Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 review

Part of panasonic's Travel Zoom range, the TZ3 is a point-and-shoot camera that's not much bigger than other compacts, yet has a 10x zoom lens.

Big zooms offer a huge advantage when photographing wildlife and sport, for candid portraits and just getting closer to anything. But few people want to cart a bulky SLR-style camera around. We're big fans of this compact super-zoom concept.

The TZ3 is particularly enticing because its 10x zoom starts at a wide-angle 28mm focal length. Wide-angle lenses are ideal for shooting panoramic views, buildings and large groups of people, which makes the TZ3 perfect for holidaymakers.

We found it an excellent performer, capturing a picture every 1.4 seconds, or just over two seconds when using the flash. Both of these figures are better than average, but the two frames per second (fps) continuous mode is way beyond most compacts. The controls and menus are straightforward and friendly, partly because there are no manual exposure or focus options. However, an Intelligent ISO mode lets you retain some control over sensitivity, balancing fast shutter speeds against image noise without any manual fiddling around.

The camera is a little larger and heavier than the average 3x zoom, but with its smart aluminium case and whopping 3-inch LCD screen it looks anything but clunky. Our one gripe is that some of the button labels are hard to see in low light, being etched rather than printed.

Image quality is often a failing of compact superzooms, but detail from the TZ3's modest 7.1 megapixels was up to scratch compared to similarly priced higher-resolution cameras. The TZ3 gave us excellent colours, handled tricky high-contrast scenes well, and produced flattering skin tones. Digital noise (a grainy effect caused by random false colour values) was never absent, but photos were clean and detailed enough for standard-sized prints at all ISO settings except the maximum 1250. The versatile lens, which has optical image stabilisation to avoid blur due to camera shake, allowed us to compose much more attractive shots than would be possible with a 3x zoom.