Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ25 Point & Shoot Camera

This camera was very highly rated by the world's top review sites when it was launched last year and at this price, it is a killer deal. Just to inform you, this camera has the same 12.1MP sensor from the FZ150, which was the world's best bridge camera of it's day, and this sensor does not suffer from the low ISO noise that Panasonic's later and more advanced camera's have. It has some very good features, but (as expected), slightly lags in some areas. So I am making a concise list based on my usage. nnPros-n1. Compact design, and zoom is also compact.n2. Good construction- Nikon can take a lesson from Panasonic here in their battery doors. Everything seems fairly sturdy (see Cons however).n3. Good feature set- most notably, Intelligent Zoom (at 8/5MP), OIS, HDR. n4. A very good HDR, which is very quick in low light, and only takes a little time in high contrast situations. (Why is this useful?- Well, HDR is very useful in low light or ambient light photography if it works fast - you can get good ambient light shots as ISO100).n5. Very good OIS- it really works.n6. Very good and fast AF. It only struggles very low light/contrast situations.n7. Q-Menu and Main Menu easy to navigate and use (see Con however).n8. Noiseless pics till ISO200. Very natural color, and none of that brown hue that plagues Panasonics budget camera's and even the FZ60.n9. Effectively 4 Custom Settings possible (C1, and C2-1-4).n10. iAuto has a very useful option to disable flash, or enable auto flash, making it unusable with sensitive subjects like pets.n11. Flash metering is very good and rich exposures with depth can be had (I have not tried range, group shots etc, but it works up to 15ft with ISO100 through zoom (f6.3), so it should be okay.)n12. Very useful 24mm at the wide end. 16x (with 12MP) can be extended to higher levels by dropping to 8MP or 5MP. This is not a con, as we view our pictures on laptops with 1366*768p mostly, which is 1.3MP. So even 5MP is very good, and most professional DSLRs of a few years back, had 6MP.n12. IN CAMERA BATTERY CHARGING VIA ADAPTOR OR USB!! Yahoo!!!! Charging time is around 2hrs with fully discharged battery. Please remember to do a couple of recharge-discharge cycles on the new battery, it really improves battery life (number of shots per charge as well as life in years).n13. Monitor is of very good quality, and manual exposure is possible with it's help as it changes it's brightness as per the set exposure when the shutter button is half pressed (See Cons however).n14. Option to display 2 kinds of gridlines, while hiding the exposure jargon. This is hidden in the loooong menu, but still it's there, and it's useful if you want just the gridlines in the screen, and none of the other indicators.15.n15. Super Macro may not be possible, but using some of the tweaks like Exposure Compensation, one can get a super sharp picture with excellent background defocus. I have some of a bee on a flower, that is absolutely sharp.nnnCons-n1. Top command dial is the only flimsy feeling part. I saw a slight play in the first day itself. But it doesn't seem to be weak or anything. Maybe it's just prominent on a small dial like this.n2. Lens cover blades need to be kept away from children, the multi-blade shutters are delicate and can be damaged if a child pokes a finger into it. The lens cover shutters make a slight jingling noise when the camera is shaken slightly- so don't think something is broken.n3. Q-Menu and Main menu are not perfect, even though they are easy. Accessing color options, and metering needs a lot of scrolling through the main menu. This could have easily been part of the main menu. Come on Panasonic, what were you thinking?n4. Noise really starts to come from ISO400. But this is common to every camera in this range and the next higher ones too.n5. Setting Custom menus is easy, but not logical. One expects to open the Custom Menu and make changes to the settings, but instead, one needs to first set up the camera with the settings he/she wants, then enter the Custom Settings, and save the configuration. More often than not, this will need changes twice- once when saving the Custom Config, and then when getting back to what we were doing.n6. No Advanced Color Options like Color Saturation, Contrast, Sharpness etc. But it's not needed anyway. This camera produces incredible sharp, rich and contrasty pictures.n7. Average battery life. I managed about 170 shots first charge. This will go up, still it's a little low. But the good thing is USB in Camera Charging is possible.n8. Manual Exposure with Flash using the Monitor as a guide is not possible as the monitor does not alter it's brightness as per exposure when Flash is activated. n9. Limited aperture range- 5.6-6.3, but the shutter speeds vary very well, and you can make your own little combinations for this.nnWhat I cannot say about-n1. Video- I don't shoot videos with still cameras.n2. Scene Modes- I seldom use them.

I was looking for a point and shoot with full manual modes to play with.Reviews of this model were very good and the price was 2k lesser than its main rival sony HX10V, so i ordered it.nRegarding the camera, it is perfect point and shoot for a casual user who ocassionaly wants to try some manual shooting modes. It has a full manual mode to tweak all settings like exposure,ISO, aperture and shutter speed, also it has semi manual modes to experiment with. If you just want to point and shoot then automatic mode is there. Overall great camerannProsn1 Excellent performance in good light in every condition (automatic mode rocks and always take the best pic).n2 Very good performance in low light if you tweak the settings.n3 Perfect flash performance if you slighty alter the exposure accordingly.n4 Fast autofocus.n5 Camera is very very easy to use and altering the settings is a cakewalk.n6 Decent battery life.n7 HDMI cable, 4 GB class 4 memory card and tripod included.n8 Zoom speed is perfect while shooting videos.n9 Excellent for night photography.nnConsn1 Average looks.n2 Automatic mode sometimes disappoints in low light, it boost up the ISO to insane levels and take average pics.n3 Mono sound recording.n4 Scene mode which is full of custom modes like scenery,HDR,sports, baby etc has some horrible presets. Scenery mode,potrait mode and HDR mode is total waste, the HDR performance of camera on automatic mode is far better than that on the HDR preset. Similer is the scenery mode and potrait mode but since auto mode is excellent in good light and you can always tweak settings in low light very easily( take 10 sec max only once to do the settings) so this disadvantage dosen;t matter.nnOverall excellent product with only real disadvantage is its average performance on auto mode in low light ( remember sometimes it performs good and the performance is excellent with slight manual settings).nnHighly recommended.