I was very surprised to see the Panasonic Lumix TZ1 DMC-TZ1K being sold on Amazon today. This camera was released almost 20 years ago now, and there have been thousands of new cameras released since then that have tons more features. But still, it is on there for sale. I've never read the reviews or viewed the buyers uploaded images on Amazon for this camera before, so that was cool. Sadly, though, the review score on the Amazon listing is quite poor. Reviews are quite mixed. It seems like some people did not like the TZ1 when it came out. Some were annoyed about its poor performance in low-light conditions among other things. And yes, I do agree. It isn't great in low light settings. But no camera is perfect.
This camera can still be found for sale on Amazon. You can see the listing here.
Also, the images on Amazon uploaded by buyers of the TZ1. Some are nice and have good sharpness [there's a great one of thunder striking the ground], but most are not so good. Most of mine are terrible, too. Haha. But I think some of the poor images on Amazon could possibly be down to Amazon striping some of the quality from the image in the upload process. Some websites do that, but I'm unsure if Amazon do. Maybe they did when these images were uploaded a long time ago [2006 / 2007].
I don't think they do it now. But then again, even with professional DSLR's, amateur and professional photographers take tens or even hundreds of shots in one sitting. Many of them are terrible and have noise, blur, wrong framing etc and get discarded. They go through all the pictures taken and pick out a few as the best ones. I think all cameras are the same in that respect.
I'm certainly no expert. I wouldn't even consider myself an amateur photographer. Just someone who likes taking pictures. But I've owned many cameras over years, DSLR's, Bridge cameras, point and shoots. And they were all the same. I never had a camera that could consistently take amazing shots one after the other.
Reading the reviews, it's strange to read such negative things about my favourite camera. I understand it though, it's not for everyone. However, I do think that maybe some of the negatives are due to people buying the camera, not knowing how to use it straight away, then rushing to write a review.
I bet many of the reviewers who didn't give the camera a great rating initially, on a first impressions basis, went on to use the camera for a week or two and ended up finding the best settings / stabilization etc. After that they got the hang of it and ended up loving it. They just couldn't be bothered to update their review. Or just forgot.
Brown Butterflies on Thistle flowers
This is just a theory of course. But I bet it did happen with some of those purchases. I've done it myself with other products. Not very often but it has happened in the past. I've bought a product, can't figure it out to begin with and think its terrible. Leave a review. Then, after a week I spend more time playing with it, figure it out and think its great. But the review doesn't get changed for whatever reason.
The price on Amazon. I mean, wow. It is high. I guess they are selling it with that - this is now a collectors item mindset. Someone would have to really love this camera to pay that much for it. I don't think anyone has bought a camera from that listing since 2006 / 2007. Actually, looking deeper and sorting by most recent, there has been reviews up to 2024 from people that bought the camera. And many of them are verified purchases.
Camera is available in Silver, Blue and Black. From different sellers. One of the sellers is from Japan, but the order is fulfilled by Amazon. So I think that means the product is in the USA. The TZ1 can be found much cheaper on eBay. I don't need a TZ1, I've got mine. But personally I wouldn't buy from eBay unless I really really had to. I am boycotting eBay due to all the bad changes they have implemented for buyers and sellers. And I advise others to do the same.
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