antoineb

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Do NOT buy this camera (and this comes from a an-Lumix fan)

Aug 17, 2007

Rating: 5 out of 10 (Average)
Pros: 10x zoom in relatively pocketable package
Cons: HUGE NOISE means over half of images turn out poor / unuseable
Opinion:
I have been a fan of Panasonic/Lumix cameras for a few years, from my FZ-5 later upgraded to an FZ-7. I loved the simple and logical menus, I loved the design, I loved the features, and I found the image quality to be quite competitive.

The TZ-3 I've just bought is however, a HUGE disappointment. I'd say it produces about two-thirds poor shots, and even the acceptable shots looks pretty poor when examined just a bit closely. No I'm not comparing to an SLR, I'm just comparing to decent compacts. But the TZ-3 is not one.

Please, please, Panasonic: could you take the same camera, and put in it a DECENT chip, and a decent image processing chain? I have now wasted about 500 USD. Why wasted? Because I'll probably go back to using my Canon IXUS - less zoom, but at least most of the images look crisp.


IN MORE DETAIL:
I've just bought a TZ-3, thinking of it as my new social, pocketable shooter. I HAD read reviews and was ready for SOME noise, SOME colour smearing / bleeding.

However it quickly became clear, after the first couple hundred shots, that there was going to be a LOT of noise, colour smearing, bleeding.

Cute picture of kids? Too bad, even at ISO 100 (minimum), and on postcard-sized, the face looks like watercolour. Other picture? Ooops too bad the autofocus failed despite good light and close range. Ooops again so much noise (in daylight, at ISO 100) that the hair looks like colour spots, no texture.

Pictures of uniform masses (buildings)? Yellowish dots show up randomly, even at ISO 100, even in broad dailigh, on a supposedly uniform frey aluminium surface on a brand new building. This worsens at 200 and 400 obviously.

Pictures of a white wall? At ISO 100, the good old yellowish dots. Ditto at ISO 200. Then at 400 for some reason, they're gone though replaced by grey dots. Weird.

Picture of a grey stone statue at 10x zoom? At ISO 100 the autofocus failed, it's blurry. At 200 there's a lot of colour noise. At 400 the autofocus failed again.

Picture of a building? At ISO 100 the blinds already don't look crips, while the yellowish dots show up all over the grey stone facade. At ISO 200 the yellowish dots are bigger and the blinds look even worse. At ISO 400 you've lost even more detail - as for the yellowish dots, they've been replaced by greyish dots of noise. Weird

Overall: CANNOT use this camera for ANY decent shots. ONE EXCEPTION, the macro shots generally were pretty good. But that's quite limited. HUGE disappointement I'm afraid. What were Panasonic thinking when they released this product? There was no rush, no one else has a 10x pocketable zoom, so why not spend a bit more time to reach decent quality output? I'm very disappointed.