At first glance, you might notice the shortcomings of Panasonic's Lumix DMC-TZ3. It is thin at about 1.5 inches, but it's not ultra-thin and it won't fit in every pocket. It offers a high resolution, but it lags behind some others. Its image quality is good, but not perfect. Overall, though, the flaws in this point-and-shoot model are minimal, and, if you can put up with a few drawbacks, the DMC-TZ3 is a very nice digital camera for outdoor photography for less than $350.

You'll find the Lumix DMC-TZ3 in three colors: Blue, black and silver. It offers some limited wide-angle capabilities (equal to 28mm on a 35mm equivalent). The maximum zoom on its 10X optical zoom lens is equivalent to 280mm, so the DMC-TZ3 doesn't quite offer as much magnification as some 10X lenses; having the limited wide-angle option, however, makes this a good tradeoff.

Very few cameras thinner than 1.5 inches can offer a 10X or larger optical zoom lens. (With the zoom lens extended, the DMC-TZ3 measures about 2.75 inches in thickness.) Even with its thin body, the DMC-TZ3's dials and buttons are well placed, and this camera is easy to hold and use without smudging the 3.0-inch liquid crystal display (LCD), which is sharp and bright. This is good news because the LCD serves as the camera's only viewfinder.

Our testing suggests that the DMC-TZ3's response times are average to slightly above average. You'll wait 2-3 seconds after pressing the power button to shoot your first photo. Shutter lag is almost 1/2 second in most instances, although you could see a delay of nearly 1 second at the full zoom magnification. Shot-to-shot delays range from about 1.5-3 seconds, depending on whether the flash is in use (flash use results in longer delays).

Image quality with the DMC-TZ3 is a mixed bag. In outdoor lighting, this model provides sharp, bright images, but if the lighting is less than perfect outdoors or too low indoors, you'll see some stray noise in your photos, especially if you try to make large prints. The DMC-TZ3 offers 7.2 megapixels of resolution, which allows for high-quality prints of up to 11X14 inches, but you'll want to stick with smaller prints on low-light photos. Panasonic has included an optical image stabilization (IS) feature with the DMC-TZ3 that helps with image sharpness in low-light conditions.

Don't expect to find many manual-control settings with this model; the DMC-TZ3 works best as an automatic, point-and-shoot digital camera, meaning that more experienced photographers probably will want to look elsewhere for more power. Beginning photographers will appreciate the 15 scene modes included with this model. Each scene mode also includes an information screen, explaining the ideal conditions for each scene. In keeping with the easy-to-use theme, Panasonic has included a second menu structure with the DMC-TZ3 that's extremely simplistic with only four key options. The original menu structure is more traditional, showcasing all of the camera's options.

The DMC-TZ3's drawbacks are minimal, and it offers plenty of strong across-the-board features. Beginning photographers who don't plan to make extremely large prints and who want an easy-to-use camera with a large zoom lens will definitely want to consider the DMC-TZ3.


Pros: Wide-angle and long zoom capabilities in one lens, easy to use model, IS feature works well, LCD is large and bright
Cons: No viewfinder beyond LCD, low-light photos can be noisy, no manual-control features, extremely large prints can be soft

Warranty
1 year, limited