The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 Digital Camera is a remarkable camera which contains a 10x optical zoom lens in a compact, stylish body for the ultimate in picture performance and user convenience. With 7.2 effective megapixels of resolution for incredibly detailed images, and a wide-angle Leica DC lens (equivalent to 28-280mm on a 35mm film camera), this versatile camera is well suited to a broad range of shooting opportunities. You can easily capture a large group of people, or expansive architectural structures and landscapes with the wide end of the zoom range, or zoom in for sports, wildlife and event photography.
In addition, the Optical Image Stabilizer feature (Mega O.I.S) minimizes the jitter from shaky hands that causes many photos to look blurred. This ensures that your images will always be beautifully clear.
The DMC-TZ3 is incredibly fast thanks to the Venus Engine III processor, which provides fast consecutive shooting, and boasts outstanding response time thus enabling easy capture of spur-of-the-moment shots. The image processor also provides for efficient power consumption, contributing to the camera's ability to take 250 pictures on a single charge of the included lithium-ion battery. The camera also includes a bright and high resolution 3.0" LCD display to easily frame and view your images.
7.2 Megapixel Resolution
With a resolution of 7.2 Megapixels, you'll be able to produce high resolution images that can yield photo quality 16 x 20" prints. The 1/2.35" CCD with a total of 8.50 megapixels is larger than those in conventional 7 megapixel cameras so the camera can reproduce images in any of three aspect ratios (4:3, 3:2 or 16:9), and at any point in the zoom range, so you can always capture dynamic, richly expressed shots with a wide perspective.
10x Optical Zoom Lens
The Leica DC Vario-Elmarit Lens includes an ED (extra-low dispersion) lens and three aspherical lenses to delivers an exceptional optical performance, and the powerful 10x optical zoom (equivalent to a big 28 to 280mm lens on a 35mm camera) provides a broad range of photo capabilities from broad landscapes and group shots to nature and sports photos. The zoom ratio can be further extended up to 15x in 3 megapixel resolution mode with minimal deterioration thanks to the Extra Optical Zoom. Furthermore, in combination with the 4x digital zoom, a zoom factor of up to 60x can be achieved.
MEGA Optical Image Stabilizer
The MEGA O.I.S (Optical Image Stabilizer) feature offsets unintentional hand movement while you're taking pictures to give you clear, sharp images even when taking handheld telephoto shots or shooting at night. This system uses built-in gyrosensors to detect even tiny camera movement and then shifts a lens in the opposite direction to compensate. The system is completely optical so you get sharp, clear images with minimal degradation. It lets you reduce the shutter speed more than 3 stops below the conventionally accepted hand movement limit, greatly expanding what you can do with a handheld digital camera.
Rapid Focusing
Choose from several auto focus modes - spot, 1-point (normal or high speed), 3-point high-speed, and 9-point - to suit the scene you're shooting. Combined with a startup time of merely 0.95 seconds, this fast focusing lets you catch every shooting opportunity. Plus, the AF Assist Lamp helps when focusing in dimly lit places.
High Sensitivity Mode Helps Reduce Motion Blur
When there's not a lot of light or you're using a slow shutter speed, hand movement isn't the only potential problem. There's also "motion blur" -- the blurring that can result if your subject like children or pets move even a little in low lighting. The High Sensitivity mode allows you to shoot at up to ISO 3200 by using the pixel-mixed readout method, effectively raising the shutter speed. It not only minimizes motion blur, it also lets you take clearer, sharper shots in dim lighting without using a flash.
MEGA Burst Consecutive Shooting
Thanks to the Venus Engine III, the DMC-TZ3 has a release time lag as low as 0.006 seconds, can also fire off consecutive shots at a swift 3 frames per second, and offers unlimited consecutive shooting at approximately 1 frame per second, so you can keep shooting until the SD Memory Card or built-in memory is full.
Twenty Scene Modes
The 20 scene modes included in the DMC-TZ3 allow you to effectively capture your travelling experience, wherever you go. The 'aerial' mode assists with shooting through aeroplane windows, and once you reach your destination, the 'beach' mode is ideal for taking photos in strong sunlight. These modes are welcomed additions to the existing portrait, soft skin, scenery, night portrait, night scenery, food, party, candle, fireworks, starry sky, snow and baby mode. Panasonic's 'Baby' Mode has now doubled its appeal with the ability to set two birthdays for two children. When shooting in Baby Mode1 or 2, the relevant child's age at the time of image capture is automatically recorded onto the image, allowing you to forever treasure your children's special moments.
Record High Quality Moving Images
Record beautiful full-size movies in 16:9 Wide VGA format at 30 fps or 10 fps with enhanced picture quality and brightness, and it can also shoot standard VGA and QVGA resolution for home use or e-mail/web applications.
Auto Angle Detection
Auto angle detection records whether an image was taken horizontally or vertically. This ensures that when playing back on the LCD monitor and displaying images on your TV by connecting your Lumix Digital Camera with an AV cable, vertical images are automatically displayed vertically and horizontal images are automatically displayed horizontally.
3.0" High-Resolution LCD Display
The DMC-TZ3 features a 3.0" diagonal high-resolution LCD monitor which is surprisingly large for such a compact camera. This high-quality, display makes it easy to see your subject, and when shooting outdoors on a sunny day, press the Power LCD button to boost the backlighting for easier visibility. The High Angle Mode improves viewability from a low angle, such as when shooting over a crowd. The display also provides many shooting assist features such as guide lines for better image framing and a histogram function to check exposure on the fly.
Built-in and Expandable Memory
The camera includes 12.7MB of built-in memory, and the memory capacity can be expanded dramatically with Secure digital (SD) or Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) memory cards. You can also copy images from a memory card or PC to the built-in memory, and view them on the LCD anytime you like.
Bundled Photo Editing Software
The DMC-TZ3 includes the Lumix Simple Viewer for Windows. This software is good especially for the beginners to store, playback, and print or attach to E-mail the images via the PC. Images will be automatically transferred just by inserting the SD Memory Card into a card reader or by connecting the camera to PC; and the images will also be sorted by the date of shooting to streamline the process of organizing the pictures as much as possible. In addition, the camera also includes ArcSoft PhotoImpression, PanoramaMaker, and PhotoBase to further expand your image editing and organization capabilities.
Print Directly From Your Camera
You can send images directly to print, right from the DMC-TZ3 camera without the need of a PC. Simply connect the camera to a PictBridge compatible printer by using the included USB cable, and then simply select the pictures you want to print.