Have had this TZ1 almost a month, taken maybe 700 pictures of mostly wildlife
and outside scenery. 1GB 120x SanDisk card holds 404 5MP pictures. Previous
digicam was Sony DSC S75 with 3MP, 3x zoom.
TZ1 is a great, light, small camera. There are indeed times when I'd prefer to
have a viewfinder, electronic or otherwise, to point and shoot without wearing
glasses. But I'm learning how to work around that. The good news is that it's so
small that you can drop it into a vest pocket and keep it handy nearly all the time.
For me, any larger camera such as Panasonic's FZ7 or even the old Sony would
simply get left at home 90% of the time.
Sometimes I miss having complete manual control of shutter or aperture. But
generally there's a Scene mode that does what I want, so I just need to learn
those.
The startup time is plenty fast enough; by the time the lens cap is off the camera
is usually ready to shoot. I have noticed that slipping it in or out of a pocket
sometimes turns the camera on and invariably changes the Scene selection
dial, as you would expect.
Shooting outside with Image Stabilization mode 2, fixed ISO = 100, and
PICT.ADJ. = VIVID, I have noticed no problems with noise. However I was
surprised to see that VIVID also gives you enhanced color [saturation], not just
less noise reduction! There is no option to save pictures in Raw format. I've seen
some nasty halo effects on over-exposed white edges.
The zoom is fast and wonderful. It's not perfect, though, as details in the margins
can be very slightly blurry at 10x telephoto even when the center is crisp and
clear. (No, it's not due to focus -- both center and margins were 1/4 mile away.)
I'd planned to use the Exposure Bracketing feature more, to take advantage of
PhotoShop's ability to extract details via exposure sets, but turns out the camera
does so good a job of picking the white balance and exposure and showing
details that there's not much sense in screwing around with Exposure
Bracketing.
One feature I'd not expected to use has become a favorite: Burst Mode. In
"Infinite" Burst mode the TZ1 just keeps taking full-resolution pictures as long as
you hold down the shutter, at the rate of (initially) about 1 picture per second
depending on the access speed of your card. For each shot it adjusts exposure;
in "High-speed" it just uses the same exposure for the whole Burst. I've found
this to be a great way to get very impressive pictures of birds in flight, practically
impossible without Burst Mode.
The Macro setting works, down to only 2 inches, and will still focus up to infinity if
you forget to switch out of Macro for standard pictures. Depth of field is pretty
slim, of course. And it sure would be nice to have some way to look at the LCD
display without getting your nose in the dirt while the camera is looking at a
grasshopper at ground level...
Sorry, I can't relate any results with audio, with video, anything in low light, nor
with flash, as I've not really tried them. Nor with the computer software, since I
use Macs.
Overall, so far, I'm happy. I do miss a viewfinder. But given a choice between
pocket-sized 10x zoom versus having a viewfinder, I'm pleased as punch with
the 10x zoom!
Problems:
- No viewfinder, optical or electronic
- Minor loss of details in margins at maximum zoom
- No manual shutter and aperture controls
- No swappable lenses
and outside scenery. 1GB 120x SanDisk card holds 404 5MP pictures. Previous
digicam was Sony DSC S75 with 3MP, 3x zoom.
TZ1 is a great, light, small camera. There are indeed times when I'd prefer to
have a viewfinder, electronic or otherwise, to point and shoot without wearing
glasses. But I'm learning how to work around that. The good news is that it's so
small that you can drop it into a vest pocket and keep it handy nearly all the time.
For me, any larger camera such as Panasonic's FZ7 or even the old Sony would
simply get left at home 90% of the time.
Sometimes I miss having complete manual control of shutter or aperture. But
generally there's a Scene mode that does what I want, so I just need to learn
those.
The startup time is plenty fast enough; by the time the lens cap is off the camera
is usually ready to shoot. I have noticed that slipping it in or out of a pocket
sometimes turns the camera on and invariably changes the Scene selection
dial, as you would expect.
Shooting outside with Image Stabilization mode 2, fixed ISO = 100, and
PICT.ADJ. = VIVID, I have noticed no problems with noise. However I was
surprised to see that VIVID also gives you enhanced color [saturation], not just
less noise reduction! There is no option to save pictures in Raw format. I've seen
some nasty halo effects on over-exposed white edges.
The zoom is fast and wonderful. It's not perfect, though, as details in the margins
can be very slightly blurry at 10x telephoto even when the center is crisp and
clear. (No, it's not due to focus -- both center and margins were 1/4 mile away.)
I'd planned to use the Exposure Bracketing feature more, to take advantage of
PhotoShop's ability to extract details via exposure sets, but turns out the camera
does so good a job of picking the white balance and exposure and showing
details that there's not much sense in screwing around with Exposure
Bracketing.
One feature I'd not expected to use has become a favorite: Burst Mode. In
"Infinite" Burst mode the TZ1 just keeps taking full-resolution pictures as long as
you hold down the shutter, at the rate of (initially) about 1 picture per second
depending on the access speed of your card. For each shot it adjusts exposure;
in "High-speed" it just uses the same exposure for the whole Burst. I've found
this to be a great way to get very impressive pictures of birds in flight, practically
impossible without Burst Mode.
The Macro setting works, down to only 2 inches, and will still focus up to infinity if
you forget to switch out of Macro for standard pictures. Depth of field is pretty
slim, of course. And it sure would be nice to have some way to look at the LCD
display without getting your nose in the dirt while the camera is looking at a
grasshopper at ground level...
Sorry, I can't relate any results with audio, with video, anything in low light, nor
with flash, as I've not really tried them. Nor with the computer software, since I
use Macs.
Overall, so far, I'm happy. I do miss a viewfinder. But given a choice between
pocket-sized 10x zoom versus having a viewfinder, I'm pleased as punch with
the 10x zoom!
Problems:
- No viewfinder, optical or electronic
- Minor loss of details in margins at maximum zoom
- No manual shutter and aperture controls
- No swappable lenses