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Panasonic is one of the pioneers of the large optical zoom lens in a small camera form package. The TZ "Travel Zoom" series from the TZ1 to the latest TZ7, now changed to the ZS series all have one thing in common, an excellent range lens, from a nice 28mm wide angle to a 280mm telephoto with the 10x optical zoom. When purchasing any camera, the larger the optical zoom the better. This is "real" zooming power without sacrificing picture resolution or quality. Digital zoom only magnifies what you've already achieved optically, so your picture quality will suffer. The TZ3 offers acceptable resolution with its 7.2 megapixel sensor. In fact, the camera boasts a higher resolution, but reserves it when shooting at a 16x9 format. The camera gives you true 7.2 resolution in this wide angle format by providing the 8 megapixel sensor. That said the TZ3 is small enough to carry in a jacket pocket, yet boasts the power to capture those faraway shots you want to zoom in on. This series, like most, also offer motion cancelling ability. The camera will negate your handheld motion so that photos taken at lower light conditions without the use of a flash will be crystal clear, or the next thing to it. Most people can take a 1/30" photo and get good clarity. This feature allows you to be confident of sharpness at this and slightly lower speeds. This function works well and has 2 modes, one with continuous adjustment (eats more battery life) and the other brings motion to a standstill as you depress the exposure button. The camera offers a wide range of builtin "scenes" to get the best exposure possible. Up to 21 different scenes to chose from. You also have a programmable exposure that gives you a small amount of manual control over your exposure. The flash is about average, somewhat listless after 10 - 15 feet away. Red eye reduction flash does an average job of avoiding the "zombie" eye look. The video capability is impressive with full 30 frame per second capture. This will provide a smooth video rendition without the "choppy" look to your movie. The only downfall with the TZ3 is the lack of zooming ability while filming. You have to set your zoom level before recording. Later versions of the TZ series, and I believe the TZ1 have the feature allowing zooming while filming. As with any camera your photo/video capacity is limited by your recording media size. I used an SDHC (secure digital high capacity)8gb card that gives you a tremendous amount of recording power. Of course you'll want to research the difference in the 3 speed options of the SDHC configuration. Battery on the camera is a pesky Panasonic proprietary battery that means you can't substitute a common AA cell when on vacation. These batteries can be supplemented with aftermarket batteries with higher mHr rating for more photos per charge. The Panasonic batteries will give you about 250 - 300 photos each. All in all this is a handy camera that is perfect for situations requiring both photos and video recording. The color rendition is fairly true, but may benefit by adjusting the exposure from the "Standard" setting to "Vivid" depending on your personal preference. With new models out, this particular model is an excellent bargain. Enjoy!Read full review
Panasonic Lumix TZ3 is a small and versatile digital camera. It's very easy to use, the automatic functions are great for beginners and it's long optical zoom (10x) is fantastic. If you are looking for a cheap all-around camera and powerful zoom - TZ3 is your choice. Since it's 2010, TZ3 is a little out-dated in the means of that it's a model from 2007. Don't get me wrong - the camera is great but there just might be better models at the moment. So if you are looking for a new camera for an upcoming vacation or a camera which you can use in the next 3-4 years, you should definitely look for a current model from Canon/Nikon/Fujifilm/Panasonic. I'm still using my TZ3 and it's great. The battery lasts almost all day, the pics turn out quite good even in a full-automatic mode. The preset modes (Scenes) are great. You can get a 8, 15, 30 or even 60 seconds exposure by using different camera modes. Only disadvantage - no zoom during video recording. You will have to stop the movie - zoom - and then start filming. But it's not that annoying. Big sensor (most cams are 1/2.5 inch, TZ3 is 1/2.3 - which is very good along with it's 7 megapixels), large zoom, lightweight, great modes, great battery, and if you take the TZ3-A model you'll have that great sort-of-metallic blue colour from Panasonic. :)Read full review
I purchased this product because of a liking for Leica, and they are the ones who made the lens. Though this is a shallow reason, the camera does operate very nicely. Love the size/weight for a camera of it's age, and for one so small at the time 10X optical zoom was extremely good. In comparison it's one of the best in it's price range from what I've seen. I would recommend this to others. If you're a stickler for picture quality, zoom, video (and zooming while recording) then this is the camera for you to get. If you're a real stickler for true to life colors then maybe another camera is what you'll want. Some photo enthusiasts have said that this camera shows more of one color than another (red I believe) and that the edges of some items in focus are a little too soft. For the average user that wants a point and shoot with good features, this would be the camera to get. This camera would have gotten 5 stars if there were less newer cameras on the market.Read full review
Easy to use, takes good sharp pictures and has many features of much more expensive cameras. The main draw back for me, is i take most pictures horseback there fore i use only one hand to hold the camera when taking pictures. A lot of the time i push the menu button and have to reset to take the picture. I mainly bought this camera as it has many focus points and if a branch is in the foreground, the picture is not ruined because the camera focused on the closest object. My wildlife pictures are much sharper and in focus.
I bought this camera for collection. The Panasonic TZ series are small enough to carry in a pocket, otherwise, they have 10X zoom, this is great. The TZ3 has a large 3" LCD screen like TZ5 and ZS3, that I like the most. It takes good pictures but it don't have the IA mode like TZ4 and TZ5. The only thing I don't like is the date stamp print of TZ series.
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