Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5K 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

I agree with everyone here that gave this great camera five stars

Brilliant

This a second TZ5 I have. I bought a first one (blue) in April of this year and used it for two weeks before my wife dropped it on a plush carpet and it immediately showed 'lens error.' I was very disappointed and I previously was very disappointed in TZ3 low light photos, so I decided not to bother with Panasonic TZ5. However, I decided to try my luck again, after I collected a bunch of gift cards and needed to buy something. This time I got a silver model. I just took them to Madonna concert and I was very very pleased with results.

1) I did buy two additional extended life batteries on ebay 1400mA each. The original one is 1000mah. I got used to my Fuji F30 doing 500-600 shots per charge with no problems, so I am spoiled and wanted fresh batteries. However, I did not need them at the concert. I took about 370 photographs and 5 videos about 5 minute length, and my TZ still shows two bars! I did not use flash but I did do a lot of zooming and reviewing. Looks like I will be able to squeeze 400+ photos on the original battery which is superb!

2) Ability to set a minimum shutter speed is priceless for application such as a concert where you need to zoom all the way. I just selected 1/60 minimum shutter speed, Auto ISO, H focus and I got some great shots with these. If I did not have the minimum shutter speed, I would have not been able to take pictures that I did at the concert.

3) Display is very nice

4) True wide angle (not just crops the frame)

5) extended optical zoom

6) auto red eye removal

7) ISO 400 is now useful!!!

What can I wish for? I guess 12-14X zoom instead of 10X zoom and little optical viewfinder. Shutter and Aperture Priority.

This camera was about as close to what I was looking for as there is on the market (good picture quality and decent HD wide screen video in a small point and shoot), but ultimately the VERY poor sound quality during video play back was the deal breaker. Sorry Panasonic - I really liked this product, but you need to know that this one issue blew it! I agree with all of the other reviews regarding positive attributes. I liked the video quality, but when I played back on my HDTV, through good speakers - how terrible.

To be honest - the sound quality is so bad, I could not even enjoy any video at all and my family actually made fun of my technology for the first time! How demoralizing!

I do have a suggestion however, try out the new Sony T500. It's great - pretty good pictures (TZ5 is a bit better in this regard), but the Sony Video, WOW!!! Really good, with great stereo sound quality!!!! So the TZ5 went back and the T500 is my new camera/camcorder!

I just got the TZ5 last week for my wife. Have been playing with it for a almost a week now. I must say I'm quite happy with it. The reviews by most other users have been quite helpful (and quite accurate!) =)

What I like:
- 10x zoom in such a small body!
- large 3 inch screen that's got a really sharp display. Beautiful!
- Quick menu button. Comes in quite handy
- quite decent battery life.

What I don't like as much:
- movie taking is not as great as imagined. Focussing can be really slow when you zoom during movie-taking
- lack of some manual controls (on exposure, speed etc.)
- not standard USB port connector on the side of the camera (so you'll need to have the proprietery USB cable)

Overall, I'm quite please with this purchase. And I think my wife will like it too!

Had this camera for a few days now. I normally shoot with a Nikon D300 and wanted something I could stick in my pocket and that also took 720p video.

So far I can say that this little guy takes really decent pictures. Colors are good, auto white balance seems pretty accurate thus far, and the 720p videos look pretty good considering they are coming from a device that small. There are lots of "modes" for all sorts of shooting situations and lots of settings that you can tweak if you so desire. If not, just point and shoot. The 10x zoom is very nice, too.

The one issue I have with it so far is that the camera captures a LOT of noise when zooming or focusing while taking a video. Kind of annoying during playback of the videos.

Other than that, this camera is a great buy. I bought for $230. For all that you get, the price can't be beat.