Comments on: New picture box

By: SilverTiger

SilverTiger — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:24:30 +0000

Thanks for your comments and encouragement.

To athinkingman: A particular reason for restarting photography was in order to have pictures to illustrate my blog, so, yes, you will be seeing more of them! (Oh, no…!)

To David: Yes, viewfinders make life much easier, I find….

To emalyse: I’m glad your father gets pleasure out of photographing birds too. I haven’t used the movie function seriously yet, though we did take one of Tigger waggling her foot the other evening! The nice thing about these cameras is that they are so easy to use yet have loads of functions for serious photographers.

To Ted Marcus: Yes, I realize there are going to be limitations in a camera of this size and design. You have to select the best compromise for what you want to do and as I want to carry a camera everywhere with me in my bag or pocket, it has to be small with whatever disadvantages this supposes. My style is “Bumbling Amateur” rather than “David Bailey” so I think this camera will be perfectly adequate…!

By: Ted Marcus

Ted Marcus — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:30:17 +0000

Reviews of this camera consistently show that the TZ5 is a fine choice, although you need to be aware of a limitation inherent in all cameras of this type. Manufacturers can produce small and light cameras like yours by building them around a sensor the size of a pinkie fingernail (or a frame of old-fashioned super 8 movie film). When you cram a lot of megapixels onto such a tiny chip, the laws of physics mandate a very noisy image. Once you get above the lowest ISO setting (64, 80, or 100– I’m too lazy to look up which is the lowest on your camera), the noise becomes excessive and the camera’s attempts to remove it during JPEG processing results in blurry pictures with smeary color.

Fortunately, the reasonably fast lens and image stabilization make the low ISO settings usable in most light, so you can get sharp colorful pictures most of the time. (But keep in mind that image stabilization only reduces the effects of shaky hands at slow shutter speeds. It won’t do anything for a fast-moving subject.) In dull light (including a stereotypically gray British day?) you may have no choice but to increase the ISO. But try to keep it as low as possible. ISO 800 and 1600 are more useful for camera marketeers than for users.

With that caveat, I do hope you’ll get lots of fine piccies of your various journeys!

By: emalyse

emalyse — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:58:49 +0000

My Dad bought himself this camera (or maybe it’s the TZ3) as he wanted a good optical zoom range to catch the birds in the garden though was probably drawn in by the Leica name on the lens.It’s a substantial (heavy) build and he seems to get on with it (& he’s quite technophobic). Taking some good bits of movie too.I’ve used it a few times and particularly love the 28mm wide aspect. Originally I missed the lack of optical viewfinder but the size of the LCD probably makes up for it (like you I still find it odd to take pictures at arms length). Hope you enjoy using it.

By: David

David — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:42:42 +0000

I like the looks and the specs. I also miss a viewfinder. Nice to read this and thanks!

By: athinkingman

athinkingman — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:41:33 +0000

It looks a really impressive piece of kit. Powerful zoom + 10 million pixels + 28mm wide angle + powerful zoom + good lens - seems you couldn’t ask for anything more. Happy shooting. I continue to look forward to seeing the results.