The Panasonic Lumix DMCtz5s is a strong camera that would work for just about anyone. It takes photos at 9 Mega Pixels – a little more than most cameras that are currently available for similar prices.

The camera is fairly large in comparison as well. It could fit in your pocket but it would be a little bulky. This is due largely to the fact that it has a wide 3.0” LCD screen. Most cameras right now have 2.4” (or close to 2.4”) LCDs , so this is definitely a next generation camera.

This isn’t the easiest point and shoot digital camera to use. If you have no experience with digital cameras in the past, or if you want to buy a camera for someone without much experience in the past, this probably isn’t the best choice. It’s more of a camera for people who are experienced in taking photos, but don’t want to carry around professional equipment.

The Panasonic Lumix includes 10x optical zoom. It has advanced digital image optimization features, such as the new Panasonic Venus Engine IV, which improves noise reduction and corrects images. It also includes face detection, a standard in all digital cameras these days.

The camera stores photos on SD cards, so you might have to purchase an SD card to use this camera to the fullest. The camera takes AA batteries – lots of them. You should plan on having a few extra batteries, especially if you are planning on spending a whole day taking photos. It’s not that the camera wastes power, it just has a lot of features that require the extra battery usage.

One of the very cool features on this camera is the Intelligent Exposure. With this new feature, photos will no longer be under- or over-exposed. Instead, the TZ5 instantly analyzes the framed image and adjusts the brightness in areas that are too dark because of dim lighting, backlighting or the use of the flash. The camera will automatically adjust the brightness accordingly.

That’s not all it does either. This may be one of the smartest cameras on the market today. Intelligent Scene Selector senses the ambient conditions, recognizes the shooting environment and will automatically select the appropriate scene mode from: Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode. This intuitive technology, helps you use the most common scene modes that are built into the camera, but often go unused, without making any manual adjustments.

In addition, Panasonic’s face detection detects faces anywhere in the frame and automatically chooses the optimal focus and exposure settings so portraits come out clear and crisp. Detecting up to 15 faces, Panasonic’s Face Detection can even track a face if the subject is moving.

I would suggest this camera to anyone that is serious about taking quality pictures. To use this camera you need a little experience with digital cameras. It is powerful enough to turn anyone with at least a little experience into a seemingly professional photographer, but it is a little on the expensive side for an amateur. The camera is bulky compared to many of the extremely compact models that are becoming so popular and might be too big to carry around if you are a very casual photographer. If you get excited about opportunities to take photos and don’t mind the little bit of extra weight and the learning curve, this camera is very powerful and could be just perfect for you.