Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1

 
Auto Mode
As stated in the previous section, the automatic mode on the TZ1 is titled the Simple mode and represented by a heart icon on the mode dial. It is more intuitive to call the automatic mode just what it is, but to its credit it does simplify things – maybe even a bit too much. The menu in the Simple mode is dumbed down not only in the availability of options but in its presentation. The text is larger and the menu is more colorful. It isn’t a pretty color scheme though; the menus are teal and hot pink – like my cousin’s wedding colors in 1992 (which even then were years out of date). The menu almost insults the user’s intelligence. It shortens the options to the following.  

Movie Mode
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 has a movie mode that shoots QuickTime clips at several resolutions. 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 are available at 10 or 30 fps. Also available at those speeds is a widescreen-optimized 848 x 480 pixel setting. The best part of the movie mode is that the 10x optical zoom lens works, as does the MEGA optical image stabilization system. The zoom moves slowly the whole time in movie mode, but it remains quiet. The TZ1 records monaural audio, but its quality isn’t that great. Fortunately, the image looks much better. The image stabilization works continuously in the movie mode and looks great, compensating for normal camera shake that is often visible at the telephoto end of the zoom. Movies taken with the Panasonic Lumix TZ1 should look smooth.

Drive / Burst Mode
The burst mode on the TZ1 isn’t all that impressive. It can take 2 frames per second for an entire 3 images at the highest resolution. When the quality setting is nudged down to Standard instead of Fine, the camera can take up to 5 images at 3 frames per second. The burst mode can be activated by its own burst/delete button, but the self-timer is only activated by pushing the left button on the multi-selector. 2 and 10-second options are available. Buried in the little heap of menu settings is the Flip Animation mode, which is a distant cousin of the burst mode and some sort of relative to the movie mode. With it, users can snap up to 100 shots and then play them back at a rate of 5-10 frames per second. While this isn’t great for recording real action (it doesn’t record at 5 fps!), users can stage and shoot their own action flicks. Then they can watch them complete with fast forward, rewind and play.

Playback Mode
Like many other playback modes, users can scroll through individual pictures or frames that contain many images. The 2.5-inch LCD screen can display 9 or 25 thumbnails per frame and even has a calendar display that shows the first image taken on each date. Pictures can be magnified up to 16x, so it is easy to see the purple splotches of noise on the pictures or to check focus. Images automatically rotate to be right-side up no matter what angle the camera is being held at. Users can mark favorite images and can attach up to 10 seconds of audio with each photo. Users can also resize, protect and trim their pictures. A DPOF Print setting lets users scroll through images and select which photos and how many of each to print. There is also a slide show option that isn’t fancy, but certainly does its job in displaying photos and videos. Movies can be played back with the rewind, fast forward, play and stop options.

Custom Image Presets
There are two scene mode positions on the dial, which may be confusing to some. The same options are available in both positions: Portrait, Sports, Food, Scenery, Night Scenery, Night Portrait, Fireworks, Party, Snow, Soft Skin, Starry Sky, Candlelight, Self Portrait, Beach, Aerial Photo, High Sensitivity, Underwater, Baby 1 and Baby 2. The reason for having two positions is this: users can save the Party mode on SCN1 and Beach on SCN2 if those are the most frequently used modes. If there was only one position, users would have to do a lot of scrolling to reach the beach scene mode. One of the highlights is the function guide that explains what all of the scene modes are for. For example, the Aerial Photo mode is "for taking pictures through an airplane window." The explanation even adds, "Please turn off the camera when taking off or landing." The other highlight of the scene mode menu is the dancing ballerina animation that is next to the High Sensitivity mode. Speaking of that mode, it works well, illuminating subjects without the flash, but it won’t make anything larger than a 4 x 6-inch print. Its resolution is greatly reduced so that it can reach the ISO 800-1600 settings.