Hi

I have been looking for a camera for about a year now, and finally the TZ1 seems to tick all the boxes (compact, photo quality,10x OZ, IS etc).

I have looked at all the available reviews/opinions on this (I think) but am still reluctant to buy it till Steve has done a review - his reviews are so much more comprehensivve than others - so go on Steve - please...........!

:bye:In the interim can anyone let me know re the viewfinder (as it is not optical) - does it refresh rapidly?

I need to be able to follow action in the viewfinder e.g. a galloping horse, so I cando a series of shots, and not find I have missed it or cut bits off!.

Cheers

PS this is my first ever posting online - anywhere! :?

toddie wrote: Honestly, electronic viewfinders are horrible and I don't think one exists that will meet your needs. If someone knows differnent, I'm sure they'll chime in. Some may be better than others, but I think the current technology has some built in limitations. I would get a camera with an optical viewfinder, but you will more than likely have to compromise with some of the other features you want. The best method would be to give up compactness and go with a DSLR, which will do everything you want, but can be operated like a Point and Shoot Camera.

toddie-

I own a Panasonic TZ-1, and I will instantly agree with Gozinta. It is a great camera, and I really like it, but it will not do well, attempting to track fast moving horses in daylight conditions.

MT

toddie

I am in the same dilemma and have been haunting these boards for months. I also need to take action shots of my kids riding, both outdoors and in indoor arenas. Because of the sheer size of the arenas good zoom is essential, but so is super fast autofocus and good burst mode. Basically I came to the conclusion that the compact cameras will not give me what I need. To do good horse (action) shots, a dslr is necessary. Our trainer got a Nikon d50 that has awesome continuous shoooting mode (but it is big for my hands). I personally am waiting for the Pentax k100d to come out, I am hoping it will have improved autofocus speed. The Pentax DL is said to have fairly slow (relative to other dslr's but probably still faster than most compacts) autofocus and burst mode isn't as robust as say the Nikon, BUT it is a great deal right now and wouldn't cost much more than the TZ1.

good luck

Peggy

Hi

many thanks for that -:-)

I will probably have to compromise then, as I do need something fairly compact -(I think the TZ1 is about the biggest I would like to go to)or I know I will not use it at all, which is of little use!

What is the refresh rate of the viewfinder on the TZ1?

Cheers

toddie wrote: I'm not sure that information is readily available, but I would look at the specs on the Panasonic website if I were you. While I doubt that information is listed on the spec sheet, I could be wrong. It might be listed in an owner's manual, which you should be able to download from their website.

Even if it had the fastest refresh rate of them all, it still won't make a difference. If you really need it to take the pictures of the type of things you indicated, I think you are in for a big let down. As others have pointed it, the refresh rate is not adequate and the image in the viewfinder will freeze while the camera is processing it. I had a Panasonic FZ30 and it was horrible. The usable ISO speeds on these cameras is also very low. Using a higher ISO speed would be especially important in poor lighting situations especially indoors. Though it goes up to 1600, most likely anything over 200 or 4ooISO will have too much noise. Sure you can clean it up with software, but then you will end up with "soft" pictures. The best compact in terms ofimage quality isgoing to be a Fuji. There are other cameras out there with optical viewfinders, but I don't know of any with the amount of zoom you want in a compact.

meanstreak-

Your answer was spot on.In actual practice I have found that ISO 800 is usable on the TZ-1 with noise reduction software. Currently, the Fuji F-30 is the only P&S camera able to handle high ISO settings (up to ISO 3200) in low light level shooting conditions. However, Fuji will introduce the P&S class, S-6000 in October that uses the F-30 imager and will have a 10+X optical zoom.

MT

My son just bought himself the Fuji s5200 and so far he really likes it, but it is not as compact as the TZ1. He also hasn't tried action (horse) shots yet, so I can't comment on its abilities for action. It has, however, taken some very impressive nature photos up at Yosemite.

Toddie, I am just afraid that if you get a compact camera you will be eternally disappointed with its ability to do action shots. I have done nothing but complain about all of my missed riding shots of my kids from my Canon G2 - and it was top of the prosumer class when I bought it. Have you looked at the Canon A700? It has only 6x zoom and no IS but it does apparently have better autofocus for fast moving subjects, and no EVF.

Peggy

Peggy-

Some roofed horse arenas are really low light situations and require a higher ISO as well. I think that has to also be considered as well. The Fuji S-5200 with its higher ISO capability (up to ISO 1600) will probably be better than a Canon A-700 with its lower ISO capabilities.

The key question will be the EVF on the Fuji S-5200. It will be interesting to see if it has a fast enough refresh rate to enable it to take action photos at horse events. I have a friend who does horse photography with a DSLR, and in his judgement, indoor or roofed horse arenas present some of the most difficult lighting situations.

MT

Thanks for that

Fortunately I do all my shots outside, so light levels will not be a problem. I was wanting 1st compact(ish) or I wont use it at all, then - reasonable zoom, IS, crop on camera & good picture quality of course!)

I will look at the Canon; is it compact?

Any more suggestions welcome

Thanks