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Sunday, February 04, 2007

Panasonic Unveils Travel Friendly Compact 10x Optical Zoom Lumix Digital Camera

Panasonic today announced the 10x Optical Zoom Lumix DMC-TZ3 digital camera, the compact zoom model for its 2007 digital camera line. The new 7.2 Megapixel entry to the popular TZ family packages a 28mm wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens, Intelligent Image Stabilization, with the industry’s most advanced countermeasures against blurring, a 3.0-inch LCD, and a compact, stylish, Stainless Steel body.

The entire 2007 Lumix spring digital still camera line incorporates the industry’s most advanced countermeasures against blurring with the introduction of Intelligent Image Stabilization. This system comprises two features—MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) and Intelligent ISO Control. Together the features make it easy to capture beautiful photos every time users shoot by compensating for the effects of hand-shake and image movement, making it possible to capture clear, crisp photos anytime, in any mode.

“The Lumix DMC-TZ3 is the successor to the extremely popular DMC-TZ1, and the perfect camera for anyone with an active lifestyle. It combines a host of must-have features into a compact, stylish body ideal for slipping into your coat pocket or travel bag,” said Alex Fried, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Corporation of North America. “With 10x Optical Zoom, a powerful 28mm wide-angle LEICA lens and Intelligent Image Stabilization, the DMC-TZ3 is destined to be a leader and innovator in the compact zoom space.”

The camera is also able to shoot from 28mm at the wide end and 280mm in telephoto, making it is fully equipped for any photo shooting situation. The 10x Optical zoom lets users take close-up shots even when users cannot move closer to the subject, and the wide-angle lens is helpful in situations where users cannot step back or move away.

Conventional cameras generally use almost the entire CCD area when recording an image and the angle of view may be altered regardless of the photographer’s intention. The DMC-TZ3 CCD area is larger than those in conventional 7-megapixel class cameras, and can reproduce images shot with the lens set in any of three aspect ratios—4:3, 3:2 or 16:9—so users can always capture dynamic, richly expressive shots with a wide perspective. The DMC-TZ3 also features the Panasonic Venus Engine III, its most advanced image-processing engine. The engine helps to improve noise reduction and can record at a sensitivity setting as high as ISO 1250 with full resolution. With its multi-task image-processing capability, the Venus Engine III also boasts outstanding response time, shutter release time lag as short as 0.006 second, and shutter interval as short as 0.5 seconds*. This fast response makes it easy to capture sudden, spur-of-the-moment shots. Additionally in burst shooting mode, the DMC-TZ3 can fire off three shots per second at full resolution** and allows unlimited consecutive shooting until the SDHC/SD memory card is full***.

The effective pixels in the DMC-TZ3 have also been increased to 7.2 Megapixels to support enhanced zoom functions. For example, Panasonic’s Extra Optical Zoom function provides additional magnification to 15x, when taking photos with 3-megapixel resolution by using the center part of the CCD. Using this feature in combination with the 4x digital zoom the camera provides a total zoom factor of up to 60-times.