Our first shot was taken with the TZ5 on a sunny day zoomed-out to an equivalent of 28mm and at its lowest sensitivity of 100 ISO – as such it represents ideal conditions. There’s plenty of high contrast areas in this image, but impressively there’s no evidence of coloured fringing, even towards the corners. Look closely at areas of flat colour though, like the red sail, and noise processing artefacts are already visible. Admittedly you have to be looking carefully, but they’re present.

Landscape: 4.36MB, Normal mode, 1/1300, f3.3, ISO 100, 4.7-47mm at 4.7mm (equivalent to 28mm)

						A second shot taken under similar conditions at 100 ISO with the lens zoomed-out. The TZ5’s 28mm equivalent when zoomed-out gives the camera decent wide angle facilities which are missing on many compacts. As above, the crops show a decent degree of detail and no fringing to worry about, although again there’s some processing textures if you’re looking for them.

Portrait: 3.40MB, Normal mode, 1/250, f11, ISO 200, 4.7-47mm at 30mm (equivalent to 180mm)

						For this portrait shot we zoomed the TZ5 into an equivalent of 180mm and set the AF mode to Face Recognition. We also increased the sensitivity to 200 ISO and forced the flash to fire to reduce harsh shadows. The TZ5’s Face Recognition locked onto the subject and focused easily, while the flash has balanced with ambient light for a natural-looking result. The increase in sensitivity has resulted in some smearing, but it’s still acceptable in this image.

Landscape: 4.08MB, Normal mode, 1/500, f4.9, ISO 200, 4.7-47mm at 47mm (equivalent to 280mm)

This shot was taken fully zoomed in at 200 ISO with the boat approaching face on. The AF system has coped fine, but the image itself is softer than those at shorter focal lengths and noise has become quite apparent in the crops when viewed at 100%.

We filled the frame with this bird, and bright conditions with a sensitivity of 200 ISO allowed a quick shutter to freeze any motion.

The crops show lots of detail, although again there’s visible noise and processing artefacts if you’re looking closely.

Impressively there’s still no coloured fringing even in high contrast areas in the corners. Again though, processing artefacts are visible if you’re looking at 100%.

This subject matter can be quite forgiving at higher sensitivities and the crops show little compromise.

There’s also plenty of fine detail recorded, but check below for another 400 ISO sample under dimmer conditions.

The TZ5 had no problems identifying the subject and focusing, although the crops reveal the impact of operating at 400 ISO.

Viewed at 100%, the crops show a noticeable increase in noise and processing artefacts. You won’t really notice at smaller print sizes though.

Interestingly we found the shots taken with OIS Mode 1 here were sometimes not quite 100% sharp, but switching to Mode 2 fixed this.

As you’d expect, there’s now noticeable noise and processing artefacts on the crops, although to be fair, still a reasonable amount of detail.

The image viewed in its entirety looks quite washed-out, and the crops show a high level of noise and processing artefacts.

Like all compacts these days, 1600 ISO is best used for emergency use only.