The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 7.2 megapixel camera is the successor to Panasonic's DMC-FZ7, which had a 12X optical zoom, but lacked a wide-angle view lens. However, Panasonic has fixed this issue with its latest model, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3.
The DMC-TZ3's new lens is quite nice as it features a 10X optical zoom with a 4.6mm to 46mm range. This zoom gives you a very nice wide-angle view and also the lens has very few distortion. The benefit of a wide-angle lens is that it allows you to capture more of your scene, which really helps in panoramic shots or even group photos. Wider pictures make it so you don't have to re-stitch as many back together to make a panoramic shot and less pictures means less of a chance for glitches between photos.
The 3-inch LCD screen works very nicely for this camera and allows you to accurately see pictures before you take them. It also works pretty nicely in direct sunlight as well. The controls on the DMC-TZ3 are very easy to access with one hand, but that also means that they are pretty minimal, which is perfect for a novice or casual photographer. There are no manual shoot modes, which means that everything related to image adjustment is done automatically by the camera. Because of this, people who perhaps don't know as much about photography will really like this camera.
The DMC-TZ3 "Intelligent ISO Mode" detects when objects in the frame are moving before taking the picture and automatically increases or decreases the ISO setting to avoid as much blur as possible. It certainly does its best to try to take the best looking picture without involving too much user intervention. There is also a vibration reduction system which aims to reduce the user's shakiness virtually as it is taking pictures to try to prevent image streaking and blurriness. There are also three burst modes, two with compression rates and the third shoots until the camera's memory card is full.
The DMC-TZ3's performance was not too bad either in testing. The shutter lag was actually quite minimal and didn't leave us wanting more. There were no lens distortion at all in the photos and they were very clear as well. There was very little noise on any photos, if any at all. It also worked well in light shots and fairly well in dark shots.
The TZ3 is compatible with SDHC memory cards and it worked flawlessly on Windows Vista. The DMC-TZ3 is perfect for anyone who wants a handheld digital camera that does the hard work for them without breaking the bank.
