I would definitely buy one of these, it looks great! Btw the Gallery is named 'Lumix LZ5 Hands On' instead of 'TZ5'.

"...this could be a great point-and-shoot for bloggers (or even regular people!) who want to be able to shoot quick clips in HD..."

Am I out of it? When did bloggers start posting HD clips? Or even SD clips, for that matter?

Aww that screen SUCKS for HD. Why? Because its not widescreen.

Or are you saying bloggers would post still frames from the HD clips? At least that makes some sense to me, since HD frames are bigger than most photos posted online (my HV20 produces amazing still images from HD footage).

Boy I'm jonesin hard...

do want

blue one

and the panasonic 32gb sd card class 6

...hopefully the "manual" controls on this bad boy are better than the TZ3.

I think I might have just found my next camera.

How's the audio quality on that HD video. Every other dicital camera video I've ever shot has crap for audio.

Yay! zoom during video. FINALLY. I'm sure it's slow zoom, to (1) stay in focus (2) reduce noise during zoom (which is a major distraction if your camera does this).

I hope Costco carries this (they carry the TZ3)

@draconis2941: Good point. Interestingly enough the only digicams I've used with halfway decent audio have been Sony W series.

I don't think it would be too good for shooting porn.

The big question is: any manual modes?

The other big question: does it use Panasonic's overly-aggressive noise reduction?

was thinking about getting another Canon....but i am thinking this might be the one.

Seems like a nice upgrade to the TZ3. I'm not sure why they eliminated the ability to zoom video in the TZ3. The TZ1 did it. The only thing is I'd like to see the ability to choose the output format for video. I hate the .mov format. I want to be Apple product free on my PC, and I don't want to have to convert all my movies.

@wymea: Nope and probably yup. It's unfortunate that Panasonic hate's incorporating any sort of manual mode into these. Maybe they're afraid including them would eat into their ultra zoom market?

Their noise reduction needs to "step off, yo" as the young whipper snappers would say in modern vernacular.

Hope the movie mode is a decently compressed MP4 format not Motion Jpeg. Hate to transcode movie after uploading to save HD space.

Size wise the TZ-5 looks about the same as my old faithful Sony W1 I am going to replace. (ie thick in today's standard, but I don't mind)

@pipper: No such luck. The specs specifically state "Quicktime Motion JPEG". Can you say "I EAT GINORMOUS SDHC CARDS FOR BREAKFAST!"?

@dcartist: Camera noise problem solved by using an external boom mic?

@Tony C:

Sure, but I seriously doubt it has a mic input.

DO WANT! (i have tz1 and tz3)

According to Amazon.com it will be out in April.. 2 months? WTFOMGBBQ!!

@ryetronics: True that. Guess I'm expecting too much since it's not a "real" camcorder. Truthfully, I don't expect any integrated camera mic to be able to isolate and supress the noise of its own mechanical operations (or of the person behind the camera).

@wymea: I would have to say "yes"

Venus Engine IV

...and "no" ("manual" not mentioned in press release)

Modes
• Intelligent AUTO
• Normal Picture
• Motion Picture
• Clipboard
• Scene 1
• Scene 2

[www.dpreview.com]

YO! Did you see that main picture? WTF Matt, are you eating grease for lunch or hitting the all you can eat fried buffet? I am sure there was some other way you could make the camera look any more crappy, no? I mean wipe your hands 1st before touchin the darn thing. Didn't Mom tell you to wash your hands? Yuck and don't shake my hand at CES next year!

Awesome camera and based off the TZ3 ratings I read about yesterday this will be my next camera. Thanks for the info Giz!

@HJTravels: You may be able to hold the camera with one hand...

@HJTravels: Not true. Everything is good for that.

I saw that it had image stabilizing for still pictures. Does it stabilize in video mode as well?

I know most of you people have a bias against Kodak (I used to), but there's already the V1253 camera out last year with HD (720P) video recording with zoom, stereo audio mic, and 3" widescreen display on the back. All the video I took looked fairly decent on my Mac...

@AndersonBMX: hheheheh

@draconis2941: Canon's IS S2 records stereo audio and even has a decent wind-noise blocker. Unfortunately I won't be replacing my 18 month old DEAD S2IS. I'm not the only one who's IS S2 died at the 18 month mark... I know several people locally. Canon lost us all forever.

Problem with these is the Motion JPEG compression for the video. With the TZ3, a 1GB card would only hold 9-11 minutes, and that want even HD :-(

I am bummed because this camera looks like a really cool point and shoot otherwise...

@optimus-prime: Yeah, that's a norm for almost all cameras with IS. Very handy.

I REALLY want one of these bad boys.

Ill add it to my list.

@Jeremias:
BTW, are you happy with your TZ3?
foi uma boa dica que te dei?