Camera Labs

Hi all

I'm new to this forum, but have been reading Gordon's reviews for a while. (love the work Gordon!)

I'm looking for a P&S camera with excellent, if not the BEST movie mode available ..

I was pretty much decided on the TZ7, but then I found Gordon's youtube review on the newer TZ10. Still deciding whether to save a $100 or so and get the TZ7 which seems pretty darn good already.


a Few questions:

A) I was under the impression that the TZ7 and TZ10 have identical Movie Modes... but in testing .. it seems the TZ7 has issues with hunting for auto focus and the TZ10 does not (when zooming in movie mode)

Has this been confirmed by Panasonic to be a real improvement or just by chance this was the result during testing?


B) Low light movies seem to get mixed reviews from people, for both cameras. Does one do it better than the other?


c) Would I be better off sacrificing zoom and getting a FX75 or the upcoming FX700 which has max apperture of f/2.2 - 2.8 for better performance for low light videos? Does apperture on a P&S really make much difference esp on movies? (as opposed to a DSLR)

d) Lastly, are there any other better video modes on a P&S camera (not a Micro 4/3) that have stereo, HD, zoomable, good sound, good compression.

I still think the AVCHD Lite file sizes are way too big, when compared to say Sony's formats.

Thoughts?

Welcome on-board li21 - I personally can't really say any more than I have in the reviews - be sure to check the movie mode sections and also download some original clips to evaluate yourself.

For decent sound on a point-and-shoot, the Canon SX20 IS is pretty good, but it's obviously a bigger form factor than the TZ series you're considering. There's also the Panasonic FZ equivalents to consider.

Thanks Gordon.
With price difference btween TZ7 and TZ10 so small I think i might as well got for the TZ10.

But Im tempted to wait for something like the FX700 and that 24mm f/2.2 lens + cmos sensor.

Do you think that will be a good low light performer for videos given the lens?

cheers

I bought a TZ10 a few months ago, the advantage of getting that would be the Power OIS instead of the Mega OIS that the TZ7 uses, it does a very good job in the TZ10. It's not perfect though.
HD movie quality amazed me with it's quality, considering it's a p&s camera I wasn't expecting it to be so good, but you might be expecting the movie quality to be perfect, I don't use it much so I'm not that critical of movie quality.

To answer some of your questions,

A) I watched Gordon's review on youtube of the TZ10 before I bought it, it seems it can maintain focus on subjects when zooming in and out, something that the TZ7 apparently struggled with.

B) There is probably very little difference, I'm not sure there.

C) To have a long zoom in a compact body you need a small sensor, if you are willing to pay more I would recommend Canon's super zoom, the SX1is. Unfortunately you can't have it all in one camera.

Things that are annoying when filming with the TZ10:

There's no manual focus, and sometimes it does really struggle with focusing especially when the lighting is bad
No AE lock,
Zooming is very slow to reduce motor noise