Weighing in at half a pound with a Leica 28mm wide angle 10x zoom lens, the TZ3 packs a serious punch. But do the images stand up to the beefy stats?
Review summary of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3:
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 We loved the images we got with the TZ3, but we imagine that a couple factors, namely its bulk and weight, would prevent us from taking it everywhere. We loved the video mode, especially the high resolution, and also loved the variety of aspect ratios and resolutions for still images. If you can get over the size/weight issues, the TZ3 is an excellent camera that takes great pictures in most conditions. Release: April 2007. Price: $350.
Pros: Great photos in most conditions, SD memory, fantastic lens and zoom
Cons: Battery charger is inconvenient, extremely heavy
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Full review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3:
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Design – Good
The first thing we noticed when we picked up the TZ3 was its LCD. The large 3-inch display dominates the rear panel of the camera, but also curiously has an odd asymmetrical border. For simply aesthetic reasons, we didn’t like it, but it didn’t affect the camera’s performance from what we saw, and pictures looked impressive on the display’s 230,000-pixels. It would have been nice to see a higher resolution though, as 230,000 is pretty standard for a 2.5-inch display. One feature we absolutely loved was the LCD mode selector, which allows the user to select between normal, high power (for glare-inducing conditions) and high angle, for when shooting at an angle that distorts the view of the LCD (perfect for concerts). We’re sure high power drains the battery, but we love the fact that we have the option, and wonder why we don’t see this on every camera.
For its size, the TZ3 might be the heaviest camera we’ve ever held. Weighing half a pound even without the (admittedly light) 1000 mAh Li-Ion battery, it felt sturdy and well-made, but our arms definitely got tired holding up the camera to shoot video at a concert.
We weren’t too fond of the button placement; the four-button directional pad was tiny and oddly placed. It seems Panasonic jammed it in the bottom right corner of the back panel so that they could put a finger grip at the top right corner. This makes sense, because the camera is quite heavy, but it makes for some awkward navigation of menus. The on/off switch is just that, a switch, as opposed to a button. We’re not opposed to this design choice, but this particular switch moves too easily, and several times we found our camera in the on position after taking it out of our bag, which could get troublesome for battery life. We liked the dedicated anti-shake button located on the top of the camera, but wish it was on the opposite side of the shutter/zoom button. We also like selector wheels on top as supposed to on the back panel, but the TZ3’s was problematic, as it was way too far from our thumb for one-handed switching.
Externally, the TZ3 isn’t much to look at; we understand the massive 28mm wide-angle 10x zoom lens comes with certain design limitations, and with that in mind, Panasonic did a decent job. At least it was ergonomically sound, because if it wasn’t, we’re not sure we could hold it single-handedly for very long. We were surprised that the tripod mount was off-center from the lens, though, especially with so much empty space on the bottom part of the camera. Maybe it was the only place to fit it without interfering with the lens hardware, but it certainly didn’t help.
Shooting Features – Very Good
We’ll admit it: we’re a sucker for widecreen. So when a camera takes widescreen shots, we’re estatic; however, it usually means shooting in the lowered resolution of 1920x1080. While great for video (1080p equivalent), it seems ridiculous to shoot images at barely 2MP when it’s capable of 7MP shots. Thankfully, not only does the TZ3 offer three different aspect ratios (4:3, 3:2 and 16:9), but it also offers resolutions ranging from VGA to 7MP (6MP for 16:9).
The 20 different scene modes were about average, but where the TZ3 separates itself is with its SCN1 and SCN2 toggle switch. All the scene modes in each setting are the same, but since the camera remembers the last scene selected, it’s possible to set up the camera for easy switching. For example, for nighttime shooting, you can set SCN1 for “night scenery” and SCN2 for “night portrait,” toggling back and forth depending on whether or not there are people in the frame.
The clipboard feature was one of the more interesting if puzzling features on the camera. Billed by Panasonic to be used for “timetables and maps,” clipboard mode takes 1MP or 2MP images, stored separately on the camera’s internal memory for easy access. While we couldn’t see a practical use for us, it certainly worked as advertised.
One feature we actually found practical was the ability to create still photos from movies recorded on the camera. Usually requiring some video software (or at the very least a solid knowledge of print screen options), we liked how easy it was to grab stills from our movies.
Image Quality - Very Good
Despite only having a 7.2MP sensor, shots on the TZ3 came out excellent in both good and mediocre conditions. As we proved with the 8MP Olympus SP-560UZ, it's all about the lens, baby. With only an average sensor, the Leica 28mm wide-angle 10x zoom does all the heavy lifting. Our sample shots were taken on a day where the whether in New York City was pretty crummy; lots of clouds, light rain and not a lot of sunlight...perfect conditions to test the limitations of a camera.
Samples:
Shot taken with sport modeThis shot was taken in full-motion, with both the taxi and the SUV going about 30 mph. The camera focused on the taxi, which is in the focal point of the shot, and the SUV is blurred, as it had already left the focal area. You can easily see the lack of light and the wet pavement, signifying the poor weather conditions. We were very pleased with this image.
Shot taken with night scenery modeFor this image, we tried an ascending subject with a converging point (in this case a church steeple), to see how the camera would focus on one object with a varying distance from the lens. It is obvious that the portion of the church closest to the camera is the clearest, but the level of detail further up the wall is extremely impressive, especially considering the conditions.
Shot taken with full autoOddly enough (or obviously enough, depending on how you look at it), the fully automatic setting produced the worst of our sample images. While the colors are all accurate, there is a lot of "noise," and we struggled to find even on area in the frame that was perfectly focused. This isn't particularly troublesome (that's why the scene modes are there), but still, we would have liked to see a little better from the fully automatic setting.
Shot taken with scenery modeOur favorite of the sample images, this was the only image that we didn't expect to come out well. But we loved the way the TZ3 captured the neon lights in the signs, and only the extreme edges of the frame are even slightly out of focus.
The camera isn’t capable of zooming while recording, which was disappointing, but we were impressed with the variety of frame rates and resolutions, especially since it shoots in 30fps in widescreen. The video looks great, thanks mostly to the Leica 28mm wide angle lens, and shooting from odd angles is made even easier by the aforementioned LCD options. We would have liked to see HD video, but its not ubiquitous just yet, so we won’t fault Panasonic for it.
Surprisingly enough, the in-camera editing options were pretty sparse; they were limited to resizing, cropping and aspect ratio conversion. We normally don’t like or use in-camera editing features, so this didn’t terribly bother us, but for those who do, it could be a deal-breaker. Needless to say, its something that cameras in its class offer, so the TZ3 should as well.
Image Transfer - Good
The TZ3 works as a removable drive, so users simply need to plug their camera into their computer to access the pictures using Explorer on Windows or Finder on a Macintosh. But for those who don’t already have their own photo-editing software, Panasonic included ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5. The bundled software lets you crop, rotate, mirror your image, and has rectangular, circular, polygonal and magic wand selection tools. It also has red eye removal, brightness/contrast adjustment, color adjustment and blur/sharpening tools. We liked that when a tool was selected, rather than giving us a bunch of numbers or a graph, it showed us 9 examples of the same photo with different levels of enhancement. Definitely a plus for the photo-editing novice who is most likely to use this software. The software also has built-in printing and e-mail options. The included Photobase 2.5 is a pretty barebones piece of photo album software, and while it certainly performs its stated task—to organize photos into albums—we can think of quite a few better options, even for free software. Aesthetically its not that pleasing to the eye but we suppose it does the trick. Transfers with the USB 2.0 cable were fast, although a more common USB connector would certainly have been appreciated. We liked that it was compatible with SD and SDHC cards, but were surprised by a warning sheet included with the camera:
“In motion picture mode, when you set the picture quality to [30fpsVGA] or [30fps16:9], we recommend using a High Speed SD Memory Card/SDHC Memory Card with “10MB/s” or greater displayed on the package”
Apparently the camera has a tendency to stop recording for no reason when using a non-10MB/s card. This never happened to us, but is still troublesome, especially considering Panasonic chose to include documentation warning users of this problem.
Accessories - Good
Accessories bundled with the TZ3 were pretty standard, including a USB 2.0 cable, an A/V cable, a wrist strap, battery with carrying case, a battery charger and a software CD-ROM. Quite possibly the most annoying and inconvenient way to charge a battery, the external battery charger bothers us. We prefer a dock that charges as well as syncs our camera, but at the very least we’ll settle for a charging USB cable. The optional accessories, however, include an AC adaptor (something we would have appreciated had it been included), a leather case and an underwater marine case. The included manual was also extremely helpful, grouping content based on practical usage as opposed to simply listing every feature.
Price and availability
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 will start selling for $350 () in April 2007.
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