Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5A 16.1 MP Tough Digital Camera with 9.3x Intelligent Zoom (Blue)

The media could not be loaded. The Video is from a group of still pictures using the time lapse picture option. Then with the camera in the review,menu option you can create a time lapse video and select a group of time lapse photos. You can edit or remove each of the pictures prior to editing. Once a time lapse video is created you will have all of the still pictures as well as the newly created video. Very cool feature!I bought this camera after mine broke on my first day of vacation. I wanted a tough, waterproof camera and this TS-5 was the best that I found after comparing it to several other waterproof cameras. This TS-5 had a larger battery, which allowed 340 pictures on a charge and that is about 100 more then the closest similar camera. By the way I bought additional batteries (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CIVVT04/ref=pe_175190_21431760_3p_M3T1_ST1_dp_1) that allowed me to take 700 pictures on a charge.This camera has a time lapse option that s a great feature when used with a tripod. You have several options such as 10 second intervals up to 30 minutes to take pictures of the changing sky or a blooming flower etc. once you have set and taken time lapse photos the camera has an option to convert it to a movie at 6 frames per second or 30 fps to create a seamless movie from the still pictures.There is also a feature that will allow you, while reviewing video that you have already recorded, to save/convert any frame to a still picture. This will also keep the newly created still picture in perfect focus. I recorded a bird drinking and flying off and was able to create still pictures of it taking flight. This was a very cool effect and is simple to use.I would recommend a tripod to use some of these options. I bought a flexible tripod, which allowed me to wrap the legs in a small tree and use the remote control function to take video of a birds nest feeding new born chicks. I found myself keeping the camera with me all the time to try to get familiar with the functions and I had a lot of fun doing it.This camera was the only one that has built in WIFI. The remote control function uses this feature. The camera generates its own wifi signal and you just have to connect your tablet, I-Pad, I-Phone or other smart phone to that SSID wifi network, did use a I-Pad and an I-Phone 4s and each worked fine. You do have to download the free Panasonic app to use this feature. With the remote control function you can take video, still pic's and zoom. You can also review still pictures only with this, not video, as well as drag and drop them to save them on your smart phone or tablet. You can setup a link to apps like Facebook and send them right from the camera if you setup a Lumix Club account (free) and it will create a Lumix folder for uploads to Facebook and other apps.Once you have connected to your own wifi setting you can go to the wifi history and rename that setting and save it as a favorite connection, this will remember your network SSID and password and connect quickly without having to re-enter your password, which can be a pain if you do this a lot. With the wifi you can automatically save pictures to your connected device as you take each picture. You can also use this to send pics to your pc without having to connect your camera or remove the mem card. However this did not work with my IMac, nor does the software that comes with the camera work on a Mac. This was not an issue for me as I did open the camera and put the mem card into the Mac and copied all pics that way.The GPS, Altimeter,depth gauge and compass features are also very cool, but I have not used all of them yet. The camera can use the GPS to tag your city and your pictures. I have not been on a vacation to take advantage of this, but I am looking forward to trying it out in a remote setting.This camera has a bunch of preset settings for different situations such as night time shots, pictures through glass, far off scenery etc. it also has an automatic setting that will automatically change according to each situation to take a great pictures. The camera powers up very fast, about 3 seconds so you can shut it off to save the battery and turn it on quickly to take fast shots. You can use burst shooting to take several frames with one push of the shutter button to make the best picture out of the many frames used. This camera focus quickly as well.I haven't even used this under water yet and I absolutely love this camera. Is has these great features plus it is a waterproof (up to 43 feet), shock proof (for a drop up to 6 feet), dust proof and freeze proof and a rugged tough camera.I would recommend extra batteries, a hard case, a tripod and a floating strap in case you drop it in the ocean. As some other reviewers stated you may want to use the heavy or thick part of the strap instead of the thin string to attach your strap to the camera.

On the advice of a friend I recently purchased the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5A16.1MP Tough digital camera. I took it with me on a dive trip to Bonaire.The intelligent features of this camera made it very useful above and below the water. In the automatic mode in would detect back-lighting and take multiple exposures to integrate for the optimal exposure of foreground and background features. The auto-focus was a bit fussy in low-light conditions with an in-experienced operator. If time isn't allowed for the camera to properly sense some low-light pictures at dinner were out of focus.The battery held up well. I purchased a back-up with a plug-in wall charger that worked well from Big Mike on amazon.I used it for shallow dives (typically second dive of the day). Keeping my depth to less than 35 feet, I put the camera into advanced underwater mode and set the flash to always on and got some really amazing pictures. It really captured the vivid colors of fish, corals, and my dive buddy. The water clarity in Bonaire contributed to easily getting great pictures. On one night dive when the water was very turbid only my macro shots looked good. I could typically get into small areas that those with larger cameras could not and take some "blind" shots to try and get some fish hiding in the coral. At the macro level I could get shots to within 8-12 inches that would remain in focus. One curious fish came within 6 inches of the lens and I could not keep him in focus. The best part was that I could put the camera on a retractable cord attached to my BC and just let it fall if I needed to use my hands. I typically kept it in my BC pocket when entering and exiting the water. I did have to be cautious to make sure the retractable cord did not become entangled with my Reg/Octo. On deck I stored it in a waterproof otter box 3000 to protect it from heavy gear.It seems to feature some good stop action as well. I was able to use it while skiing to capture great images of the kids taking some jumps under good lighting conditions.The wifi was a little difficult to figure out at first. But, I was able to directly transfer my images to my iPad after getting it set up. First, I downloaded the Panasonic Image App for my iPad. When you turn on the wifi for the camera there is an option for direct connect. I used this and then in my iPad settings I connected to the wifi sent from the camera and entered the passcode. The camera then detected the direct connection with the iPad and instructed to open the Panasonic Image app. Opening the app allowed initially does not appear to connect to the camera if one is looking at the iPad. But, on the camera I was able to manually select multiple images (a bit tedious) and then send them to the iPad. While the iPad seemed to be still searching, the camera began uploading the images which wen t very quickly. Once the images were uploaded the iPad prompted to view the images. The images were then available to any of the apps I was using to view pictures on the iPad. Overall, a very cool feature that allowed me to directly transfer images via wifi sent directly from the camera when no other wifi was available. You can also save the connection as a favorite on the camera to speed up the process in the future. You need to set the iPad wifi to the camera generated signal in order to transfer directly if the iPad is detecting multiple wifi sources.Stepwise: Download Panasonic Image app to iPad.1. Turn on camera wifi2. click New Connection3. click Send images stored in camera4. click Smartphone5. click Direct6. click Manual Connection7. In iPad wifi settings, set iPad wifi to SSID sent by camera and enter password provided by camera8. When camera indicates Wifi connection complete, open the Panasonic Image App as prompted by camera9. Camera will prompt to connect to iPad10. Camera indicates connection completed. click menu/set on camera11. Option to send single or multiple images. click multi12. tab through images using up/down/left/right keys. Select images by using DISP. button to select/deselect.13. click menu/set to send images14. camera indicates "proceed time" (yes/no), click yes15. images begin uploading16. iPad prompts to review images once fully uploaded.Save the connection as a favorite on the camera to speed up the process in the future.I found this feature very useful since I didn't bring my PC and wanted to review/share images daily.Overall, I highly recommend this camera.

I have not, as far as I can remember, ever written an Amazon review. The failure of this camera has prompted me to do so. That alone should tell you something.First, be forewarned that movies take with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5 are split up into multiple files in multiple folders on the memory chip. That means no file that is easy to move around and, in my case, it does not import into iPhoto, as a single .mov file does, so that with this camera I cannot keep all the photos and movies from a single hike in one place together. Okay, I'll just shoot my hike videos on my iPhone. Pain in the a** having to use two devices, but it's a viable work-around.Worse yet -- and this is a real deal killer -- the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5 randomly borks a photo's geocode such that the lat & long are set to some impossible to interpret value such as 17056881.853375 , where the lat should be some valid value like 33.237572 , while the long is some valid value like -111.131239 . The wierd part is, it is not consistent. Sometimes the geocode is good, but most of the time it is garbage. Now, my iPhone ocassionally throws a photo's geocode off by a half mile, but it *never* munges a geocode so completely it is impossible to interpret. For someone who does *a lot* of hiking, and likes to tie his photos to specific locations on a map, the screwed up geocodes render my brand new ~$250 Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5 worthless.