Thanks Poly - The video was a great tutorial and I am in the market for a new camera and the Lumix will get a serious look.<br><br>

As the Red Sox are beating the Reds 8-0 I am permitting a little OCD on the side:<br><br>The Lumix TZ5 has one flaw. It will fit in a jeans pocket if you use a thin canvas slip cover for it but the built in lens cap would certainly get trashed. It is a set of four flimsy louvers that automatically cover the lens. Nice to have the lens covered at all times when the camera shuts off but it needs more protection on a boat, in the woods, in my pocket.<br><br>DPReview forums to the rescue.<br>A Kaiser 53mm lens cap will slip comfortably over the lens. Only $9.95 at Overland Photo. A poster in the forum said they shipped quickly. Now all I need is a lens cap keeper so it just dangles when I remove it.<br><br>Shoot, Pedroia makes it four homeruns for today, 9-0. Sox like this park. And I am not calling JD Drew Nancy Drew again. The guy is torching June.<br><br>

i didn't notice the flimsy lens cover until it was pointed out. i carry mine in my pocket for now, but i have a small lowepro 30 bag coming monday. it has a belt clip. but it's nice to know about the separate lens cap . . . just in case.<br><br><br><br>apparently it perfect for the TZ5 with internal dimensions just barely larger than the camera.<br><br>--<br>[color:red] Kansas Jayhawks -- 2008 National Champions </font color=red>

I have that same bag for my Canon SD 450, I bought from Chomp way back - Its perfect and has a front pocket for the extra battery and SD cards, belt clip is real handy<br><br>

OCD still red lining. As Alex pointed out, no manual controls. So I was thinking of how to get my favorite manual shot out of this camera. My favorite shot is a portrait or an item in foreground and I want everything in background a uniform blur. Now uniform is tough because to be that out of focus the focal plane, the amount of depth through the point of interest can be so small the nose is in focus and the face is not.<br><br>But a somewhat blur is fine. To manual force is easy, just flip to apeture priority, open the lens up to max and shoot. To emulate this in the TZ5 I thought to:<br><br>1) Go to telephoto max<br>2) switch focus to spot (to hit the subject plane I want)<br>3) go to macro (to get even closer so the background is way out of focus.<br><br><br>This is the pic I took before switching to spot focus. The camera grabbed a chunk of the pic and did a crappy average.<br><br><br><br>Much better. Overcast handheldwith max zoom the focus still isn't right but I can see with more light it would work.<br><br><br>Better.<br><br><br><br>Santa focuses well, good blur in background<br><br><br><br>Hold still!<br><br><br><br>No more treats for you I mean it.<br><br><br>Anyone want a peanut?<br><br><br>Over here!!<br><br><br>I forgot to try the macro with max zoom to get closer and blur background more but I am pushing it without flash. If I added that I would have to shoot the series over again since I'm off my OCD meds. <br><br>Summary: The TZ5 has a 10X zoom over the TZ3 5X. A huge zoom didn't really thrill me but I figured more is better if it is a real optical zoom. (It also has digital zoom on top of that which I likely won't touch.)<br><br>But after shooting these shots I can see the 10X being great to have so I can blur background. And using the 10X to bring far away subjects up close and personal I might shoot a little more often because the stabilzer is nothing short of amazing. Panasonic uses a lens shift keeping pixels of contrast from moving. I could shoot dead steady after a night of martinis with this thing!<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

Speaking of extra battery, anyone found the cheapest for the TZ5? And since I am asking about accessories, I got a 4GB SD for 25 bucks. What is the largest practical (expense wise) SD card and do you have to look at the speed of these cards when comparing? I'm clueless about SD.<br><br>

$31 for this 8 GB and it's as fast as an SDHC card can be (Class 6 read/write speed). it's what i bought. i am still looking for a backup battery. but the 8 GB card: link here.<br><br>and this screen protector: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-TZ5-ClearTouch-Crystal-Protectors/dp/B001ACI8N8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1213563763&sr=8-1">link here</a><br><br>--<br>[color:red] Kansas Jayhawks -- 2008 National Champions </font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by FSM on 06/15/08 05:03 PM (server time).</EM></FONT></P>

It's now 26 bucks for 8GB!!! I thought I got an awesome deal with 4GB at 25 bucks. Thanks for the links. I guess I do need a screen protector while it is virginal.<br><br>

I hated those out of focus limes so went back and added some flash. No retouching just shot and dropped down to 1,100 pixels wide in batch<br><br><br><br>much batter, max optical zoom<br><br><br><br>that one is going into a gin and tonic in July<br><br><br><br>this one next week<br><br><br><br>this dog is so dumb she needs soft focus to appear smarter. Cute though.<br><br><br><br>bell<br><br><br><br>lime flower for September G&T<br><br><br><br>An August G&T with a late June G&T in the background.<br><br>Summary: the flash, likely even when there is plenty of light, really pushes open the aperture and thus blurs and darkens the background. Nice. The spot focus really works well. The averaging focus was bumming me out. I can put the spot on the fruit then move to frame the shot with the button halfway and fire. Works pretty well. I may keep the spot focus on for most all shots so I know precisely where the focus plane is.<br><br><br><br><br><br>

This battery is listed under the TZ25:<br>CGAS007A/1B Lithium-Ion Battery for $39. It is the same battery for the TZ-23 apparently.<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>my photos