Got my Panasonic DMC-TZ3 today

Hello again,

I posted a while ago about potential cameras as an upgrade from my
coolpix 3200. Well someone suggested the Panasonic TZ3, I was totally
swayed by what I read online and by the fact it has a 10x zoom in a
compact body - great for when I go on safari in Sept...

Anyway the camera arrived today from camerabox.co.uk, a few days
earlier than I expected as the TZ3 is very popular and is sold out on
a lot of websites. I've had a little play and as yet not taken any
serious shots but I just thought I'd post my first impressions.

The camera is surprisingly but reassuringly heavy for something that
fits into the palm of your hand,, it's probably twice as heavy as the
coolpix but that was a pretty small camera. The panasonic is very well
made -mine is the silver version and the metal panels are very nice
and high quality.

The looks aren't that pretty but it's not ugly either - the lens looks
very serious on such a small bodied camera.

Without reading the manual I've had a litttle play with the screens
and the menus are very easy to use and well thought out. I love the
huge 3 inch display which is very clear- there's no optical view
finder but that doesn't look like it'll be too much of a problem. The
camera seems to respond pretty quickly and zooms in and out quite
fast.

I can't wait to put all the scene settings and modes etc into practise
and take some test shots over the weekend so I can get used to using
it...

thanks to all those who made suggestions on my original post.

On 27 Jul, 16:48, loony <carmen.shepp....DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello again,
>
> I posted a while ago about potential cameras as an upgrade from my
> coolpix 3200. Well someone suggested the Panasonic TZ3, I was totally
> swayed by what I read online and by the fact it has a 10x zoom in a
> compact body - great for when I go on safari in Sept...
>
> Anyway the camera arrived today from camerabox.co.uk, a few days
> earlier than I expected as the TZ3 is very popular and is sold out on
> a lot of websites. I've had a little play and as yet not taken any
> serious shots but I just thought I'd post my first impressions.
>
> The camera is surprisingly but reassuringly heavy for something that
> fits into the palm of your hand,, it's probably twice as heavy as the
> coolpix but that was a pretty small camera. The panasonic is very well
> made -mine is the silver version and the metal panels are very nice
> and high quality.
>
> The looks aren't that pretty but it's not ugly either - the lens looks
> very serious on such a small bodied camera.
>
> Without reading the manual I've had a litttle play with the screens
> and the menus are very easy to use and well thought out. I love the
> huge 3 inch display which is very clear- there's no optical view
> finder but that doesn't look like it'll be too much of a problem. The
> camera seems to respond pretty quickly and zooms in and out quite
> fast.
>
> I can't wait to put all the scene settings and modes etc into practise
> and take some test shots over the weekend so I can get used to using
> it...
>
> thanks to all those who made suggestions on my original post.

Just an update on this as I've now had it a month or so. I've now had
a chance to test out the TZ3 and overall I'm very impressed,
especially with the Zoom capability. I compared the TZ3 with my dad's
Ricoh Caplio R6 (which I beleive is also a highly rated very small
camera and has 7.2x zoom). There is an obvious advantage of the TZ3's
zoom but the quality of the shots we found much better too in general
and especially on zoom, not to say the Ricoh was bad though the shots
were good. The Ricoh seriously outperformed the TZ3 on Macro mode
though. I have had many problems trying to get the TZ3 to focus in
macro mode, eventually I got a good shot but the Ricoh's shots blew it
away both in clarity and in the ability to get very closeup.

If anyone's interested I have posted some of my shots on Photosig (in
which company I feel extremely humbled!!) The best one is a max zoom
of a very small bird in a tree a long way from me [url]http://
www.photosig.com/go/photos/view?id=2046945&forward=viewportfolio[/url]