Ah, the Panasonic Lumix TZ1 — so compact, so capable, so powerful, so perfect for all my purposes! In a form factor no bigger than my Canon PowerShot A80, the Panasonic TZ1 packs in a 10x zoom and a wide-screen movie mode.
When I bought my PowerShot A80 (with its puny 3x zoom), I had no idea how much I’d miss the 10x optical zoom feature on my old Sony. For those unfamiliar with zoom powers: with a 3x zoom, you can stand ten feet from your friends, zoom in, and crop out the background. With a 10x zoom, you can stand ten feet from your friends, zoom in, and fill the frame with one person’s left nostril.
Since switching to the Canon PowerShot A80 with a 3x zoom, my pictures are still sharp and clear … but far less dramatic.
Problem is, until now, 10x optical zooms have always added a great deal to the size and weight of digital cameras — making them impossible to stuff them in your pocket and forget about them. But thanks to elfin magic called “folding optics” and “prisms,” the Panasonic TZ1 manages to squeeze a 10x optical zoom into a flat, thin form factor that makes the hearts of technonerds everywhere go all aflutter.
Powerful zooms, dozens of pre-set image settings, a fat LCD screen for composing pictures, true wide-screen digital video, your choice of four body colors … what’s not to love about this camera? (At this writing, the people at CompUSA have banned me from the store for licking the display model. It’s sad, but true.)
So anyone in the market for a cheap, almost-new Canon PowerShot A80? Let me know.
mark,does it have a high quality lense? my understanding, from having a kick ass sony digital cameral (that also doubles for a phalic device of serious proportions) is that Zeiss lenses make all the difference….yours truly,desperately needing a small but good digital camera.