Camera Labs

Hi everyone, a quick note to let you know we've just posted our full review and video tour of Panasonic's Lumix DMC-TZ5 - it's the successor to the hugely popular TZ3 which packed a 10x optical zoom into a compact body. The new TZ5 adds a more detailed screen, HD movie recording and more besides...

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Panas ... _TZ5_TZ15/

Gordon

PS - I think this is also one of the first reviews of this camera...

Good review, this is the compact I'm thinking about buying

Although more on the HD video, perhaps a sample [obviously file size is an issue] would be nice.

Looks like a good camera, and i would prefer it to the canon powershot, for size and HD video.

Is the sound any good on it?

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Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

Hi Daniel, sadly the sound is the same as the TZ3 - and most other compacts - ie, pretty poor. As I said in the review, the HD mode on this may be better than its standard def modes, but they're still all below what you'd get on a dedicated camcorder.

As for posting the video, the example I played in the video tour mesaures 75MB. You fancy hosting the file? It would wipe out our bandwidth overnight!

Hello Gordon,

Thanks for this long review. Very very interesting (and not only because it is indeed the first one )

I already own the tz3, I'm very happy with it (even though inside pics are quite an issue because using higher iso than 200 is almost impossible).

I'm wondering whether I should sell it and buy the new tz5. I know it won't change much for inside pics, but some new features still are interesting.
I think we are quite a lot of people in the same situation, and your review helps a lot to decide. Something is missing though : do you think it would be possible to have some comparisons pics between tz3 and tz5? Just the same as you did with the f30...

About sound in videos, there is really no improvment comparing to the tz3? That's a shame, because sounds was really poor, with a huge background noise, even in a quite environment... And in some "pre-reviews", they said it was better with tz5...

Concerning the hd video, I can try to host it (not sure it will work but I can try). Can you put it on www.gigasize.com or something like that so that I can get it?

Thanks for everything

Yeah Gordon, I'd be glad to host it for you, I have a good few Terrabytes of bandwidth spare

_________________
Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

Daniel, are you serious? Remember it would only take 13 downloads to consume 1GB of bandwidth...

Hi pa159! Thanks for the tip - I'll check out GigaSize...

Sadly the sound on the TZ5 during videos was still poor in my view. So it really boils down to how much you want those new features like HD recording, a more detailed screen (in playback) and stuff like face and scene detection in auto. If I owned a TZ3 though, I'd probably stick with it...

so 13 views per gigabyte, and my limit is 6TB

so thats 6000x13=78,000 views.

Sounds fine to me

Not sure how you want to send me the file, PM me perhaps (about sending obviously, not actually sending it though a pm LOL)

_________________
Canon EOS 5DmkII + BG-E6 + Canon EOS 40D + BG-E2N + Canon EOS 33
Canon 17-40 F/4L USM + Canon 24-70 F/2.8L USM + Canon 28mm F/1.8 USM + Canon 70-200 F/2.8L USM IS + Canon 85mm F/1.8 USM
Canon Speedlite 580EX II + Canon Speedlite 540EZ + 2 x Nikon SB-80DX
Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger - 5 x Cactus V2s Wireless Reciever

MY FLICKR!

Gordon, I have a noise question on your noise experience with this camera, especially compared to the F30. I'm an F30 owner and it's well known as the class leader in compact noise performance. In your ISO comparisons on the review I didn't see that much of a quality difference up to ISO 400 (and arguably ISO 800). The biggest differences were color rendition and a bit worse lens performance on the Panny (expected for that huge of a range in a compact so I have no problem with that).

Would you say the difference is similar in mid to lower light? I've always wanted a Panny and almost got the TZ3 but the awful noise performance and blurring at high ISO turned me off too much. Looks like the TZ5 has remedied a lot of this. If so, I'm getting it as soon as it launches in the US.

That's an interesting question, and comparison pics between tz5 and tz3 would be really great to be able to see if the tz5 is doing better or not. But as Gordon didn't reply my post on this question, I guess it is not possible

I'm also very interested in comparision between TZ3 and TZ5 picture quality. TZ3 was known for "not-so-good" noise reduction even at low ISO and Panasonic agressively market improvements in this area in TZ5. But is it true?

Hi Player,

I'm afraid I can't answer your question but in the meantime may I wish you a warm welcome to the CameraLabs forums.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hi everyone, I'm afraid I didn't have a TZ3 on hand for a direct side by side comparison, but many of our gallery and test shots are of the same subjects - albeit on different days - so feel free to open windows with the TZ3 and TZ5 results or galleries for comparisons.

Let us know what YOU think about the differences between them and the F30...

Gordon

Thank you Bob very much I'm lurking CameraLabs for quite some time, but rather silently till now Anyway, really great, high quality content site.



Hmm, tried it, also compared to new review of FX35, and to my not very good eyes conclusions are:

1. quality of Fuji is unrivalled
2. FX35 seems a bit better in detail level then TZ5 at ISO 100, but at higher ISOs TZ5 looks much better, more detail and less noise.
3. I can't really see much difference between TZ5 and TZ3 at high ISOs - unfortunately I must say :/

I wonder if TZ4 with it's 1Mpx less could possibly have better output...

Cheers

Player

Hi player, I think you'd have to drop the resolution quite a bit to notice much improvement in noise levels...

Some Q&A on the TZ5:
If I already have the TZ3, will I benefit from buying the TZ5? My answer: If you like the TZ3, you'll love the TZ5.
What about comparing pics between TZ3 and TZ5? My answer: I found that to be difficult, even side-by-side, since I could not get exact color/contrast etc. matches under any conditions. Generally there seems to be both greater detail and a notch more sharpening in-camera with the TZ5, for a better overall image.
What about the sound? My answer: While the sound isn't great, I really wish Panasonic had swapped the mic & speaker positions, since my grip tends to cover up the mic.
Last comment: To steady the HD video, I sometimes attach a large tripod - not to shoot from the tripod per se, since I handhold the entire affair - rather, the extra weight stabilises the image even when in the hands, off the ground.