant reactions of a much more expensive Nikon or Canon DSLR, it would be the perfect pocket camera, a worthy successor to the Leica M3, M4 or M6. As it is, the TZ3 comes really close to being the perfect digital pocket camera.

The lens is the biggest part of the story: 28mm - 280mm (35mm equivalent), a full 10x zoom that doesn't extend more than 2 inches from the body. The 28mm capability makes a huge difference. I just spent the weekend with my sweetheart and five of her sisters. From a few feet away, I could capture the whole group - a substantial change from using the 35mm equivalent focal length of most other cameras. At the telephoto end, the 280mm definitely doesn't have the reach of the 350mm of the TZ1. Too bad one can't have it all. By using a smaller portion of the sensor, you can create higher effective optical zoom extensions, with a commensurate loss of quality, though this is not as bad as with digital zoom.

The 7.2 Megapixel sensor provides adequate image quality.

While there are no explicit manual controls, you can get a great deal of flexibility from using the pre-determined "scenes" and the basic controls such as bracketing.

The TZ1 had a physical lens cover which was always a pain to deal with. You had to take it off. It dangled from a string and unless restrained, could wind up in the photograph. The TZ3 has an automatic lens cover: hooray! It also has a 3" display, which is great to work with. The brightness of the LCD can be adjusted to accomodate bright sunlight (works reasonably well) and unusual viewing angles (works quite well).

The TZ3 is smaller than the TZ1 which is good and bad. It is lighter, which is good. The camera fits neatly into a pocket, which is better than good. The automatic lens cap is wonderful and I suggest a screen protector for the LCD. The ergonomics of the TZ3, however, suffer with the reduction in physical size. The swelling on the right-hand side, which created a nice, hefty handgrip on the TZ1 has been slimmed down in a major way. A little more concious thought is now required when grasping the camera. It is also possible, as this large handed user quickly learned, to inadvertently place a finger in front of the flash.

In terms of responsiveness, the TZ3 seems to power on a little faster than the TZ1, but it still takes time. Shutter lag is reasonably short. But in an ideal world, shutter lag would be non-existent. If that were the case, the TZ3 would indeed be the best camera for street shooting since the Leica M6. The zoom is smooth, if a little slow. Autofocus at lower focal lengths is practically instantaneous in well lit situations and distressingly slow in poor lightings. At longer focal lengths, there does seem to be some hunting.

The battery is rated for approximately 270 shots. You will not appear foolish if you always carry a spare or two. Flash photography appears to quickly drain the battery. Also be careful if you decide to use 4GB SDHC cards: not all built-in laptop card readers will accept them. You may need a USB adapter such as the one supplied with this card: Sandisk 4GB Secure Digital SD HC Memory Card(SDSDB-4096, bulk) & BlueProton USB 2.0 Card Reader Writer (Blue).

Overall, the TZ3 is a great little camera. Even if you have a Nikon or Canon DSLR, you'll find yourself carrying the TZ3 far more often than you might expect. For everyday occasions and ordinary travel photography, this is an almost perfect camera with an extreme zoom, small size, light weight and enough settings to cover most situations. It is not, to be sure, a Nikon or Canon DSLR, but it is more than adequate for most tasks. By the way, video quality (640 x 480 at 30fps) is excellent.

A great piece of engineering by Panasonic.

Jerry

I jumped into digital photography way before it was cool, spent far to much money, and soon after bought a nice 35mm slr and a scanner. I refused to spend more money on new digital until I could pack nearly all of the quality features of my slr into a small carryable digital. Sure the TZ3 does not have manual mode but as many times as I actually use manual mode I figure I don't need it. How many times do Hummer drivers actualy take them off road any way? Dont get me started (: The over all quality and feel of the case, battery compartment door and latch, buttons and mechanisms is top notch as far as I can tell. I bought it after reading the reviews here at amazon and did not go to a brick and mortor store and handle several others to compare so that is only my gadget guru experienced oppinion. The massive for the case size screen is exceptional(is it me or have lcd's made a major leep lately? my garmin nuvi 660 screen is down right impresive). The picture quality is fantastic. I have yet to see any artifacts shooting in bright sun with high zoom, not even any lense flares which I truly expected, or in candle lit birthday with flash. It has fast write times and very short power up wait. If I had to find something to complain about I would say it feels a little dainty in my hands and I find myself handling it like a newborn baby. That may be just because it is new but I wanted a small powerfull pocket camera I could keep on me at all times so I am loving it. It seemed like it was the best bang for the buck camera in its category. This review is just a drop in the bucket here I know, and thanks to all the pros and semi pros for the detailed reviews, but for what its worth I highly recomend it to anyone shopping in this price range.