Lumix TZ1: First Impressions
As part of my two-camera strategy (one general purpose, one DSLR), I decided on the Panasonic Lumix DSC-TZ1, or "TZ1" or "Tizzy" for short. It was a tough decision, honestly, but after the E18 error on the S2 IS I didn't want to even consider a Canon. The error may have been a fluke, but it was an expensive fluke, and why bother?
By far the biggest concern I had about the Tizzy was noise. This is an issue with all of the Lumix cameras, per the reviews; however there were plenty of clean images up on the flickr taken with the Tizzy and cameras such as the FZ7, which was the other contender.
In the end I was willing to give up full manual controls (remember, I'll get a DSLR in time!) in order to get the 10X optical zoom (!) in a package that is roughly the width and length of my iPod. (Sure, it's deeper.) That's impressive. Here are my first impressions from shooting with it.
- The size is great. I missed having a pretty small camera.
- The detail and design is stellar. Truly, it feels like an honest-to-gosh camera. My friend Marcus has long talked about the "old world feel" of his FZ20 (30? forgot) and I can understand that here. The whole thing looks expensive outside of the lame "10x optical zoom" label. The camera has a great weight about it: not too light, not too heavy. Pocketable for my big jacket pockets.
- Quick startup time. Flip to on, pretty much ready to go.
- The big LCD is nice. It's easy to read, the menus are pretty clear (outside of a few questionable abbreviations), and it's nice.
- Everything was dark. The big problem with the first batch of photos is that almost all of them are too dark; I need to figure out why. Adjusting levels in iPhoto worked wonders, but even photos with the EV up +2 (!) were still dark. Detail wasn't lost, though.
- I miss the easy play/record switch that Canon has.
Putting playback in the middle of a rotary dial is strange, just strange. I don't get it. Put it at the end of the dial or the front. Please.Update: Yep, the little "review" button lets me do what I need to do. Never mind! - Noise is present, but not yet to a fault. Can't be denied: there's noise, yes. But it's not to a point where it kills the image (yet), and given I take so many photos in good light this was something I felt I could deal with. I might invest in some noise-reduction software just for kicks.
Above all that, I really like the camera. It's a great little tool. It feels elegant and well-crafted and has been a joy to use. Unlike the D50 post, I'll be sure to check in with everyone on the Tizzy in the future.
