Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Video can be recorded at up to 1920×1080-pixel full HD at 50i or 50p. The optical zoom can be used while recording and there’s OIS stabilisation for steadier handheld video. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 / ZS40 review – Our verdict So what does a range of 24-720mm let you capture? Above are two photos taken from the same position with the TZ80 / ZS60 using each end of the zoom range, illustrating the range at your disposal – at one moment capturing a wide field before getting very close to distant details the next. It’s extremely flexible, and while you need to take care for camera shake at the long end, especially with the much reduced aperture, the stabilisation is excellent and there’s the option to use the viewfinder for even greater stability. The battery used by the TZ60 is rated to 300 shots. However, there is no standalone battery charger included, so the camera is frustratingly out of use while the battery is charging. Spare batteries are advisable. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 review – Metering To be fair, the approach is not dissimilar to the way most other manufacturers implement direct uploads, but to me it makes more sense to just use Wifi to copy the image from the camera to a more capable device and upload from there instead. Above: Lumix TZ80 / ZS60 Post Focus, Aperture Priority, 1/160, f6.1, 200 ISO, -2/3EV 101.7mm (567mm equivalent)
Once your phone or tablet becomes connected to the TZ60 / ZS40, you can remote control it, browse the images direct from the memory card, copy them onto the handset and if desired send them onto various storage or sharing services. Inside the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 is a 1/2.3in-type (6.17×4.55mm) Live MOS sensor with a resolution of 18.1 million pixels. One feature that will no doubt widen the appeal of the TZ60, particularly among enthusiast photographers, is the fact that the camera now supports both raw and JPEG image capture. Thanks to Panasonic’s own Venus Engine processor, writing both full-resolution raw and JPEG images simultaneously isn’t too sluggish and a speed of 10fps is possible for a total of six frames in burst mode. 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. In other cases where the landmark doesn’t exist in the database at all, you can create a new name for it using manual text entry. I did this for the church which was mistakenly displaying the name of a nearby tourist information centre instead – see below. This process is the same as the TZ40 / ZS30 before it. Panasonic announced the launch of the Lumix DMC-TZ60 alongside the DMC-TZ55 at CES in the USA earlier this year. The TZ60 is the successor to the very popular Lumix DMC-TZ40, which impressed us when we tested it in AP 23 March 2013. Now featuring an increased 30x optical zoom, raw image capture, comprehensive Wi-Fi/NFC connectivity and an electronic viewfinder, Panasonic has certainly stepped up to the mark with the TZ60.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 review – White balance and colour
Like its shape and size, the TZ80 / ZS60’s control layout owes a lot to its predecessor. About the only difference is the addition of a creative video mode position on the mode dial – for which one of the two custom positions is sacrificed. That’s not so important as there are now more programmable function buttons than before – four in all compared with two on the earlier TZ70 / ZS50, and of course the touch screen provides more opportunities for configuring settings. So the TZ60 / ZS40 performed almost identically to its predecessor in continuous shooting, delivering the quoted burst sizes, often at slightly faster speeds. What’s different this time round is support for RAW, so I retested the 5 and 10fps modes with this quality setting. At 10fps, I grabbed four RAW frames in 0.31 seconds, corresponding to a speed of 12.9fps, while at 5fps I grabbed four frames again, this time in 0.72 seconds, corresponding to a speed of 5.6fps. So again the speeds slightly exceeded the specifications, but in each case shooting in RAW meant capturing four rather than six frames. There are two different modes, Mode 1 is on all the time including image composition, and Mode 2 is only on when you press the shutter button. An Auto setting is also available if you're not sure which one to use. You don't notice that the camera is actually doing anything different when anti-shake is turned on, just that you can use slower shutter speeds than normal and still take sharp photos. The TZ60 has a respectable battery life of 300 shots. Note that the camera battery is rather inconveniently charged via the USB port, rather than a separate charger, so it's a good idea to invest in some extra batteries.
As soon as you push your card into the slot – so that the writing and brand are facing up, I might add – the computer will begin recognising it. Some computers will open a push command box, asking what you want to do next. Simply select the option that's most closely related to 'open folder to view files' and you're away. It’s slightly disappointing that you can’t change the drive mode remotely, that has to be done on the camera, however once you’ve set a drive mode it is then possible to alter, say, the continuous shooting speed, or self-timer delay. You can even select the new post focus mode, though you can’t transfer the post focus mp4 clips via the app.
You can also choose whether to copy images in their original resolution, or in one of two smaller versions. It typically took about 6 seconds to copy an original JPEG from the camera to my iPhone 6 from a distance of about 1m; it’s not possible to copy RAW files though. 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 screen The past few months have seen a host of manufacturers making some pretty bold statements with regards to compact camera production in the wake of pressures from the smartphone camera market.
Above is an example taken at the longest focal length, while below is one at the widest end at a close distance. Both illustrate the potential for shallow depth-of-field effects. Once your phone or tablet is connected to the TZ80 / ZS60, you can remote control it, browse the images direct from the memory card, copy them onto the handset and if desired send them onto various storage or sharing services. You can also set the app to make a GPS log for subsequent syncing and tagging, create a snap movie, or photo collage. The most important new feature of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 is undoubtedly the 0.2in, 200,000-dot EVF. Over the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of cameras fitted with electronic viewfinders, including Panasonic’s own Lumix DMC-LF1 that was released almost a year ago. Now the same viewfinder has been added to the TZ range, along with the welcome addition of raw shooting. The Canon PowerShot SX700 HS is a major competitor to the Lumix TZ60 / ZS40 and on the surface the two models share a lot of similarities. Both have 30x zoom lenses (with slightly different ranges), and they both have 3 inch screens with similar resolution, neither of which is touch-sensitive, Panasonic having dropped that feature from its latest flagship travel zoom. They are almost identically sized, though the SX700 HS is a little bigger and heavier, and both come with built-in Wifi and NFC. The Lumix TZ60 / ZS40 also has a built-in GPS, though you can use your smartphone to tag images on the SX700 HS with geopositional data. It’s also worth noting that the Panasonic app is more sophisticated than the Canon one and offers better remote shooting and image transfer options.In your hands the new model looks and feels larger, but to be fair we should now be comparing it against other 30x zooms. Sony’s Cyber-shot HX60V measures 108x64x38.3mm and 272g including battery, while Canon’s PowerShot SX700 HS measures 113x66x34.8mm and weighs 269g including battery. This makes all three 30x travel zoom rivals very similar in size and weight, although both the Panasonic and the Canon are thinner than the Sony. With manual focus enabled on the TZ60 / ZS40 you can use the front control ring to adjust the focusing distance, which is also indicated by a curved graphical scale on-screen. Meanwhile the rear thumb wheel can adjust the magnified view between five and ten times, and if focus peaking is enabled the areas in focus will be surrounded by a highlight. Peaking is a welcome new feature on the TZ60 / ZS40 over its predecessor, but for me worked best when viewing the entire image rather than a magnified view. Again like Sony you can choose from panning with the camera held horizontally or vertically, but unlike Sony the TZ60 / ZS40 seems happy to capture a full 360 degree panorama if you’re able to keep turning it during the four second capture process – during which time it has to be said everybody around you will be staring. Both models have 18 Megapixel resolution, 1080 video at 50p or 60p, slow motion video at up to 100fps in 720p, built-in Wifi with NFC and built-in GPS receivers with a landmark database. In its favour, the new TZ60 / ZS40 has a longer 30x / 24-720mm zoom range (vs 20x / 24-480mm), a built-in viewfinder, twin control dials, support for RAW and focus peaking. But it’s not all one-sided. The older TZ40 / ZS30 has a touch-screen allowing you to tap to reposition the AF area, and built-in mapping, albeit basic compared to what we’re used to on smartphones. It’s also smaller, lighter and around half the price.
On the earlier TZ40 / ZS30 the touch-screen really came into its own for AF positioning. If you were in the single area mode you could tap where you’d like the camera to focus, and in face detection mode you could tap to select the primary subject in compositions with more than one person in them. Sadly none of this is possible with the TZ60 / ZS40 as Panasonic has removed the touch-screen to meet a lower price point. It’s something I really miss on the camera, although I should add that at least there’s now no longer any risk of accidentally touching the side of the screen while handling the camera and inadvertently moving the AF area. As it stands if you want to move the single AF area, you first need to press DISP while in the AF menu, then use the cross keys to reposition the square and the dial to change its size if also required. 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. Sure the new Lumix boasts support for RAW but it won’t miraculously reduce noise or retrieve blown highlights from the tiny sensor. You will be able to do things like adjust the white balance, sharpening and compression, but don’t expect improvements in overall image quality. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 is slightly bigger and heavier than the previous TZ40 model that it replaces, bit it does now offer a longer 30x zoom lens (the TZ40 had a 20x lens) and also a built-in electronic viewfinder. The 30x lens is equivalent to 24-720mm on a 35mm camera, which provides an incredibly versatile focal range that will cover every subject from ultra-wide angle landscapes to close-up action shots. Even when set to 720mm, the lens doesn't extend too far from the front of the TZ60, making it look to all intents and purposes like a "normal" compact camera. This helps to make the DMC-TZ60 great for candid moments, as people assume that you're using just a standard point and shoot with a much more limited range.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 quite a high pixel density, the sensitivity range of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 has been kept to a moderate ISO 100-3200, expandable to ISO 6400. With raw image capture it will be interesting to see just how much the DMC-TZ60 can be pushed to the limits of the range, given that editing the raw files should produce better images than the in-camera JPEGs. At the time of writing, the raw-conversion software for the DMC-TZ60 wasn’t available, so we will look at this in more detail in our full test. Trying to choose between the TZ60 and TZ70? Read the What Digital Camera Panasonic Lumix TZ70 vs Panasonic Lumix TZ60 comparison
Great Deal 
New Comment