Panasonic DMC-TZ5, Anyone Have One?

[dazedgonebye]

Looking at this camera as a family point and shoot. Any experience with it?

 

[sevo]

Yep. Noise generator, immediately handed on to wife. At 100 ISO, it is actually nice at web display size or when printed straight off the camera, but its forced in-camera processing adds artefacts which make postprocessing a mess even at base sensitivity.
Sevo

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Check out the Fujifilm F200 EXR. They're fairly new on the market and you may only be able to find them on line. I have one and I like it for the same purposes you described. The camera on the surface appears to be like every other little compact digital camera these days. The feature that swayed me into getting it is its "EXR" mode. Normally the camera, in the usual Auto, P, etc. modes gives you 12MP files and it pretty much performs like any other little 12MP camera. BUT... in the EXR mode it does a very unusual thing. EXR is a 'smart' mode that reads what the lens is seeing and decides if the highlights are going to get blown out or the shadows are going to be lost. It then instantaneously creates TWO 6MP files (one that is exposed for the highlights and one for everything else) and then somehow instantly combines them... sort of like an instant "HDR" kind of thing. It works pretty well. You can read about it on seriouscompacts.com.

Enjoy.

 

[kmoss1101]

I recently bought the DMC-TS1 and really like it...here are some shots I took a few weekends ago - the pics are great and it is waterproof:

http://picasaweb.google.com/kmoss1101/June82009#

 

[dazedgonebye]

Both of the suggested alternatives here are over $300...$100+ more than the TZ5.
Much over $300 and I start looking at the LX-3, which I might just do.

No, I didn't state it up front, but the reason I'm looking at something like the TZ5 is that I want good family snapshot quality for as little as possible. The 28-280 lens on the TZ5 would also be a real pluse for general versitility.

Sevo's concerns about noise do bother me. The DPreview article makes several statements about agressive noise reduction and loss of per pixel detail. I'm just not sure how bad it is and if it would bother me for small prints and internet sharing.

 

[Ducky]

I use the Fuji J10, about the size of my cell phone. 8megs and 3x lens, no viewfinder. I think the latest is the J20 @ 10 megs. It actually is a very sharp little lens and somewhere around $100 for the J20.