My friend is buying a point and shoot camera. She wants to spend £100-200 ideally. I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 and i totally love it so recommend it and think something like this would be good for her. but they don't make it anymore. does anyone have experience of the TZ18 or TZ19? another friend said the TZ20 is not only more expensive but also has grainy pictures when they are blown up much. does anyone have a TZ20 and how do you find it?
i am also interested does anyone have a camera similar to these that has proper manual focus? as i have taken more photos doing this project the one thing i would like of my lovely lumix is that it would have a bit more manual focus control.
if anyone has any thoughts i would be very interested thankyou!
I had a Lumix ZS1 and loved it. I have a Lumix DSLR and I'm happy with it, but then again, I'm still really learning how to use it.
I currently have a Sony Cybershot HXV9 and I LOVE it. It takes awesome video as well.
The camera I used to use is the Sony Cyber shot, infact the two pics I took today were used with it. It has a fixed lens 10x optical zoom goes up to 3200 ISO (but pretty noisy!) Takes some decent macro too. It takes some really nice pics, but I have since upgraded to a DSLR and prefer it, but sometimes the ol Cyber shot comes in handy when you don't want to lug the bigger camera around. These strawberries were done on the macro setting
This shot was done in manual mode at 3.5 F stop (the camera has limited manual mode settings you have a choice of 3.5 or 8 F stop. I find the camera most convienient used in P mode.
@rach57 i've liked it up till now, Rachel - but am wanting a bit more control over what I can do. I'll always use it as a stand-by/camera in my pocket type of thing :)
I use the Sony Cybershot as well and I love it. I don't own a dslr yet so all my pics are taken with the Sony...except for maybe a few that I use my Blackberry for.
I love the Panasonic series, they are one of the rare pocketable and affordable Point and Shoot, with manual control (A,S and M modes). Which makes it more than a P&S. And you get to say you own a Leica lens :)
I have always used panasonics, I now have a dslr but prior I always had point and shoots and been very happy with them.
For $450 online a friend recently bought the new panasonic DMC-GF3. Its a dslr but a compact one, barely bigger than a p&s, it can of course be set on auto but then there is the option of being able to do manual everything as well. @anzere03 I recently mentioned the leica lenses on Panasonics here in a discussion and was told that it has the leica name on it and is made to leica specifications but is NOT a leica lens??? (I dont know what the quality difference is.)
If you look at my pics (eg http://365project.org/rvm/365/2012-06-12) you'll see what the DMC-TZ18 can do.
My only problem is that you can't force flash on when in intelligent auto.
I used to have a manual SLR (Ricoh KR10), I really love not having to lug something big around and will stick with my mini Lumix :-)
Panasonic lumix all the way for me. Nearly all of year one shot with TZ-10 and TZ-20 before I got my DSLR...still carry it everywhere I go and use it all the time!
I have a TS10 which is also called a TZ20.
I have no problems with it and no reservations in recommending it as a camera.
HOWEVER the GPS system that it has is not brilliant and seems to take ages to update itself.
The TS18 is the same camera without the GPS.
I would recommend that you get a flip up shade for the viewer. I have the Deakin Devices DU 3.0 -M which is very good and cost less than £10 on EBay. It protects the view screen when not in use and you can keep the camera in your pocket without a case/
I have a Nikon AW100. It is amazing. Waterproof, shock and drop resistant, works to much lower temperatures than most point and shoots and the list of pros goes on. I also have a Pentax W90.... it got tossed in a box in the corner... VERY poor image quality.
Try looking at dpreview.com to see what they say about all the cameras. You can even do a side by side comparison of the one you are interested in.
I have a large number of images in my project and my other albums that were taken with the AW100. Here are a few.
The strawberry image was taken on the macro setting. There are many more that I have... in fact I often use it more than I do my D7000.
Good luck with the shopping!!
thankyou all so much for all this very helpful advice. i really appreciate every single reply. my friend has just bought the TZ10. we are about to go on a little holiday so i look forward to checking it out and helping her start to use it. thanks again!
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I currently have a Sony Cybershot HXV9 and I LOVE it. It takes awesome video as well.
A lot of people don't realise that while you can get 1,000 pictures on a 1gb card, they will be not be too great at A4 or A3.
Any chance your friend would lend you the TZ20 for a test?
To get cheap manual focus on a budget I would buy a second hand DSLR.
This shot was done in manual mode at 3.5 F stop (the camera has limited manual mode settings you have a choice of 3.5 or 8 F stop. I find the camera most convienient used in P mode.
This is iso 400:
Other pictures I've taken include these:
For $450 online a friend recently bought the new panasonic DMC-GF3. Its a dslr but a compact one, barely bigger than a p&s, it can of course be set on auto but then there is the option of being able to do manual everything as well.
@anzere03 I recently mentioned the leica lenses on Panasonics here in a discussion and was told that it has the leica name on it and is made to leica specifications but is NOT a leica lens??? (I dont know what the quality difference is.)
My only problem is that you can't force flash on when in intelligent auto.
I used to have a manual SLR (Ricoh KR10), I really love not having to lug something big around and will stick with my mini Lumix :-)
I have no problems with it and no reservations in recommending it as a camera.
HOWEVER the GPS system that it has is not brilliant and seems to take ages to update itself.
The TS18 is the same camera without the GPS.
I would recommend that you get a flip up shade for the viewer. I have the Deakin Devices DU 3.0 -M which is very good and cost less than £10 on EBay. It protects the view screen when not in use and you can keep the camera in your pocket without a case/
Try looking at dpreview.com to see what they say about all the cameras. You can even do a side by side comparison of the one you are interested in.
I have a large number of images in my project and my other albums that were taken with the AW100. Here are a few.
The strawberry image was taken on the macro setting. There are many more that I have... in fact I often use it more than I do my D7000.
Good luck with the shopping!!
thankyou all so much for all this very helpful advice. i really appreciate every single reply. my friend has just bought the TZ10. we are about to go on a little holiday so i look forward to checking it out and helping her start to use it. thanks again!