TZ1 – I made my own review …..

in the test pictures section of your gallery, could I ask a dumb question? What does "SCHÄRFE MITTE RAND" mean? Google translator says it means "CENTER SHARPENS EDGE" but I'm not certain what that means (or if the translation is altering the meaning). I don't know what I'm looking for in the pics to see a difference.

Unda Covalava said:

This might vary between cameras. I found my cam performs much
better in natural mode - much less of the watercolor stuff,
especially with indoor high-iso shots zoomed in.

Click to expand...

More so than in Standard?

Unda Covalava said:

They will need USM though. I process all pics for display or print so
that's fine with me.

Click to expand...

I tend to batch-USM my shots even in Standard mode. I haven't really been using noise reduction software yet, because to me (maybe because I'm not using it properly) it just looks more like Detail Reduction Software. Noise I can live with, especially if it's the nice film grain noise of the TZ1.

I have noticed, though, from looking at people's sample photos, that the quality of TZ1 photos seems to differ greatly between models. Some of that may be due to settings or the photographer, but maybe quality control isn't so great on these early units. I don't know - it seems that a few people on another forum had problems with one colour or another (often green or blue) being waaaaaaay too saturated even in Natural or Standard. Their replacement cameras seemed to fix the problem.

Of course, these people could have had their white-balance screwed up or something and were just blaming the camera.

Putting the Tizzy into or taking it out of my case tends to move the mode dial on me - I'm often taking shots in a scene mode or in macro mode when I mean to just put it into camera mode. Sometimes it doesn't make much of a difference, but other times the shots are unusable even though they look okay on the LCD.

--
Flick Her? http://flickr.com/photos/jough/

The shot of the horses looks fine to me ; it's just movement.

However I've seen something that bothers me.

Have a look at the Schlos Burg 2 shot and you'll see some strange processing particularly amongst the trees.
If it was taken in NORMAL mode I'm surprised by the texture.

It looks like excessive noise processing and is not replicated in my shots with one exception and that's when in portrait mode against a green hedge.

It's still a fine camera and thanks for letting us see the photos ; I enjoyed them

Sorry to follow up my own post but ...
I've just noticed you post processed your pictures.

Sorry , but I think that may be why shots like the Boeing 737 are taking on painted effect.
It wouldn't look like that straight from my camera.

tinpusher said:

The shot of the horses looks fine to me ; it's just movement.

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blockies are NOT 'movement'. they are absolutely 100% jpg issues. I'm pretty sure.

as a test, open a picture on the web that is jpg progressive (3 passes or so of 'refinement' as it updates). hit the esc button (or halt the download) midway. you'll see the top part being pretty clear (smaller dot pitch) but the lower unfinished part has blockies. they haven't been 'refined' yet since you stopped the download.

THAT is the behavior I'm seeing on quite a few tz1 shots, when you look close enough.

--
bryan (pics @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/linux-works )
(pics and more @ http://www.netstuff.org ) ~

That means you can compare the sharpness in the center of the picture with the edges.

I have updated this "Testbilder SCHÄRFE MITTE RAND"
Now it is called "Vergleich der Bildmitte zum Rand" = Compare center to edges.

My opinion: Very good sharpness of the LEICA lens up to the edges

Jogy

http://www.pbase.com/jogy

linuxworks said:

as a test, open a picture on the web that is jpg progressive (3
passes or so of 'refinement' as it updates). hit the esc button
(or halt the download) midway. you'll see the top part being
pretty clear (smaller dot pitch) but the lower unfinished part has
blockies. they haven't been 'refined' yet since you stopped the
download.

THAT is the behavior I'm seeing on quite a few tz1 shots, when you
look close enough.

Click to expand...

Well not on shots from my TZ1.
I think the answer lies in post processing.

These pictures have considerably post processing, confirmed by Jogy (the photographer who made these pictures). See the post:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1033&message=18859439

He said: "You may not critize the TZ1 with example of a strong post-processed picture."

Saludos,
Alvaro.