Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3-K Camera Free Useful Guideline

This was a great purchase for me. I’ve had it now for 1 1/2 yrs. The screen view is great. The down side is that I think the picture quality isn’t as good as some of my friends cameras who don’t have quite the zoom. Next time I purchase, I’ll prob go with a little less zoom, higher quality for my point and shoot camera and then get a high grade professional camera for photography fun.

I love this camera. I bought it over a year and a half about from another website and paid $280. Why is it now $500 everywhere I look? I used this camera all the time, though I have to say it was a bit heavy and not nearly thin enough to keep in my purse.

I am highly disappointed with Amazon’s and many other online retailer’s price with this camera. $500 is absolutely ridiculous considering I paid almost HALF of that over a year and a half ago. It’s a great camera, I’ll give you that, but I think you can get similar quality with another brand and newer model.

I am most disappointed with it’s short life. It worked great while I had it until I had it on my tripod. I knocked it over on the CARPET and it dropped in slow motion. It barely hit the ground and managed to jam the lens in. I did every suggestion online. I even took the camera and lens apart. It won’t budge. It’s $160 to fix so I thought it’d be the same price to buy a new one. It’s not.

My conclusion? It’s a great camera, but not worth this “new” price. The fact that the lens jammed this easily was a shock, and even more of a shock that this camera costs TWICE what I paid for it OVER A YEAR AND A HALF AGO!!!

The more I use my TZ3, the less I like it. I cannot take a picture on a nice sunny day without having vertical lines across the horizon. This renders the image useless. Pictures taken using the flash are either totally washed out or they are underexposed. Quality of images taken with low light levels are also poor. This leaves a limited range of lighting conditions where a decent image can be taken.

Based on my experiences I would not recommend this camera. There are many positive reviews on Amazon so perhaps my camera is simply defective. I have contacted Panasonic and they will not help me because my camera is out of warranty.

We have several older digital cameras including a Kodak and a Canon and they do not exhibit the problems that I have encountered with the TZ3 so I know that what I am experiencing is not normal for digital cameras.

I’m at the point where I will soon pitch this camera into the garbage and buy a new camera. However, I doubt that it will be a Panasonic Lumix.

Amazon stated that the camera case model #K-38234-00 also fit the digital camera ZS3 but it does not. How do we know this one, model # K-38224-00, fits any of the camera models it says it does?

This is an well designed and made case that provides protective padding for my Lumix DMC-TZ5. There are enough pockets for spare memory cards, a USB cable, and the Lumix’s charger (tight fit for the charger). It rides high on my belt so I can sit without removing it. Fobs on the zippers are handy as is the small handle on top. I don’t use the included shoulder strap but some people might.

I had a panasonic luminix in the past. I love the zoom in a small camara. The pic quality is not always consistant. And theres a lag between shots

Replaced the TZ3 with this camera after a very good experience with the TZ3. Due to the higher price of the TZ5 opted for the TZ4 and believe i did not loose out on much.

The camera is very portable, though its not really a pocket friendly camera, but fits in perfect if you are wearing a denim.

Missed the larger screen that was there with the TZ3, as the 2.5″ screen can be a bit small to one’s liking, and its performance in bright sunlight is not that great. It also has a tendency to show a purple vertical line when shooting in bright sun.

The Intelligent Auto mode is pretty good, and is far better an option for most uses than using the screen modes or the limited manual mode. However the autofocus in auto mode is very slow even after the firmware upgrade, and can be very irritating when you miss the moment due to the delay. The work around is to select “Sport” mode, but here the flash is disabled and is not ideal for indoor use.

The pictures taken in daylight is superb, and is further enriched by the wide screen optics that makes it an ideal trip camera. Pictures of people in groups come out well, but when the number of people increase the faces get distorted. Landscapes and buildings come out superb, though the color reproduction is somewhat not natural (very noticeable when you take sunset/sunrise shots).

The biggest issues is that the indoor photos are not that great, specially in low light conditions. The flash can be overpowering for close proximity shots, but does a fair job for group photos. However indoor shots in low light without the flash are very grainy.

The superb zoom of 10X (extended to 15.9X when set to 3 mega pixel) is very useful and helps you takes some great photos. However the focus at maximum zoom is a bit slow and you need to plan your shots. A tripod is recommended as even with the great optical stabilization, its hard to keep the camera steady when shooting at full zoom.

The issue with indoor performance impacts the movie mode badly, as the videos even with decent light are dark and lacking in detail. However videos taken in daylight are pretty decent for a digital camera and is more than enough to share with friends and family However VGA or WVGA seems to be a bit small compared to the current cameras The ability to zoom while recording video is an asset, and is something you want in a camera once you use it. The zoom is rather slow in video mode to reduce the noise from the mechanics. The audio quality of recordings is rather poor and limited to mono.

One more feature i really missed over the TZ3 was the ability to use the single click context menu and change from normal to wide screen. With the TZ4 (and the TZ5) you have to select the menu option and navigate to change the form factor.

Overall its a decent buy with good quality photos in most cases, and the true wide screen optics makes it a wonderful trip camera. Add the superzoom it makes the camera truly useful for trips to get pictures and videos of items far away.

After 30 years of trying to find the perfect all around travel/family pic camera
this is it!
I have owned 12 film cameras 14 lenses amature to pro. Own 2 DSLR’s EOS 10d and Rebel xt as well as a Kodak z730 and Panasonic dmc-fs5. This dmc-tz4 is the ONLY camera that you need in 90% of photo opportunities you will run across. The Leica 28-280mm lens is sharper than any Canon L series in production (well maybe equal to the $5,000 200mm f1.8). I tested it last week against the decent sigma 18-200mm on a rebet xt body and the tz4 is MUCH sharper at all focal lenghts and gives you great wide screen video. It even edges out my Canon 100-300 f5.6L and that lens in considered one of the sharpest ever in that range!
The only reccomendation if you do much enlarging is to download Neatimage, it’s free
noise reduction software and gives images that smooth DSLR look.
Go buy one!!!

I’m sure this adapter would work perfectly, except for the fact that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3K requires a Multi-Conversion adapter (DMW-MCA1) also. Unfortunately, the description for this power adapter does not include that fact. The seller doesn’t carry the the Multi-Conversion adapter either. Their suggestion was to try “Radio Shack” to find one. Unfortunately, this Multi-Conversion adapter seems to be virtually unavailable in the USA at present, making this power adapter absolutely useless for the DMC-ZS3K camera.

This seller needs to clarify the description for this power adapter as it relates specifically to the Lumix DMC-ZS3K camera. It will NOT work unless you can get your hands on the additional DMW-MCA1 Multi-Conversion adapter.

This adapter looks and works the same as the OEM and its much less expensive. No need to spend more money on something that works the same. So if your on a budget like me this is the way to go.