Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5A

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5A 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Blue)

Product Description

9-megapixel effective recording * 10X optical zoom (4X digital/40X total zoom) * 3" color LCD screen with automatic 10-step brightness adjustment * optical image stabilization * wide-angle lens for shooting landscapes and large groups * 35mm equivalent focal length: 28-280mm * top JPEG resolution: 3648 x 2736 * face detection adjusts focus and exposure settings for better portraits * scene recognition identifies shooting conditions and selects optimal settings * intelligent ISO detects subject movement and adjusts camera settings to prevent blur * high sensitivity mode for better low-light and flash-free shooting * variable ISO sensitivity (film speed equivalent) settings * variable burst mode lets you select shooting resolution and speed (up to 10 frames per second) *
Product Details

    * Amazon Sales Rank: #89 in Camera & Photo
    * Color: Blue
    * Brand: Panasonic    * Model: DMC-TZ5A
    * Released on: 2008-03-07
    * Dimensions: 4.13" h x 1.44" w x 2.34" l, .70 pounds
    * Display size: 3
    * Included Software: Yes

Features

    * 9-megapixel resolution captures enough detail for poster-sized prints
    * 10x optical zoom Leica DC lens; Face Detection
    * New Panasonic Venus Engine IV improves noise reduction, elevates the detection accuracy and corrective effects
    * 3.0-inch LCD; Mega O.I.S. and Intelligent ISO
    * Captures images to SD memory cards (not included)

Editorial Reviews

Manufacturer Description

The 9.1-megapixel Panasonic DMC-TZ5 packs a 28mm wide-angle, 10x optical zoom Leica DC lens in a compact design, ideal for the active photographer who needs a versatile camera. By combining a 28mm wide-angle lens, which lets you capture a wider-framed shot when compared to a traditional 35mm camera, with the TZ-Series 10x optical zoom, you're empowered to take expanded shots, both wide and far. Panasonic's Intelligent Auto technologies are also expanded, with new Intelligent Exposure and Digital Red-eye Correction.

With the addition of Intelligent Exposure and Digital Red-eye Correction, Panasonic's Advanced Intelligent Auto mode consists of seven intuitive technologies, all which are specifically designed to help make photo-taking an enjoyable and seamless process unnoticed by the consumer -- helping them to take clear photos. When in Advanced Intelligent Auto mode, the following technologies all operate automatically; no settings need to be manually changed.

Also new to the TZ5 is the Venus Engine IV, Panasonic's new high-performance image processing LSI. The Venus Engine IV produces higher-quality pictures than its predecessor, the Venus Engine III, by using a more advanced signal processing system. The new Venus Engine IV also improves noise reduction, elevates the detection accuracy and corrective effects in both Mega O.I.S. and Intelligent ISO and reduces the shutter release time lag. Both models also incorporate Intelligent LCD, which detects the lighting condition and controls the brightness level of the LCD in 11 fine steps, to offer optimal clarity in any situation, whether dark or light; indoors or outdoors. With a newly developed 460,000-dot high resolution in the TZ5's 3.0-inch LCD, photos can be easily viewed on the display, regardless of the shooting environment.

The TZ5 is also capable of recording 720p high-definition motion pictures, and because of its support of SD memory cards, is easily compatible with Panasonic Viera plasma HDTVs that have an integrated SD memory card slot, so viewing photos is simple. Also, with the newly added HD component output capability, users can also connect the TZ5 to an HDTV and watch a slideshow complete with mood-appropriate music, choosing from natural, slow, urban and swing.

Lumix DMC-TZ5A Highlights

Intelligent Exposure With this new feature, photos will no longer be under- or over-exposed. Instead, the TZ5 instantly analyzes the framed image and adjusts the brightness in areas that are too dark because of dim lighting, backlighting or the use of the flash. The camera will automatically adjust the brightness accordingly.

Digital Red-eye Correction This feature helps to eliminate the red-eye problem that sometimes results when taking flash shots at the night. Incorporated into the built-in flash, the camera emits a small preliminary flash before the main flash, detects red-eye and will digitally correct it.

Mega O.I.S. Gyrosensors detect hand-shake and the lens system shifts to compensate, helping to prevent hand-shake from creating a blurry image.

Intelligent ISO With Intelligent ISO, the TZ5 can determine if the photo subject is moving and change the ISO setting and shutter speed accordingly, thus giving a blur-free photo.

Intelligent Scene Selector Intelligent Scene Selector senses the ambient conditions, recognizes the shooting environment and will automatically select the appropriate scene mode from: Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode. This intuitive technology, helps you use the most common scene modes that are built into the camera, but often go unused, without making any manual adjustments.

Face Detection Panasonic's Face Detection detects faces anywhere in the frame and automatically chooses the optimal focus and exposure settings so portraits come out clear and crisp. Detecting up to 15 faces, Panasonic's Face Detection can even track a face if the subject is moving.

Continuous AF The Continuous AF (auto focus) system maintains focus on the subject even without pressing a shutter button halfway, thus minimizing the AF time.

Customer Reviews

panasonic camera4
this camera is really nice! Takes beautiful pictures. Easy to use, lots of options on menu that are easy to use as well. It is my first digital without a view finder.....a learning experience for me. I think the only improvement panasonic could make is to add screen protectors to the packaging.

Versatile, sophisticated, compact; but a few points to improve4
Zoom x10 with image stabilizer - great! (even x13.5 with 5M resolution)
Resolution 9M - sounds good, but quite meaningless with the noise level.
"Intelligent auto" mode actually works very good, saves much time.
Sound is noisy, maybe due to the upward location of the microphone.
Compactness makes a big difference, you just carry it with you any time.
Video size is huge due to the awkward MJPEG format, I convert to MPEG4.
Lack of reclining screen is quite inconvenient in difficult positions.
Overall, a great camera for any condition, just don't use high ISO values.

very pleased with the purchase4
This camera shipped to me 24 hrs after buying it her on Amazon in perfect condition. I opened the box and immediately put the battery in the charger. After a day of fully reading the manual and having the camera right next to me to see what the manual was describing - I was ready to go. I've been out now shooting pictures with this camera for 3 straight weeks with my tripod and have had excellent results. I'm a tad bummed however that you cannot set the aperture when taking 15sec, 30sec or even 60sec exposures :( this means that you can only really take open exposures of night time scenarios. Also, the colors this camera captures are great for $300 - but nothing compared to an SLR so don't fool yourself. Lightweight, convenient, beautiful, and quick/responsive AND a FANTASTIC ZOOM is all I can really say for this 4 star camera. E N J O Y !