This camera succeeds brilliantly at what it sets out to do. If I've learned anything in my research on small cameras, it's that a small camera, indeed, any device, can't be all things to all people. This camera has a powerful wide angle to 10X zoom lens packed into a pretty small package, so of course there are going to be limitations, and the limitation for this camera, in my opinion, is that it is not a camera to use in low light settings. Hardly any small camera is, other than a camera like my Fujifilm F20, which I will keep forever for its great sensitivity in poor lighting. The TZ3 however takes great shots in daytime, and provides excellent wide-to-zoom flexibility for a pocket camera.
It has a bunch of user-friendly features as well including IS, a giant high-res screen on the back, and I think very good resolution at ISO 100. And Panasonic has priced it aggressively, making some of the Canons seem quite pricey for cameras with fewer features. I'd buy it again, but hello, it's a pocket camera, not a DSLR. Use appropriate criteria when judging it. BTW, "another review site" had sample pics for this camera that compared more favorably with Canon and other cameras. It made me wonder if maybe this site's reviewer got a defective camera, or somehow otherwise didn't get representative shots. I thought that with a little sharpening in Photoshop, the TZ3's shots looked better than the Canon SD800 did after applying noise reduction.
Problems:
Somewhat short battery life.
It has a bunch of user-friendly features as well including IS, a giant high-res screen on the back, and I think very good resolution at ISO 100. And Panasonic has priced it aggressively, making some of the Canons seem quite pricey for cameras with fewer features. I'd buy it again, but hello, it's a pocket camera, not a DSLR. Use appropriate criteria when judging it. BTW, "another review site" had sample pics for this camera that compared more favorably with Canon and other cameras. It made me wonder if maybe this site's reviewer got a defective camera, or somehow otherwise didn't get representative shots. I thought that with a little sharpening in Photoshop, the TZ3's shots looked better than the Canon SD800 did after applying noise reduction.
Problems:
Somewhat short battery life.