Panasonic Lumix TZ1
Before leaving on a trip to Seattle, I wanted a new digital camera. My Sony VX200 takes wonderful pictures, but I needed something I could easily carry around with me. After using the VX, I've noticed that all digital cameras have that....digital camera look. Washed out images with sensors aimed at picture size not quality. I shopped online and in store for weeks, reading reviews online from reliable sources and also taking a SD card into Best Buy and Circuit City to take some pictures with the cameras and check the pictures at home and under my own conditions. Any picture you take in a store will look good when viewing the picture on a two inch LCD screen, the real test is checking the full size and using them outside in better lighting and with variables you can control.
After two weeks of driving all over the tri-cities looking at cameras, a woman at Best Buy noticed I was making customers flee from $400 10 megapixel cameras. She approached me and sternly asked "What do you know about cameras?", after telling her all the goods, she showed empathy because I knew about every model on the floor from front to back. She told me I should look into the Panasonic FX01, a sleek little six megapixel camera that was $350. After researching it and reading reviews, I was convinced, until I found its big brother, the TZ1.
Ergonomics/Design
The one thing that stands out the most is the front left side, which is a counter weight with the battery to balance the camera with one hand. This is a very useful design that gives you some extra stability when shooting quick snap shots, you don't feel like the camera's going to slip right out if someone bumps you. Not only does the camera have an ergonomic design for the fingers, it has nine small circles that act as another point of grip. It's obvious that the designers knew of the faults with poor stability in smaller cameras and decided to take an extra step. So if you're concerned about dropping this, you have a better chance of dropping your pants.
The back consists of seven buttons and a massive LCD screen. Make sure you invest in a plastic protector for this screen, it's beautiful and semi-scratch resistant, but after a day of normal pocket friction it will show light scratches. The buttons are very easy to use. There's a button to enter the menu, to turn on/off the flash, review the last picture taken, self timer, delete a picture, and a button to control the brightness of the LCD screen. Pretty simple and straight forward, you won't be confused after using the camera two or three times.
The left side of the camera has a small door which covers the data ports. On the top we have an A/V output to view your pictures on the television. The bottom plug is for USB to connect the supplied USB cable to uplink/load pictures to your computer. Both of these are mildly useless, unless you like to carry around an A/V and USB cable. The best route is to just use the SD card to transfer photos onto your computer, it doesn't require a driver and card readers are being built into most modern computers.
The right side is easier than your last girlfriend, all it has is a hole. A hole for the lens cap. Kinda tricky to thread through and tie up, but it's definitely not impossible. Make sure you add the cap, otherwise you're leaving yourself open to STDs like dust, water spots, and scratches. Just like your new girlfriend, you want to keep it covered, you don't know what you could get.
The top of this camera is where you'll mostly play around. The top has seven main points of interest which include; the microphone, the speaker, zoom controls, steady mode, the on/off switch, the shutter, and the setting wheel.
The microphone and speaker -obviously for the video feature.
Zoom controls/shutter - self explanitory, but the design is strange how it's no longer a traditional wedge that tilts left and right, it's now a wheel attached to the shutter button. The steady mode - has two options, nervous and parkinsons.
On/Off - do I really need to explain?
The setting wheel - this is one thing I was really sketchy about. It's nice to switch a setting THEN turn the camera on, but it's in such a weird spot. It feels like you could turn and break the dial sliding it into your pocket or even have it pop right off. None of these have happened yet, but my paranoia is still strong.
This camera has a sturdy bottom, a tight bottom, a bottom you'd like to take home to mom. On the left is a screw mount for a tripod and the right is another door that locks away the memory card and battery. The camera works well on a tripod just as any other camera. The battery/SD card housing is very nice, the door locks, the battery itself has a latch, and of course the SD card clicks in. Nice design, quick to take out for charging or uploading pictures.
Function
The functions on this camera are quite easy to use, turn the dial and start shooting. There's multiple scene modes and manual functions for this camera that make your shot as simple as the saying "point and shoot".
Video Mode;
Self explanitory. The video is 30FPS with a really slow zoom feature and audio. The audio is pretty bad, good enough to hear but not good enough to depend on. The video is decent for a digital camera.
Macro Mode;
The times I've used this to take pictures of insects or computer components I've learned that you're better off switching to easy mode and zooming in from 10FT back, you'll get the same focus. The focal range must be off for really small shit that you think macro mode would be suitable. Some shots will turn out, but only after atleast 10 shots. On occassion you will get a good shot the first few times, but don't expect the focusing to be right on the first time. You're better off with a real macro lense on a manual focusing camera.
Manual Mode;
It takes some decent pictures, gives you alot of options such as ISO sensitivity (80-800), white balance, aspect ratio (16:9's look excellent), picture size, picture quality, audio recording, metering mode, AF mode, CONT.AF, AF assist lamp, slow shutter, digital zoom, color effects, picture adjustments, flip animations. Alot of stuff on there that you'll really scratch your head about until you read the manual. To be honest I rarely use this mode, I've always been a "Simple Mode" shooter for day shots. Some of the options in Manual mode you may never use nor understand, that's alright. This is a essentially a point and shoot camera emulating some manual features that really don't come in handy.
Display Mode;
This is what you use to display your pictures on the LCD if you want to go out of your way instead of hitting the Review button and then moving left and right to next and previous pictures. The one thing this does have to offer are all of the other options. You can view the pictures in a slide show, you can bookmark a picture as a favorite, rotate the display AND pictures, DROF print (print to a dock?), protect the picture from anyone viewing your girlfriend naked, dub audio on a picture, resize it, trim it, convert the aspect ratio, copy pictures, and format. Honestly, do you really need this? All of these photo editing capabilities when you know things are so much easier to edit on the computer. It's overkill to say the least. The only way I could see this coming in handy is if you're viewing your pictures on the TV and want to edit them directly there. Otherwise, this is garbage.
Simple Mode;
Literal point and shoot, practically whipes your ass for you. Turn it on, switch to this and hit the shutter. Most pictures turn out great!
Scene Modes 1 & 2;
There's a shit load of scene modes in these. I couldn't name them all if I tried, nor would I want to, therefore I'm not going to. Everything from underwater mode to baby mode. The only useful modes in my opinion are the Starry Sky and Night Scenery because it's the only way to pick up long exposures.
Periphreals
The one thing I can say is that after buying a 1GB SD card, you're set. The battery is lithium so it comes with a charger so you don't have to worry about taking a loan out for AA batteries.
How long does the battery last?
The battery I've been using is still demanding a charge about every couple weeks with regular use. (I rarely use flash though) Takes a little while to charge, a few hours when you first get the camera. Otherwise it's not too long, it depends on how many bars you have. I took a trip to Muskegon over the summer when I first bought this camera and took about 90 pictures without having to recharge it or losing a bar on the battery indicator.
How many pictures can it hold?
The camera itself has 13MB of internal storage, which is useless when taking full sized pictures that are around 2MB. Get a 1GB SD card and you'll be able to hold 404 pictures. SD cards are fairly cheap, you can find a 1GB for about $20-$30 from time to time in sunday adds for places like Best Buy/Circuit City. Don't stop there, try TigerDirect.com or Newegg.com for some great deals. You might even find the Lumix TZ1 on there for cheap too!
Full technical information
So many other sites are listing the specs for every technical detail that most people could brush off as useless, but if you want to read up on these, check this site Dpreview.com
Final verdict
The Panasonic Lumix TZ1 is a great little camera that's small enough to fit in your pocket but big enough to feel like you're not going to flatten it with your tight jeans or fat ass, whatever you're into. It might be a little bulky, but you'll be satisfied with the shots that turn out. If you're traveling or want a camera to take some occassional shots of friends/family and do a little bit of amature photography partnered with photoshop, this camera will certainly do the job. "It's only 5 megapixels, that's lame!" First off, it takes a gross of 6 but cuts them down to 5. Secondly, do you need a 10MP image the size of your house? Even with these 5MP images I still have to cut them down to 640X480 for web use, so what's the point? The price on this camera has been falling further and further lately, so if you can get it for around $250-$300, you're getting your moneys worth.
If you'd like to see Sample Images of the TZ1
They can be found at PantherSweat.com and/or DeviantArt.com. I hope this honest review has helped if you're looking for a digital camera for the holidays.
