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Review on Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1K: Black Compact Digital πŸ“· Camera with 5MP & 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom by David Plunkett

Revainrating 5 out of 5

DMC-TZ1K - 4 months use

This is the best digital camera I've ever owned. Firstly, I believe the camera should fit in my jeans pocket so that I can have it with me when I have the opportunity to take a picture. It's by no means the smallest camera on the market, but it fits comfortably in my Levi's. I use this camera all the time. Second, ZOOM is amazing. 10x optical zoom on a camera that fits in my pocket! Because the camera has built-in image stabilization, high-magnification images look fantastic. Third, my wife finds it easy to use. That speaks volumes. I'm a techie, but she finds the watch faces and menus intuitive and easy/quick to use. Fourth, the camera records videos in 16:9 aspect ratio (or regular 4:3 if you prefer). The picture quality is much better than I expected. Image stabilization probably helps improve quality, but I played the video on our 42-inch TV. The quality seems about as good as our regular cable signal. Definitely not HD, but good enough to share short videos with friends on TV. and more than enough for email and YouTube posts. Fifth, we are very happy with the image quality. Being amateurs, we shoot in all sorts of non-ideal conditions (poor lighting, moving subjects and cameras, high zoom shots). from rocking boats, etc.). The sharpness, color and detail on this camera are better than any other digital camera we've owned in the last ten years. The pro may not be happy, but we are happy. Sixth, it works great with iPhoto, Mail, iWeb, and iMovie on our Mac, making it very, very easy to email photos or videos, create web pages from them, or edit movies/slideshows. Battery life was adequate, but I would have preferred if it took standard batteries (AA or AAA) so I didn't have to take the charger with me on vacation. The charger is small, but takes up valuable space in tight suitcases. At first I wasn't too keen on the manual lens cap. However, I looked it up at a camera store before buying it from Revain. The seller convinced me that built-in/automatic covers offer less protection and are more of a mechanical vulnerability. The large lens that allows the Lumix to use such a powerful zoom definitely needs some protection.

Pros
  • Powered by rechargeable lithium-ion battery (included); saves images to SD memory cards
Cons
  • So far so good