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Panasonic TZ5 or Pentax WS80

  • 14-03-2010 3:53am
    #1
    Dr Sanchez
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭


    Im going travelling for a bit and want a decent point and shoot to take with me. I originally was sold on the TZ5 due to its optical zoom while movie recording, but the pentax seems a much better all rounder, but only has digital zoom. Can i have your opinions?

    I dont know which one to go for, both have their good and bad points, the differences i can find are:

    Panasonic TZ5
    10x OPTICAL ZOOM while recording HD video
    Maybe a better camera
    Better built and looks much better

    Pentax Optio W80
    Waterproof
    Has time lapse feature
    HD recording with decent sound quality
    Smaller and more compact
    Cheaper

    Which one would you people pick and do you have any expereicne of either?
    If only the pentax had optical zoom id be buying it straight away!


Comments

  • #2
    Ghost Train
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 30,399 ✭✭✭✭Ghost Train


    pentax has 5x optical zoom


  • #3
    Dr Sanchez
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭Dr Sanchez


    Sorry i forogt to mention, when i meant optical zoom i meant optical zoon while recording video. The Panasonic can do this but the Pentax cant.

    Or if anyone knows a decent camera that has opticla zoom while recording and a time lapse feature, please let me know. I cant beleive in this day and age its near impossible to fidn a camera that can do both...


  • #4
    gary the great
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,665 ✭✭✭gary the great


    The Pentax W80 take a crap photo, the TZ5 takes a good photo.

    If i were you id get the TZ5, there must be a way to do time lapse on them? If not, just buy an older cheaper second hand Pentax as i think a lot of them have the timer lapse feature.


  • #5
    drBill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 329 ✭✭drBill


    I know this is an old thread but just thought I'd chip in about the Optio W80 cos I just bought one.
    I've previously had an Optio WPi and Optio W20 which I either lost or broke and was reasonably happy with them. My main requirement is that the camera is waterproof and compact.

    So this week Pixmania had a good price for the Optio w80 - e150 - so I bought it and it arrived yesterday. I was aware that a lot of reviewers had commented that it took a noisy picture in poor light but the general drift was that the overall package was good value for money so I figured I'd live with that.

    Well the only word to describe the pictures is shocking. No matter what I did, the picture quality was comparable to what I used to get on my 1 Mp mobile phone camera a few years ago. Dark, fuzzy, indistinct. I just can't believe how bad it was.

    So less than 24 hours after arriving, it is now in the post back to Pixmania, here's hoping they don't mess me around with the refund. But even if I never get my money back it's better than spending the next few years torturing myself trying to get a decent picture out of that bloody thing, and lamenting all the sights I failed to capture!


  • #6
    CabanSail
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 9,047 CMod ✭✭✭✭CabanSail


    What ISO did you have selected?


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  • #7
    drBill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 329 ✭✭drBill


    CabanSail wrote: »
    What ISO did you have selected?

    Well the camera is gone back now but I have some of the pics on the pc and all seem to be ISO 400. All were indoors, it was evening time, and various types of lights were on in different parts of the house. I'd consider the place to be fairly brightly lit. To be honest I'm not a camera expert and not familiar with ISO, exposure times, etc. I typically choose from a handful of preset modes (low light/flash on/flash off/soft flash/macro/infinity/etc) then point and click. I messed around with a few of the modes and tried it in various indoor lighting conditions and all the pictures were rubbish. For comparison I tried the same shots with a 5 year old 6mp camera, and it was always able to take a perfectly acceptable (at least for the layman) picture.


  • #8
    drBill
    Closed Accounts Posts: 329 ✭✭drBill


    I bought the W80 from Pixmania and have read a certain amount of negative feedback about them on boards but, to give credit where it is due, in this case they refunded me the price of the camera promptly and without quibble once they received the return. They logged the reason for the return as something like 'customer not 100% satisfied' which is fair enough as I can't judge whether it was defective or not. It meant I had to pay the postage charges each way but those are the breaks with buying online.


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