Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 Review

The playback screen with information display enabled. A key icon indicates that the image has been protected, and a musical note icon indicates that audio has been recorded (neither are shown above.) Upper right corner has the image size 9M, image quality Fine, battery level is 2/3 full, folder name (100) and image number (0305), current image is 2 of 35 total images. The time and date is on the bottom status line. More or less info can be displayed by pressing the DISPLAY button.

Toggling the zoom lever to the Wide angle position brings up the thumbnail index mode display. You can bring up 12 or 30 images per page as well as the calendar display, allowing you to quickly sort though saved images.

Toggling the zoom lever to Telephoto allows you to enlarge the current image up to 16X in four steps. At any point you can use the 4-way selector to scroll around inside of the enlarged image.

Pressing the Menu button in playback mode brings you to this screen. It gives you four playback options as well as access to the playback menu and camera settings.

Playback Menu options:

Calendar - Takes you to the Calendar index
Title Edit - Give the photo or movie a title
Text Stamp - Add shooting date, age, travel date, or title to the picture
Resize - Make the image smaller inside the camera
Trimming - Allows you to crop your photos inside the camera
Aspect Conversion - 3:2, 4:3
Rotate - Change the orientation of the images inside the camera
Rotate Display - On or Off
Favorite - On or Off
DPOF Print - Single or Multi
Protect - Single or Multi
Audio Dub - Allows you to record audio over an image
Copy - Copy images back and forth from the memory card to the internal memory

The Resize option lets you "down size" larger images.

Movies are played back full screen on the LCD or a television set when using the supplied audio/video cables. When played back in-camera, sound is heard through the built-in speaker. You get VCR like controls to pause, stop, fast forward and rewind.

Setup Menu (same in record or play mode):

Clock Set - Set the time and date
World Time - Set Home and Destination (if traveling) time zones
Monitor - Adjust the LCD brightness
LCD Mode - Off, Auto Power LCD, Power LCD, High Angle
Beep - Changes the volume of several of the camera settings
Volume - Internal speaker volume control
Guide Line - Set Rec. Info (On/Off), Histogram (On/Off), and grid lines pattern
Histogram - On or Off
Travel Date - Set date of travel
Economy - Reduces the brightness of LCD to save battery power (Level 1 or 2)
Auto Review - Auto review after capture (off, 1s, 3s, Zoom)
Zoom Resume - On or Off
No. Reset - Reset file numbering counter
Reset - Reset all settings to factory default
Rest Wi-Fi SET - Delete all Wi-Fi related data
USB Mode - PC Mass Storage / PictBridge
Video Out - Video output signal format, NTSC or PAL
TV Aspect - Choose 4:3 or 16:9
m/ft - Choose your preferred measurements
Scene Menu - Display scene menu Automatically when selected or never
Dial Display - On or Off
Version Disp. - Displays the current firmware version being used
Format - Format the memory card
Language - Menu language; English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Japanese
Demo Mode - See demo of camera movement, or the auto demo