The Panasonic DMC-TZ1 and DMW-MCTZ1

Peter Rowlands · Issue 31, Jul/Aug 2006 · pp. 13–14

Products mentioned: Panasonic DMC-TZ1, Panasonic DMW-MCTZ1

Panasonic are a relative newcomer in the underwater compact world but they have made an impressive start with the DMC- TZ1 and 40 metre DMW-MCTZ1 underwater housing. The camera is a 5 megapixel point and shoot and boasts a 10x optical zoom (35-350mm 35mm equivalent). This is very impressive on land but a bit extreme underwater! A nice feature as far as I’m concerned is that the camera can provide 16:9 format by cropping top and bottom of the frame. Sure you can do this with software later but it would be tedious applying to all your shots when the camera can do it for you. From an underwater photographers viewpoint the TZ1 is an interesting camera and has three important features. Manual white balance, optical image stabilisation and a Scene mode for underwater. The white balance is useful when using colour correcting filters, the stabilisation helps shutter blur and the scene mode is a …