almost pulling out my hair.... almost.....
Every one of these camera has something I like
I have read a lot good about the Lumix TZ3, but I'm worried I will miss the viewfinder especially outside. I know you can make the LCD extra bright - will that beat the bright sun? This camera looks fun & easy (probably more my level of learning.) Anyone have experience with it? My shots will be vacation, some outside daylight sports, a little outside evening sports and plenty of indoor basketball. I would call indoor basketball "moderate" light - not quite low light. Can this camera pull it off? This camera really appeals to me in writing becuz it looks easy & it does a lot. People seem to like it. I want the high zoom too.
I know there are a lot of Canon die hards here.... but the S3 & S5 both just overwhelm me with buttons. They seem so complicated. I've handled them a couple times, and it just doesn't look easy. And, being the level photographer that I am & probably will stay, do I need to be able to adjust all those things??
The Kodak interests me becuz I am familiar with Kodak dig camera & the Easyshare format. The whole battery thing though -not so sure about that. I don't read as much about Kodak as Canon here though.
The Lumix FZ8 looks comparable to the S3 & the Kodak, but may be a little deep for me too.
Anyone...... lay it on me. I asked about Fuji Vs Canon a few days ago - I started to get wet feet there thinking ooh, may be these cameras are a little above my head. So, I dove back into researching & reviewing & now my head is spinning
again. Today I drug my 3 year old to about 4 different stores that had digital cameras - just wanting to practice & become familiar with how some of these cameras worked. Do you know (you probably do) how many times I found a non-working battery on the display model. Ummm, can't really try too much that way. How can they expect a person to pick out a camera? I live very rural - no actual camera store around. The best I can do is
Best Buy or Office Max.
I have the TZ3. I LOVE IT. It's simple to use, and if you've seen my post regarding my d80 problems (actually
my problems w/ understanding exposure and using my camera, LOL) you'll know that it's IDIOT proof.
There are numerous scene modes, ISO priority mode, tons of featres I have never bothered to play with because i was happy with Auto. For the price and size, it's an awesome little camera. I took many low light photos (just make sure you turn the flash off) and they came out fine. One thing I hated about digital P&S was having to go into the dang menu in order to do anything. It was frustrating and more often than not I would miss the shot. This camera is so easy to use, and the menu functions are right there at your fingertips.
The TZ3 may be considered noisy to some of the pros who mention it on this board, but for me it worked a heck of a lot better than my more expensive (when I first bought it) 3-4 year old Oly c770. That camera sucked in low light -- the photos never even came out half the time, and add that to the extemely slow shutter lag; It was horrible -- even in Auto mode. Forget about taking shots involving any motion at all. In order for normal shots to come out I would have to shoot in the sports mode most of the time. It sucked. I'm just telling you this so understand where I am coming from in regards to the TZ3. Not everyone can afford to or is willing to go out a drop $500+ every year for the newest and latest and greatest gear, and after my first experience in the digital P&S world, I didn't care if I ever had anything to do with it again!
Some people mention that the TZ3 doesn't zoom as far as some of the Canons, but it's all relative. TZ3 doesn't zoom as far out as most other P&S cameras nowadays, because it starts at 28mm wide angle. When I used it on my China trip, everyone else would have to step back 20 feet to get the same group shot of 30+ people, and I got to stand where I was and take 10+ shots while they were still trying to figure out how best to compose the shot, while stepping further and further backwards. Imagine having to do that at a place as busy as Disneyworld on July 4! Yikes! These people had P&S cameras from every walk of life -- Canon, Oly, Sony, you name it. Only me and one other person had a Panasonic that I knew of -- and he loved his too!
I bought the camera after comparing it to Sony, Canon and Oly P&S. I was wary of Oly after my last experience. I went to several different stores and was heavily leaning towards a Sony. Believe it or not, the salesmen (Several of them) in a store that specialized in Sony products kept trying to steer me away from the Sony that cost more and pushing me toward the Panasonic TZ3 for ease of use and quality of photos. I tried it, checked around some more and then bought it from Costco because when I went back to the store, they had sold out of all their TZ3s. They still had a lot of the Sonys that I originally was interested in though!
I thought I'd miss the viewfinder as well, especially in bright outdoor lighting in situations where I couldn't really even see the LCD (holding it up over my head to take a shot, bright sun in my eyes, direct sunlight overhead, etc.). I never missed the viewfinder once and to be honest, I never missed a shot. I was able to get multiple shots of the same scene. Almost every single one of them came out perfectly fine -- even the ones in which I wasn't looking, just shooting. I'm not kidding, almost every single shot I took with my camera came out usable. (IMO) I filled up a 4GB SDHC card. I probably threw out 1 for every 500 photos I took. My photos may not be up to Pro standards, but I was very happy with it especially because I used it primarily in Auto mode since I had just gotten it a few days before my trip (I didn't want to take a chance on missing anything).
I took pictures out of a tinted window of a bus while on the freeway, zooming in from one side, through the window on the other side, and zoomed up to where the Wall is (far from the road), on the way to the Great Wall and they came out fine. FWIW, we only had 1 clear day on the whole trip. Every other day was hazy and smoggy right down to the ground. This was one of those ugly, smoggy, overcast days, and this was through the tinted windows of the bus:
I have never been able to do that with my Oly, and to date have not done so with my D80 because obviously that camera is not idiot proof!
If you get the TZ3, read the manual. There are 2 ways to set the Image stablization and one way works far better than the other. It tells you in the manual which one it is. I can't recall. I set it to the way they suggested; it worked great, and I'm leaving it that way, so I don't have to remember since I'm not changing it.
It also mentions it at DPreview.com.
Here are some of Chines acrobats from about 100 yards away in a darkened theater:
These people were spinning aound very fast on the ropes -- like Cirqu Du Soleil kind of stuff and they came out pretty clear, imo.
And these people were spinning plates balanced on top of sticks -- and you can see the plates!
And in this last one above, the stage was dark, except for a few red lights to highlight the performers, and obviously the theatre where I sat was even darker. And the camera still focused and the photo came out -- in Auto! Again, I'm sure many pros could rip this shot apart, but to me it was awesome -- all I had to do was literally point and shoot. And the shutter didn't lag and cause me to miss the shot. What more could I ask for in a $300 P&S?
Again through the bus window:
Pretty colorful flowers at the side of the road...
And lastly, a very low light shot using Landscape mode.
I was pretty far away from the guy in the picture (about 30ft, maybe closer to 50 ft away?) I wanted him and the lit up wall. Could it be better? Yeah. (The photo seems soft and when you zoom in on the shot you can see the lights are not as focusd as they could/should be.) But again, I was just glad it came out decent as opposed to
not at all. I saw alot of people experiencing
that on my trip. I was glad to not be one of them. I think the only other person who was able to capture this shot above with no problems was a lady using a DSLR. So I think the Panasonic TZ3 is perfect for a novice. It gets great reviews, it's easy to use and the photos are very decent; check out DPreview.com
Good luck with whatever you choose!
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