Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 gallery

Landscape: 3.88MB, Normal mode, 1/250, f8, ISO 100, 4.7-47mm at 4.7mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  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)

    The TZ5’s big selling point is of course its 10x optical range in a pocketable form factor – so the next three images are taken at its maximum focal length.

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%.

 
     
   
     
   

Wildlife: 3.49MB, Normal mode, 1/500, f11, ISO 200, 4.7-47mm at 47mm (equivalent to 280mm)

    An equivalent focal length of 280mm is ideal for grabbing opportune shots of wildlife – if they keep still long enough.

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.

 
     
   
     
   

Landscape: 4.22MB, Normal mode, 1/250, f11, ISO 200, 4.7-47mm at 47mm (equivalent to 280mm)

    Our final shot taken at the maximum focal length was easy to frame with the OIS stabilisation at Mode 1.Like our other samples at 280mm, the image itself is softer and lacking the punchiness of shorter focal lengths, but that’s a compromise with most super-zooms.

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%.

 
     
   
     
   

Macro: 3.82MB, Normal mode, 1/640, f8, ISO 200, 4.7-47mm at 4.7mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  We increased the sensitivity to 400 ISO for this macro shot taken at the TZ5’s closest focusing distance of 5cm.

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.

     

Indoor: 3.72MB, Normal mode, 1/25, f3.3, ISO 400, 4.7-47mm at 4.7mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  Our first indoor shot in poor light was again taken at 400 ISO, and we switched the AF mode to Face Recognition.

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.

     

Indoor: 2.28MB, Normal mode, 1/20, f3.3, ISO 800, 4.7-47mm at 4.7mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  Our second indoor shot was taken with the sensitivity increased to 800 ISO, but even then the dim conditions required a shutter of 1/20.

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.

 
     

Indoor: 1.79MB, Normal mode , 1/50, f3.3, ISO 1600, 4.7-47mm at 4.7mm (equivalent to 28mm)

  Our final shot was taken indoors at the maximum sensitivity in full resolution: 1600 ISO. Anything beyond here operates at a reduced resolution of 3 Megapixels.

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.

     

The following images were taken with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. The Lumix TZ5 was set to Normal recording mode with Auto White Balance and the Standard Colour mode. Optical Image Stabilisation was enabled for all these handheld images.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset.

The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

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