The TZ3's pictures looked good and were almost completely free of lens distortion. This greatly impressed us, as most ultrazoom lenses -- especially those with 28mm-equivalent wide-angles -- tend to heavily distort images at their extreme settings. Fuzzy artefacts obscured certain finer points, but photos were otherwise colourful and detailed.
Noise was evident, even at the camera's lowest sensitivity of ISO 100, but the Panasonic keeps it well under control up to ISO 400, where the amount of finer detail in our images diminished further. Even at ISO 800, the TZ3 produces usable images, though fine detail and shadow detail decrease slightly compared to those taken at ISO 400.
The noise turned into a sea of static at ISO 1,250, taking away most fine detail and shadow detail, though you should still be able to eke out a usable 100x150mm (4x6-inch) print. Of course, it's best to stick with lower ISOs whenever possible.
Conclusion
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 puts a lot of
lens into a small package. The wide-angle, high-zoom camera performs
well and takes acceptable shots, though it's hardly perfect. Its higher
resolution, wider lens and larger screen make it better than its
predecessor in nearly all categories.
Unfortunately, it misses one of the TZ1's most fun shooting modes, and it keeps some minor image issues that, while improved over the TZ1, still cause problems. All that said, the DMC-TZ3 offers great value for the money and easily trumps most other superzooms on size.
Edited by Philip RyanAdditional editing by Nick Hide
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User reviews2
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sthgloshi 10 September 2009
Good: A tough little camera takes the knocks of my job and still comes back smiling
Bad: Top settings dial easily moved, unexplained blurring of photos sometimes, battery life
Comment: I am a Surveyor and use a camera daily for 3 or 4 surveys. I needed high optical zoom, wide angle, high resolution capbility in a small pocket size unit.
The spec of this unit was the best on the market at the time 2 years ago when I bought it, although it has been upstaged by other models it is still my preferred camera.
I have kicked the stuffing out of it quite literally by dropping it numerous times onto hard floors and several times from a height of at least 2.5m onto carpeted floors, and still it keeps going.
On average I am taking 150 photos per day sometomes 6 days per week, over two years thta's an amazing 3,000 photos (ish) per month.
I have bought a new one as backup due to my scratching the lens.
I cannot rate this highly enough, if you need a tough workhorse of a camera consider this!!
George123 5 April 2009
Good: Good photo quality, compact, robust, simple to use, good optical zoom
Bad: photos sometimes blurred
Comment: What I need is a good workhorse that I can slip in my pocket and take lots of clear and detailed digital photographs on construction sites. This works well (generally) . I've now had it for a couple of years
It's reasonably tough, it slips in the pocket, it gets good detail, and it's pretty well foolproof.
The main drawback I have found is that the photographs tend to be a little blurry at times, sometimes this seems to be due to the automatic focusing,and sometimes to handshake. I do miss the traditional viewfinder I had on my previous Pentax Optio, it is much easier to hold the camera still against one's face. That said, the display screen is excellent.
One further quibble, the control wheel that sets the specific function rotates rather easily, and sometimes slips off the setting. It should be just a little firmer so that it stays where it is wanted.
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