http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/panasonic-lumix-dmc-tz5/4505-6501_7-32848645.html?tag=mncol;also
I gave you the review for the DMC TZ5 instead of the DMC TZ4 because they’re supposed to be almost exactly alike except for the size of the LCD screen and amount of megapixels.
I had it for awhile but then returned it later. Partly because of actual problems and partly out of my own paranoia and obsession with needing to buy the perfect compact camera.
The problems I experienced were these:
1.) The focus was sometimes a little weird. Even if I prefocused the camera, when I went to take the actual picture, it sometimes found the need to focus again.
2.) The focus was a little weird. Sometimes I would focus on an object by pressing the shutter button halfway down, then I would release it without moving the camera, but when I pressed the shutter button halfway down again, it sometimes found the need to search the entire focal length (blurry to partial clear to blurry-ish to clear) before finally focusing on the object.
3.) Sometimes when I focused, a green patch or really thin, horizontal, pink lines would flicker onto the screen for less than half a second. They were never shown on the recorded image because it happened only when I would try to focus. The manual actually does acknowledge spots of green, red and some other color I forgot it named, as just the fact that only 99.9 of the pixels are working 100% of the time, and that it wasn’t a malfunction. But in my need for the perfect-camera frenzy I argued that the green patches that flashed covered about a quarter of the screen (which is true), which is not the size of the estimated 0.1 pixels that were to not work sometimes. Plus the manual acknowledged SPOTS, not patches or horizontal lines.
4.) The zoom/focus is a little weird. Sometimes I would zoom in on an object at 6x or something around that, then focus on it. Then I would release the shutter button and focus in at the full 10x zoom. It would zoom in on the object almost crystal clear, but when I went to take the picture, it would refocus and stop at a much less clear object.
Other than those rather minor errors I found, the camera was actually pretty good. But those things just really irked me…and along with the bad things, at the area I live in, the camera is available only is silver, which I really don’t like because it’s so cold, and metallic and not a warming color, plus it’s too typical.
digital camera review, Consumer Electronics