IgloONotes

Upon finding out I was going to be in Germany for a year, I promptly began my hunt for the perfect digital camera. A couple years back, my parents had bought a Canon Digital IXUS 430. It took really great pictures and followed me throughout my travels to China, Japan, and of course all those candid moments in between. My basic requirement was simple. A high optical zoom for shots of cars running around racetracks in Germany, and a shutter fast enough to capture them. Image quality had to be top notch as well as the video mode to record my own adventures of bombing down the autobahn at 200km/h. Finally, I had to be able to carry it around without fear of it being swiped by some street bandits.

The Casio EX-V7 filled the optical zoom requirement but after playing around with it, the pictures didn’t look that great and just the overall feel of it didn’t suit me. Sealing the fate of the camera though, was that my friend had just bought it. Totally uncool.

The Canon S3IS and S5IS were on my list. I found a smashing good deal on a used S3 through craigslist that almost made me buy it. I liked all the features, and the high zoom, but it was just too bulky for a traveller.

Then it all came down to the Panasonic TZ5 and the Canon SX100. Before even looking into the cameras, the Canon was a better camera because well, it was a Canon. My first digicam sold me on the brand and the image quality held up that notion. But I guess all good things come to an end and I was really disappointed. It was big, felt cheap with its plastic body, and just didn’t feel like what a Canon should feel like.

If you’re reading this, you probably know what Type of features the TZ5 has but the four features that won me over were:
- 10x optical zoom
- 720P video recording, with zoom!
- Mega O.I.S. Optical image stabilization
- Leica lens

I never got to see one in person but after fiddling around with its predecessor, the TZ3, I was sold.

First Impressions:
This is what a camera should feel like. It was solid, and the outer finish was akin to extremely fine sandpaper, something you only notice while holding the camera. It brought back memories of my first experience with the slippery-smooth iPhone. I didn’t drop it but I was sure nervous about smashing it on my first touch! The TZ5 is very comfortable to hold. With a rough plastic strip on the hand hold, it makes for a sure feel. The play and record buttons are all well placed, although I would prefer the menu buttons to be higher up. The zoom is located where it should be, rotating around the shutter.

The on-off button is also quite well placed except for the fact that when you slide it into you case, you can quite easily turn it on. I haven’t done it myself but I can see it happening. Maybe if they changed the switch direction from right to left (instead of left to right) they could avoid the problem.

Thankfully, the battery came half-charged, so I didn’t have to wait 120 minutes to charge it. The menu system was really nice to navigate. It was intuitive, and being the tech-savvy person I am, I didn’t even need the manual to figure out how things work. The 3” screen’s beauty cannot be described in words. At 460,000 pixels It rivals my 24” LCD and certainly beats my Macbook’s screen for clarity. Going back to my canon’s 1” screen makes me cry, even other competitors 3” low resolution screens pale in comparison.

Snapping the pictures
The first thing I find annoying is the fact that when you’re trying to take pictures, the image on the screen is patchy and fuzzy, like someone cranked the ISO to 1600. It is something you can’t change and you certainly can’t judge how the picture will turn out without first taking a shot. I was worried at first but once you snap it, all is well and the 2sec adjustable review of the picture brings it into perfect clarity.

Now on to the good stuff. The Image stabilization is an amazing piece of technology. Using only one shaky hand, I zoomed in to max, snapped a picture and it was crystal clear. Okay well, maybe my hand wasn’t THAT shaky, but think about my second test.

It was a very scientific experiment meant to break the tech and show its flaws. Lucky for me, I was going to be joining my fellowship later in the night for an Iron chef style cook-off. On my drive, I whipped out my camera and was able to snap clear shots of traffic signs at 10x optical zoom. Here’s the breaker; I was moving over bumps and potholes in the road at 50km/h, holding the camera in one hand and…turning the steering wheel with the other. At 1x zoom, looking at the screen while pointing the camera in front of feels like you’re in a videogame. Not all the shots came out crystal clear but the fact that I could even take one shot with near-perfect clarity is amazing. This is NOT something you should run home and try out with your camera. I even got the attention of one local who opened their car door at a stoplight and stared right at me because she thought I was snapping pictures of her!

While using the zoom, there is a button right beside the shutter called, ‘e.zoom’. Press it and the zoom will automatically extend to 10x. Press it again, and it will return to 1x. If you turn on digital zoom, the second press will extend it to 16x zoom, then returning back down the steps with every successive press.

The cook-off allowed me to test out the many scene modes of the camera in particular, the ‘food’ and ‘portrait’ mode. Overall, I was quite impressed by the photos, being able to take many shots with no flash, so as not to blind the chefs while chopping their onions. Most of the shots were one handed-quickies with not thought at all about the settings. Almost all the shots were shot with the iA (intelligent auto) mode. With the image stabilization, the shots were mostly clear, except when the chef was moving and everything on the table was not. When you’re in iron chef, standing still means you’re probably going to lose.

Face tracking on this camera will certainly appeal to the geeks within us. As you take pictures of groups of people, a box will appear around each face, up to 15 faces. Apparently, this will allow the flash to compensate and the Venus Engine IV will do its magic making sure that all faces are evenly lit. My pictures seemed to do justice to that theory too. But forget about the pictures for one second…this tracks people’s faces in real-time!! The only other time I saw this was while in my school principal’s office looking at a CCTV display. It was meant to track kids doing bad things, but instead locked itself onto an innocent looking garbage can.

After a whole day of shooting, video recording and playing back, the fully charged battery was exhausted. For extended video sessions, I would recommend getting another battery.

The (food)Menu
As with any menu, be it in a restaurant, a BMW iDrive, or in this case, a camera, if a menu needs explaining, you’ve got problems. I find that with many SLR’s there’s so many settings and when I just want to take a picture, I forget about all the fluff and stick it into automatic mode. Humans are lazy! That’s why we now have speed-dial on our phones and that’s also why man invented the automatic transmission. I loved my canon for its simple menu and adore the TZ5 for its user-friendliness. One thing that’s a problem for many cameras is the mix of cryptic icons that don’t mean a thing to me unless I read the manual. With the TZ5, you have an icon at the top and at the bottom, it tells you what you’re fiddling with. A simple, but very important feature.

There are two menus in the TZ5. A main menu to change every setting you want and a quick menu for one-touch access. The quick menu is accessible via a small button beside the screen. Just press it and everything you want pops up without blocking the whole screen. The ‘intelligent auto’ settings can all be turned on or off at your will. There’s intelligent iso, intelligent exposure, and the fully automatic iA picture mode. In the iA mode, the only settings you can change are:
- Burst mode
- Aspect ratio
- Picture size
- Colour Mode (Vivid, standard, natural, B/W, Sepia)
- Stabilizer

Image Quality
As you will notice by looking at some of the photos, there does seem to be a lot of ‘iso fuzz’ in the badly lit pictures. To some people, you’ll look at the picture and say, “Hey, that photo is crap!” To others, they’ll see the overall setting and say, “Nice Picture.” Plain and simple, for point and shoot cameras, this is hard to beat. The intelligent auto setting is extremely good for well-lit pictures (indoor or outdoor), but for badly lit settings, it will certainly require some tweaking. Take into account that almost all the pictures did not use a flash and were taken with usually one hand in a very hectic kitchen with lots of stuff going on.

Video Quality
Many of you are probably reading this because you want to know what the much touted 720P video is like. When you leave the default settings on, you may be disappointed. While recording, the camera is constantly trying to find something to focus on, even if its stationary. I was disappointed at first, thinking why in the world Panasonic would release a feature that was so flawed. But after tweaking a few things, I cracked it. It’s really a simple idea that many people haven’t figured out. Before you start recording, turn off continuous AF, and zoom in 10x on a distant object and focus the camera. Once you’ve done that, hit record, and all will be good. When you return back to 1x while recording, it will be just as clear as ever.

If you don’t feel like zooming much, the picture will stay focussed up to about 3x. For the average photographer, recording in HD is an awesome feature and considering that not many point and shoot cameras can record in HD, let alone zoom, I wouldn’t consider the focusing issues below average because well, there is no average. Nothing else in this market can compare.

The video quality really is astounding, At full 1280x720 resolution, it fills my Macbook’s screen and its perfectly smooth. Some of the colors don’t’ seem to be as vibrant as in the pictures, but this is motion video. Even at lower resolutions its still quite clear. One note, to record in HD, you need an SD card with a minimum write speed of 10mb/s.
Bad thing? The File sizes are obscenely large. A 4min 15sec VGA (640x480) video at 30fps will eat 344 mb. At this rate, it will finish off an 8GB SD card in 1 hour, 30 min. Recording in full 720P HD will devour the same SD card in 33min 50sec.In case you were wondering, though you can only record up to 2GB in one session, you can always start recording again right after it stops. 2GB in HD equates to a measly 8min 20sec.

One other knock off I have to mention is the really poor quality of the microphone. It seems unable to record good highs and has a constant hiss. I’m sure you can tweak it in Adobe Premiere. It reminds me of 64kbps mp3’s I used to download from Napster way back when. At least voices are distinctly different from bass drums. My solution? If you’re really into HD video recording, just buy a separate voice recorder and sync it up with the TZ5’s video in Adobe Premier. And if you’re REALLY into HD video recording, just buy an HD camcorder and stop poking fun at the TZ5.

The Perfect SD Card?
To store all your pictures and videos you’ll need an SD card that’s up to the task. I’ve read horror stories of people going on vacations and having all their pictures corrupted. Since I would be travelling quite a lot, I ponied up for the 8GB Sandisk Extreme III. Not only is it tested to withstand extreme conditions, its extremely fast and comes with a very handy micromate reader and case.

I also needed it to be fast to record HD video and the little Sandisk has speed in spades with its ESP technology. Don’t ask me what it means, but as long as it makes things fast, I’m happy with it. At least I know that ESP in cars does good things.
It transferred about 7.2 GB in less than 8 minutes. I don’t think anyone will ever need anything more.

Conclusion:
Overall, I am very happy with the TZ5. Although some pictures still turned out fuzzy (motion or iso fuzz), most of the pictures were top-notch. If you’re looking for AMAZING picture quality that will bug out your eyes on first glance, this camera may not be for you. But if you’re looking for a camera that will take great pictures, able of snapping them in tough situations, then you may want to consider the Panasonic TZ5. The addition of 10x optical zoom and HD video recording doesn’t hurt either!

And just a tip, pick up the camera on Amazon, they’re probably one of the cheapest out there and for the past few days, the price has been steadily going downhill, almost matching the TZ4!

Tags: igloOView, Panasonic TZ5, TZ5