Customer Reviews:
 slow, slow, slow October 1, 2008
D. Husch (Berkeley, CA USA)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
The main reason for getting a camera with a 10x zoom is to take pictures of birds and wildlife from faraway. Often when you see that lovely bird you only have 3 seconds until she turns and flys away. So its really critical that everything about the camera aid to getting the perfect shot quickly.
I found everything about the TZ5 to be slow. Power on 2 secs, Power off 1.5 secs. Power on, zoom to 10x, focus, shoot about 8 seconds. Time between photos 2 seconds, time between flash photos 6 seconds.
On the top is an options ring to select photo, video, or special photo modes. If you are storing the camera in your pocket, its easy for this ring to turn. So next time you turn the camera on and are ready to photgraph that perfect eagle with winds spread, and just get the message, "dial is in wrong position". A similar problem occurs with the record/playback switch. If you forgot to leave the camera in record mode, there is another 10 seconds while our beautiful eagle is flying away.
Yes i recently went on a trip, and i saw a lot of beautiful birds, but i missed literally 60% of the good shots due to these design issues.
An SLR camera such as the Canon Digital Rebel EOS would be good for getting fast response.
Another point is that this camera has an externally telescoping lens. This is a big reason for the delays in powering up and down as the lens has to pop out and in each time, which also consumes significant battery power. My previous camera, Sony Cybershot DSCT300, had a fully internal lens system, and it could take the first picture in 1 second. On our tourbus we went sandboarding and everyone got covered with sand, and sand in all the pockets. Almost everyperson who had an external lens (including my tz5) had malfunctions with the lens system after. So dont take a camera with a externally telescoping lens to the beach, unless you are prepared to be super carefull.
 Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5S 9MP Digital Camera September 30, 2008
Vigna Alessandro
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Perfect camera, zoom very good, not too big, suggested upgrade from a compact. User friendly. Buy it!
 Excellent September 30, 2008
Ray D
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am no expert at photography and bought this camera for use primarily while traveling. We chose this camera because of the wide angle lens and the 10x zoom. We travel frequently and photograph a lot of buildings and often use the zoom to capture scenes from a distance or from behind a crowd of people. We are extremely satisfied with the quality of the pictures. The intelligent picture setting is sometimes less than ideal, but the other options seem to compensate well in those situations without requiring fine-tune adjustments. I often take photos with the flash disabled and the camera is able to capture pictures in low light that are not excessively dark or blurry. I originally looked for a camera with an optical view finder, but I'm not missing it. The battery life is more than adequate even using the display and so far there has been enough light to allow for proper aiming.
Perfect All-Around Camera September 29, 2008
Robert Wren (MD USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great camera. Awesome features. The image stabilization works great. Colors are spot on. Battery life is very good. Size is great for carrying around while sight seeing or for special events.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 September 29, 2008
Terrance Rudd (Fort Collins, CO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am impressed and at times, amazed by the quality and value packed into this camera. I think it is generally intuitive to use but the users manual is good for resolving features I am not familiar with. There is also an excellent Youtube video by CameraLabs to get you started. The Zoom is quite good, the lense and image quality is good, the Optical Image Stabilization is very good. The only think I can complain about is that the camera fools around a bit trying to focus with larger Optical Zoom settings. This is frustrating for action shots. I have learned to focus before action happens but sometimes that means leaving the camera on for long periods of time between shots. Still, this is far and away the best of the 6 digitals I have owned in the last several years and I am quite happy with it.
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