Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 ( 18.9 MP,30 x Optical Zoom,3 -inch LCD )

Product Information

While you can start recording in, say, Aperture Priority or Manual, don’t get too excited as exposures are fully automatic once you start filming. The only exception is when filming in the Intelligent Auto mode, where the TZ60 / ZS40 can choose from one of four scenes: portrait, landscape, macro and low light. Like earlier models, stabilisation is always active, even if you’ve disabled it for still photos. On the upside the optical stabilisation brings genuine benefits to the TZ60 / ZS40’s movie shooting as you’ll see in the clips below.While you can start recording in, say, Aperture Priority or Manual, don’t get too excited as exposures are fully automatic once you start filming. The only exception is when filming in the Intelligent Auto mode, where the TZ60 / ZS40 can choose from one of four scenes: portrait, landscape, macro and low light. Like earlier models, stabilisation is always active, even if you’ve disabled it for still photos. On the upside the optical stabilisation brings genuine benefits to the TZ60 / ZS40’s movie shooting as you’ll see in the clips below.Like the TZ40 / ZS30 before it, audio is recorded in stereo from built-in microphones, and you can also zoom the lens while filming. As before you can start filming in any mode by simply pressing the red record button and you can also capture still photos while filming, albeit only in the 16:9 aspect ratio but at a usable resolution of 13.5 Megapixels – but watch out as there’s only a limited number you can take during a clip (indicated on-screen) and if you’re moving the camera at the time, they’ll almost certainly suffer from motion blur due to the slower shutter speeds typically implemented during video recording. With an 18.1-million-pixel, 1/2.3in (approx 6.17×4.55mm) High Sensitivity MOS sensor, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 has a fairly high resolution, particularly given the size of the sensor. While this may produce a decent amount of detail in good light at low sensitivity settings, at even moderate sensitivities this may prove to be too much for the small sensor. New to both the TZ80 / ZS60 and TZ100 / ZS100 is 4k Live Cropping which exploits the resolution of a 4k frame to provide a digital pan and zoom feature at 1080p resolution. You specify the start and end of the clip by tapping the screen to position a 1920×1080 sized frame. You can also set the overall time of the clip to either 40 or 20 seconds. The degree of zoom is limited to the full 4k frame at the wide end to the 1920×1080 frame at the ‘zoomed-in’ end to maintain quality. It’s a neat feature which, once again, makes innovative use of the camera’s 4k resolution to make life easier, particularly if you need a super-smooth panning shot, but don’t have a suitable tripod. You can see what the results look like in my video sample below. Although you wouldn’t know to look at it, the major change on the TZ80 / Z60’s rear panel is of course the touch-screen. The screen is a 3 inch LCD panel with a 1040k dot resolution but that’s nothing remarkable. What is new is that, for the first time in three generations, a Lumix TZ / ZS series model once again features a touch sensitive screen.

The Lumix TZ80 / ZS60 retains the TZ70 / ZS50’s built-in 1166k dot electronic viewfinder which also features on the higher-end Lumix TZ100 / ZS100. An eye-sensor and a button for toggling between the viewfinder and the screen which doubles up as Fn4 works in the same way as other recent Lumix models with three options – viewfinder, screen or eye sensor, the latter activating the viewfinder when you put your eye to it and the screen at all other times. The DMC-TZ60 is a well-built camera with a high quality metal body that's covered in a tactile rubberised coating. The design is dominated by the 30x lens on the front, the large 3 inch LCD screen on the rear and the new electronic viewfinder. Given the overall size of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60, the integrated EVF is understandably rather small at just 0.2-inch, making it rather tiring to use for longer periods of time. If you think of the EVF as something to use iBoth these features, along with a 30x optical zoom and Wi-Fi connectivity, really improve what is already an excellent series of travel cameras, but I’m sure the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 will also attract a few admiring glances from enthusiast photographers. What this doesn’t illustrate though is how useful the stabilisation is when composing with the TZ80 / ZS60 at maximum zoom. Even when using faster shutter speeds where stabilisation might not be necessary, the stabilisation keeps things nice and steady, allowing you to compose and frame your shot, something that’s almost impossibly difficult at full zoom without it. The shot of the Robin above, for example, could have been achieved without stabilisation at a much higher sensitivity setting than the 80 ISO that stabilisation made possible, but I doubt I would have been able to frame it up. I should point out that the Canon PowerShot SX720 HS also has very capable stabilisation plus it benefits from Canon’s Frame Assist feature which helps locate your subject and keep it in the frame when zoomed in.

You can also adjust the drive mode, exposure compensation or focus area, although strangely the ISO and White Balance buttons were always greyed-out when I used the remote control; maybe you need to use a different shooting mode to enable them. There’s also a Q.Menu button which presents a list of additional options you can remotely change including the flash mode, aspect ratio, resolution, compression, focus mode, metering mode, colour mode or movie quality. Some of the images shot at ISO 6400 did look like some significant noise reduction had been applied, and I noticed purple fringing in some shots. However, as I was using a pre-production camera, I would expect the image quality to improve by the time it comes to test a final retail version. That said, at ISO 100 images look full of detail, which bodes well for the final version.Above left: 100% crop, 4.3-129mm at 129mm, 1/25, 80 ISO, OIS off. Above right: 100% crop, 4.3-129mm at 129mm, 1/25, 80 ISO, OIS on.

Panasonic updates its travel zoom range every year with two new models: a high-end option with all the bells and whistles, and a lower-end one with a simpler specification to come in at a lower price point. In 2014 the flagship is the TZ60 / ZS40, and the cheaper model is the TZ55 / ZS35. Alternatively if you’re browsing your images on the camera and you see one you’d like to share, just tap the camera against your NFC phone or tablet and it will automatically establish a temporary network and copy the original over; the entire process again takes about 20 seconds. This is a brilliant feature and makes it easy to share or store your images. The remote control feature shows a live image on your phone or tablet’s screen allowing you to take a photo or start or stop a video recording. You can tap anywhere on the live image to set the AF area or directly take the shot. If the camera’s mode dial is set to Aperture or Shutter Priority, you can remotely adjust the aperture or shutter speed respectively, and in Manual you can change both. When shooting at the telephoto end of the zoom, the optical image stabilisation works very well, keeping images almost perfectly still – or at least moving smoothly rather than wobbling away while you are trying to take a shot of something in the distance. Panasonic Lumix TZ60: Electronic viewfinder and LCD screenPanasonic says it has made great improvements to the autofocus in the TZ60. It claims that the AF at the 720mm (equivalent) end of the lens is as fast as that at the 420mm (equivalent) end on the TZ40, which is reassuring.