Panasonic TZ20 owners

[iranair777]

Hiya, Sorry if this is in the wrong subform. I was hoping to buy the TZ20, after 10,000+ photos on my ancient fuju s5600, and have a few questions:

- I'm quite a frugal person in regards to saving every second of battery life on my camera. I also can go through a whole day of constant turning on and turning off my S5600 (when I am using it), sometimes even turning it back on a second or 2 after switching it off just to save battery. I really don't know how my S5600 has stood my constant onslaught of neglect of the power button.
How does the TZ20 stand in terms of the constant onslaught of turning on/off multiple times since you've brought it? How quickly does it turn on/off?

-Can it withstand impacts? In the 10,000+ Images I've taken with my S5600, I've only managed to drop it once or twice with no ill effects. Of course, this is a smaller camera but with a higher build quality.
How long does the battery last? When I get it, I would most likely need it for a minimum of 1.5 days (assuming usage is just visiting a city; 200 photos plus a few videos; plus constant turning on and off). Just wondering about the battery as to how many extra I should buy just in case, but so far I'm only looking to buy 1 extra.

- How well does it perform with sunset/landscape shots?
- Is there a battery adapter which can allow the camera to use ordinary AA batteries? (I hate it when I'm all out)

- The touchscreen. I tried out the camera in the store and it seems the touchscreen doesn't work on a lot of menus or its very unresponsive. Also it was quite difficult in switching between different settings (as they were in a menu within a menu). Is the touchscreen responsive?

- Does it shoot RAW?

- How difficult is it to change the zoom? I tried it in store and it zoomed in and out fully on its own even without my intervention. Does it affect the shots when shooting (i.e. A/C?)

- How is the quality in terms of spotting? How long per photo (on average) to edit and upload?

- Any sample images?

Thanks

[brianw999]

I can't comment on how the camera performs but here's some battery life tips from a website....

At TopTenREVIEWS We Do the Research So You Don't Have To.™

1. Turn off your LCD display screen. I know this is hard—who likes shoving their face against the device to compose a shot through the little viewfinder? But the LCD screen single-handedly drains a lot of power.
2. Minimize the picture preview to the least amount of time possible—usually one second. This uses less LCD screen time, thus less power.
3. Dim the brightness on your LCD screen. A dimmer display extends battery life by consuming less power to light the screen. This might make the display harder to see, but usually only in direct sunlight.
4. Set the power saver to the least amount of time. Power saver lets your compact digital camera “sleep” when not in use, but doesn’t shut it down entirely. To “wake up” your device, simply click the shutter button.
5. Use your zoom as little as possible. The motor that moves the lens uses power. This also goes for repeatedly turning your image capturing device on and off if it has an extendable lens.
6. Turn off the continuous focus. Again, constantly using motors and electronics to ready your shot drastically minimizes battery life.
7. Don’t push the shutter button half-way down until you’re ready to shoot. Pushing the shutter button (constantly resetting and refocusing) will drain battery life.
8. Use the flash only when necessary. Your product’s “auto flash” option should take care of this, but make sure your flash isn’t going off in broad daylight.
9. Don’t delete pictures from your device unless necessary. This consumes power. Wait until you download the pictures to your computer before deleting.
10. This one’s basic, but charge your battery often. Lithium ion batteries, which most image capturing devices use, don’t have “battery memory” like older Nickel Cadmium (NiCad). In fact, lithium ions work better and last longer if charged completely and regularly.

As far as spare batteries are concerned I like to have one in the camera, one on charge and one charged so it's 3 batteries per camera. I also rotate the batteries by writing numbers 1 to 3 on them. If No.1 is in the camera then No.2 is the next charged and No.3 is on charge.
If No2 is in camera then No3 is next charged and No1 is on charge....and so on.

As there are often times when the No.3 battery is fully charged and is therefore in my bag then the numbering comes into play in identifying which is next.