The various AF area-mode selections are pretty practical as well, though more for limiting the range of subjects the AF system chooses to focus on than for speed. For instance, the 9-area AF will frequently choose incorrect subjects, where the 3-area AF, which limits the focus areas to the middle row of the frame, will probably choose correctly more often (since most people simply point at their subject, which puts it in the middle of the frame). On one hand, the TZ5's face detection seems more robust and faster than other implementations I've seen; on the other, it still doesn't seem to be more efficient or easier than using center-spot focusing and recomposing.
Performance turns out to be this camera's Achilles' heel. By the numbers, it's just a tad slow--nothing egregious, but overall more sluggish than its competitors, and about the same as the TZ3. In CNET Labs' performance tests, it took about 2.4 seconds for the TZ5 to wake up and shoot. Time to focus and snap under optimal conditions ran about 0.7 second, while that ran 1 second in lower-contrast circumstances. It required 2.1 seconds to shoot 2 sequential shots, which bumped to 2.5 seconds with the flash enabled. The TZ5 has two burst-shooting modes, a standard and Free; the latter adjusts white balance and exposure between shots. The standard, faster mode is fixed to a 3-shot maximum at highest quality, and tested out at 2 frames per second. We didn't test Free, which can shoot until the card fills, because it's slow enough that the buffer never becomes the bottleneck. The battery is CIPA rated at about 300 photos, a quite reasonable figure for its class.
The TZ5's large LCD remains viewable in bright sunlight, and Panasonic has a specific setting that improves viewing when holding the camera off-angle, above your head. However, in addition to modest test performance, I frequently found the TZ5's autofocus behavior slowing me down. With point-and-shoot models I try to prefocus as frequently as possible, since that speeds up shooting. For whatever reason, either a twitchy forefinger or odd shutter behavior, the TZ5 often insisted on refocusing just before shooting even after I'd prefocused. And not just a minor tweak--occasionally it would hunt the entire focus range again. And every now and then it shot without locking focus at all.
Overall, despite excessive image noise on certain types of photos, the TZ5 produces very pleasing photos with which most shooters will be happy. Even in bright, contrasting light exposures look good, colors appear saturated and relatively accurate, and when it focuses correctly, the TZ5 produces sharp photos that you can print as least as big as 11inches by 14 inches. (For more on photo quality, click through to the slide show.)
In addition, the TZ5 delivers very nice movies--provided you don't put your fingers over the microphone--in both the wide-aspect 1,280x720 and VGA modes. (Connecting directly to an HDTV to view the 16:9 recordings requires an optional, proprietary component video cable.) Plus, unlike many competitors, it can zoom while recording over its entire range. It records QuickTime Motion JPEG movies, with a 2GB maximum on clip size; clips run about 11 minutes per gigabyte for the HD clips and 28 minutes per gigabyte for VGA. Panasonic also recommends a 10MB/sec or faster SD card for movie capture.
Although we've yet to test the TZ4, based on its specifications and my experiences with the TZ5, you may be better off saving the $50 to $100 and sticking with the cheaper model. Still, as far as truly compact megazooms go, these two are pretty much your only options, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 acquits itself well.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Time to first shot | |
Flash shot-to-shot time | |
Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Where to buy
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 (Black):
$349.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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