Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ15

good camera, shame about the screen (black streaks) – about 3/4 up the screen there are damaged pixels (6x9mm block) on either side of the screen and a lot of lines in between them. the lines in the middle of the screen have been there for about a year, first a few and more as time progressed, I thought it was due to the way I carried it but carry it in a soft pouch. For the last 3 months I haven't been using it, its been in the soft pouch in a cardboard box store away.

today I took it out to take some photos and besides the lines on the screen I also have two big black blotches on either side of the lines.

I rang Panasonic and they told me that I have a bad screen (which I know)but because its not within the 1yr warranty they can't do anything about it, they gave me the Ph no. of the local service center- they charge $88 just to look at it and then they give me a quote for fixing it.

With the cost of dig cam so low now days, getting it fixed is not worth it.

I got this after my Sony dig got stolen, when thieves broke into my house, after many years of much use (taking photos of my young son)the Screen was as good as when I bought.

Either quality standard have fallen everywhere or Panasonic be more quality conscious. Lovely zoom and movie quality screen damage and microphone could have been put at the front or further away from where one holds it by.

Excellent – It is a good camera and is relativly easy to use the basic functions, there are many functions I dont understand yet. Video is HD and good quality. A very good general purpose camera. I have had this for about 4 months now and it is easy to use the stability aid is good the zoom (10x) is very usefull, went on a cruise a month ago and took very few bad pictures The battery isnt a common AA type but a special Panasonic type so if it goes flat on the road you cant just buy some cheap ones to get you by so a spare would be essential.

Excellent – I've had this camera about 4 months and love it. Very convenient, lightweight considering features and reasonable price. A lot of functions and I haven't learnt how to use everything, but am getting really good photos anyway. Can't see where you can set your own aperture or shutter speed. Video can go in and out of focus while filming. Need a good light source for video - best outdoors, but a really good option to carrying around a separate video camera for recording for a few minutes at a time.

For photos, I don't get the quite the same contrast range (detail in highlights and shadows) as mentioned in some reviews. White areas still do blow out.

10x zoom is great, but you don't notice too much of a difference once you get near its maximum zoom range. Zoom starts from a wider angle than most cameras. Overall, highly recommend for the features at a reasonable price. Perfect for travelling and compact and light for carrying in handbag everyday, with excellent zoom and picture quality.

Wide angle is great for taking photos of yourself

Comfortable to hold.

Large screen with great image quality.

Battery lasts a good amount of time.

Uses cheap SD cards. Easy to cover mic with finger, but haven't had problem of mic picking up the sound from lens zooming.

Husband finds the buttons challenging with larger fingers, but don't know that this is any different to other cameras.

Light streaks in viewing screen from very bright reflections. Don't show on final picture, but do show on video.

Have to remove battery for recharging (can't just plug a lead straight into camera).

Good – I've had my lumix tz5/tz15 for only about a week and so far, I'm very happy with its overall performance. There are many pluses, as listed in "Pros"- these don't need elaborating, although I'll say that I was taken aback by how close I could get to my subject, while maintaining focus, in macro mode. Of course, I've only had 1 other camera before- a Canon S30 that's about 5 or 6 years old now.

There are basically two main disappointments with the camera, as far as I'm concerned. First is the very poor quality of its microphone. I've read about this in umpteenth reviews, but I still wasn't prepared for how weak it really is. There's a constant background noise, and it seems to me that the sound of the zoom extending and retracting is recorded the loudest! I've just reviewed some of my movies, and the volume on some of them is acceptable, I guess, with the zoom noises relatively unobtrusive, though background is still high. However, on some, the reverse occurs (not sure why the inconsistency)- it's on these occasions that the audio really ruins the movie. The sound of the zoom reminds me of the creaking of an old door as it slowly opens in those horror movies. Not nice.

The other main weakness of the camera- also well reported- is its poor performance in low light. Pictures are noticeably grainy. I think, though, that it's possible to correct this by tweaking with the shutter speed and ISO- still learning these aspects. Obviously, correction is not possible in movie mode, so it'll just have to be put up with here.

One last thing that bothers me a bit is that I can see noise in my pictures taken under good daylight conditions, even when I'm just zooming in a little bit. I read somewhere that it's definitely what happens when you do a 100% crop, but I thought it should be alright to zoom in a little bit given the high resolution of the image? Anyway, guess the noise won't be noticeable in usual sized prints.

Overall, I'm still happy with my camera. Like many have said, it's hard to find another point and shoot camera with the same set of features packed in (at this point in time). I'm looking forward to taking it on my overseas trip soon. Great macro mode

High definition videos

10X zoom, with extra digital zoom

Colours are natural

Intelligent auto mode

Great focusing and image stabilization

Relatively compact size

Vibrant large LCD screen

Intuitive menus

Good battery life

Clipboard mode- useful for travellers Horrible microphone

Performance in low light could be better

HD videos take up a lot of room

Audio when zooming is picked up by microphone and sounds ghoulish

Trade-off between focus and smooth video recording during movie mode