TZ80 wide angle, hand held


The Paradox of the Panasonic TZ80 (ZS60)

Paradox:  A thing that combines contradictory features or qualities.

The TZ80 is the latest and arguably best  iteration of Panasonic’s pocket superzoom/travel zoom genre which began with the TZ1 in 2006.

The camera is aimed at buyers wanting to record family events, holidays and travel.

My own family experience is that most of these people are snapshooters who set the Mode Dial on [iA] and leave it there.

The problem is that the camera does not give its best results when used this way.

The paradox is that the person who can get the best from the camera is the expert/enthusiast/experienced user who is unlikely to buy it.

This series of posts  is for that small and possibly eccentric group of expert/enthusiast users who like me decide to use the TZ80 and enjoy the challenge of coaxing the best possible results from it.

There is an old aphorism which holds that perfect is the enemy of good.
The quest for perfection is a prominent feature of camera reviews and user forums which host endless discussions, comparisons and debates about the relative merits of various models. 

I have seen a well known photo magazine declare camera A which scored 4320 lines per image height ‘better’ than camera B which ‘only’ scored 3950 lines.

My own experience is that in the real world,  95% of the apparent sharpness variation between cameras is probably determined by the user’s ability to hold the device still  and to ensure that the subject is in focus.

Preoccupation with the finer details of technical image quality appears to me more like obsession than meaningful evaluation of the real world merits of various camera models. 

Which brings me to reconsideration of the Panasonic TZ80 (ZS60) compact superzoom.

Some time ago I bought a Panasonic TZ110 and a TZ80 when they became available in Australia. 

After testing each I sold  the TZ110 and was about to sell the TZ80 but my wife asked me to keep it as she found it to be an appealing little camera and thought she might like to use it from time to time.

As the camera was in the house, I picked it up again and re-acquainted myself with its capabilities which turned out to be substantial and its challenges which require thoughtful management strategies.

I doubt that any prospective camera buyer seeking some kind of perfection would give the TZ80 a moment’s attention.

TZ80 Long end of the zoom, hand held. The colourful workshop facades are one kilometer from the camera.


But consider what this camera offers:

* A 30x zoom spanning from really wide (FLE24mm) to super long (FLE720mm) with Optical Image Stabiliser.
* RAW or JPG output or both.
* Sophisticated autofocus with many features including Panasonic DFD which enables follow focus on moving subjects.  Rapid control of AF area position and size.
* Useful manual focus with peaking and PIP display for speed and accuracy.
* 4K video and 4K photo.
* 18 Mpx sensor.
* Touch screen operation.
* Accurate exposure with decent highlight and shadow detail (dynamic range).
* Zebras and easily accessed exposure compensation for control of highlight exposure.
* A built in, always ready EVF of decent quality.
* Built in flash.
* Auto Panorama capability.
* Twin Dial control layout.
* Several buttons with user assignable function.
* Q Menu with quick access to 13 functions.
* An extensive Menu system enabling access to a multitude of user selected functions and features.
* No need for accessories such as a filter or external flash (and no way to fit them anyway).
* All this comes in a  truly pocketable size, which I prefer to carry in a LowePro Portland 20 waist pouch.  The camera with battery, card and wrist strap weighs only 280 grams.

You can see from the list above that this is a proper photographer’s camera. 
The extensive list of specifications, features and controls put the TZ80 well beyond the realm of ‘happy snaps’ compact.

So why are enthusiast photographers not flocking to buy one and are not singing its praises on user forums ?

I think the answer to this question contains two elements:

1.  The first and the one which I think will be most obvious to reviewers and new users is image quality. This in turn devolves to two factors, lens and sensor.

1.1. While the lens is a marvel of compact superzoom technology utilising multiple aspheric surfaces, it does have limitations. Specifically the edges and corners are soft towards the wide end of the focal length range and resolution over the whole frame progressively declines from mid zoom towards the long end of the range.
In the middle section of the zoom range the lens is actually quite decently sharp right across the frame.

1.2. The sensor has 18 Mpx on the so-called ‘1/2.3 inch’ size with actual dimensions 6.17 x 4.55mm. This is about the same size as one of the buttons on the back of the camera. How they (‘they’ being presumably Sony but neither Panasonic nor Sony are saying so I don’t really know) cram 18 million pixels onto this smartphone size sensor is a micro-engineering achievement way beyond my comprehension.

Anyway somehow they do it but the result is abundant luminance noise at all ISO sensitivity settings including base ISO 80.

So the result of the ‘image quality’ factors is that when files from a TZ80 are viewed on screen at 100% the appearance tends to range from ‘acceptable’ at low ISO settings to ‘hideous’ at high ISO settings.

2. Which brings me to the second element which is a bit more complex so please bear with me…..
I have found that by using strategies involving RAW capture and judicious use of the A and S Modes, followed by adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw specifically tailored to the output from this camera, I can produce files which print decently well up to A2 size (420 x 594 mm) which is about as large as I want to print from any image source.

I am guessing that most reviewers and users do not make full use of these strategies resulting in a lower standard of output than is possible with this camera.

Aperture limitations

The widest lens aperture ranges from f3.3 at focal length equivalent (FLE) 24mm to f6.4 at FLE 720mm. The smallest aperture at all focal lengths is f8.

Now here is the problem:

a) At FLEs from 24 to about 50mm the edges and corners are soft at the widest aperture.  This is most noticeable if fine foliage is present at the edges and corners.  Best sharpness across the frame is at about f4.5-f5.

b) Sharpness degradation due to diffraction at the aperture diaphragm starts at about f4. On my tests center sharpness is detectably worse at f5.6 than f4. So you don’t want to stop down any further than about f5.

But at the longer focal lengths you don’t gots no choice because the lens only gives you f6.4. 
Therefore it is impossible to get really sharp pictures at the long end of the zoom.  This is where the post capture strategies come in to produce results which are quite presentable.

Aperture strategies

1. For landscape and similar subjects in bright light I set A Mode and f4.5-f5.

2. Indoors and in low light I set a low shutter speed in S Mode and let the camera use f3.3 at FLE 24mm. A large central area of the frame is decently sharp. Fine details at the corners don’t fare so well.

3. At the long end of the zoom I always use the widest available aperture.

Shutter speed limitations

With the TZ80 hand held and a reasonably static subject I always want to use the slowest possible shutter speed in order to keep the ISO sensitivity as low as possible in order to minimise luminance noise.

I recommend each user experiment to find the slowest shutter speed they can manage at each focal length range and still produce a majority of shake free frames. This can vary considerably between individuals and with exercise level, heart rate, breathing, hand tremor, technique and so forth.

I find that 1/15 sec at the wide end and 1/200 sec at the long end produce a reasonably high percentage of sharp enough frames if I am calm, still and use good technique.

Shutter speed strategies

Indoors at any focal length and outdoors whenever the long end of the zoom is used, I recommend setting S on the Mode dial.  I do not use the long end of the zoom indoors.
I then set a low shutter speed appropriate to the focal length in use as determined by previous testing. 

Firing solution strategies

The following discourse is based on hand held camera use. Settings and strategies are different when the camera is on a tripod, but the whole point of a camera like this is to operate without the need for a tripod or other accessories.

I call the combination of Aperture, Shutter Speed,  ISO and Exposure Compensation used for any exposure the ‘firing solution’.

In the Custom Menu I set the LVF and Monitor Disp. Style to ‘viewfinder’ type with key camera data beneath the preview image. In this configuration the Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO setting and Exposure Compensation status are most easily seen.

In Capture Phase of use I constantly monitor this data and switch between A Mode and S Mode to give me the best possible combination of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO sensitivity for the conditions and focal length in use.

Occasionally I use P Mode but only if the camera gives me key exposure parameters in line with my predetermined optimums for each focal length and subject condition.

I also sometimes use M Mode if none of the auto exposure modes gives the exposure parameters I want.

I never use iA Mode.

I do shoot RAW + JPG to compare the results of my post processing with that of the camera.

Other strategies

When using slow shutter speeds with static subjects at the long end of the zoom range I quite often find frames with camera shake induced blur, sometimes with side-to-side double imaging. One strategy to manage this is obviously to increase the shutter speed but that runs up the ISO setting which increases luminance noise.

Another strategy is to use Burst M and fire off about 6 shots. I generally find one or two of these will be sharper than the others.

Another issue common in the TZ80 and other small sensor compacts is loss of highlight detail when subject brightness range is high.  I watch the zebras and apply negative exposure compensation if they are prominent.

I allocate Exposure Compensation to the rear dial to make this quick and easy and use Zebra 1 set at 105%.

There is one little glitch caused by allocating exposure compensation to the rear dial, namely that the dial does nothing when M Mode is set. This is a firmware programming mistake by the boffins at Panasonic. What should happen is that the rear dial reverts to changing shutter speed when M Mode is set. 

There are two workarounds for this.

One is to set S Mode on the Mode Dial  then  select  the shutter speed required. When the Mode Dial is turned to M that shutter speed will be carried over. You can adjust Aperture with the lens ring as usual.

The other is to access shutter Speed via the Q Menu.

Neither is elegant. Fortunately M Mode is infrequently required.

Holding the camera still 

I have found that the most important requirement for obtaining decently sharp pictures with the TZ80 is holding the camera still at the point of exposure.

This involves
* Relaxed posture, preferably aided by resting one’s arms on a horizontal or vertical support.
* Calm demeanour aided by mini meditation for breathing and body control.
* Optimum camera holding strategy which I have described here.
* Viewing through the EVF enables greater stability than monitor viewing.

Good camera holding technique is especially important at the long end of the zoom. The camera is very light with very little inertia. I have found a very big difference between the results of good versus not-so-good holding technique.

Next: Post capture strategies in Adobe Camera Raw








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  1. Hello,thank you very much for your reviews...
    I was looking for the Lumix FZ80 but I'm also looking for this TZ80...
    I have a Lumix TZ7 since 8 years now and even if I'm still very happy with it I miss a few things, principally zoom ("only" 12x) and the settings...
    So without really looking into the specifications I thought that I'd have to buy a bridge camera to have both of that...

    But then I see that TZ(80, for exemple) have as much settings as FZ(80, for exemple)... Well, apparently with less buttons but still P, A, S and M modes and the possibility to have the same settings, shutter speed...

    Speaking about the zoom, even if the FZ80 has a 60x zoom, its equivalence with its wide angle (20 mm against 24 mm for the TZ80) is more 50x (24x50 = 1 200) so their differences are less important than 30x or 60x...

    Another difference between the TZ80 and the FZ80 is the maximum aperture which is F/2,8 for the FZ80 against F/3,3 for the TZ80...
    But the FZ80 start at 20 mm so maybe at 24 mm it is almost the same as the TZ80 (F/3,3) ?

    Well my principal question is if the image quality is very different on the TZ80 and on the FZ80 ?
    Because they share the same sensor size and the same resolution...

    ReplyDelete

  2. I have TZ70 (same lens with smaller megapixels), and it's not always easy to decide what aperture to use on the wide-end. For landscape photos I mostly use f/5, because as you mentioned in your article, f/3.3 makes the edges soft, actually f/5 still does, but it's a bit better. However, if the lights are not the best, and I usually don't use a tripod, it's still better to use f/3.3 and ISO 80/100 than f/5 and ISO 200.

    In case of macro photos, it's different, as I usually take photos of flowers, plants (insects too, but not on the wind-end), and f/3.3 is usually the best, because in most of the cases the subject doesn't fill the whole image, edges are already in the background and blurred, so edge softness is not a big problem, while I also need faster shutter speed and better sharpness in the middle than in case of landscape photos.

    Everything between macro and landscape are questionable, if the lights are limited, I always use the biggest possible aperture, however in good light conditions, it depends on what is on the edges.

    Fastest shutter speed is also limited in case of TZ70 (1/2000), as there is no electronic shutter (TZ80 has), so in the winter in the snowy mountains and bright conditions I even used f/8 to avoid clipping highlights. Since that I bought a MagFilter adapter and an ND filter.

    Personally I usually use M mode.

    ReplyDelete

There is always the potential for mistakes  when a camera maker makes the transition from the familiar realm of DSLRs to the less well understood world of mirrorless interchangeable lens models (MILC).

Panasonic and Olympus made plenty of ergonomic mistakes with their first MILC cameras but that was 12 years ago.

Panasonic has a substantial history  with travel zoom and compact consumer superzoom cameras dating back to the FZ1 in 2002.  Even then Lumix designs were quite sophisticated. The FZ1 had a 12x f2.8 zoom,  built in EVF and abundant controls for the enthusiast photographer.

The first FZx00 series model was the FZ100 released in 2010.
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Last month  Chris Nicholls and Jordan Drake from DP Review TV presented their light hearted and moderately intoxicated opinions as to the best and “wurst” “kamras” of 2019. Although they clearly did not expect this little piece to be taken seriously I was intrigued to see what they selected as their  “wurst” three ‘kamras”.

The one which rated “wurst” of all was the “Cannon” Rebel SL3 a.k.a.

In 2009 I bought my first and as it happens the world’s first mirrorless interchangeable lens digital camera, the Panasonic lumix G1. 

Panasonic, Olympus and eventually all the rest realised  that mirrorless technology was the way of the future.

Unfortunately in the process of moving from DSLR to Mirrorless (MILC), all of them made many mistakes particularly with the ergonomics of the new type of camera.
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I have the opportunity to use  many different types of camera covering most of the spectrum from high end to budget consumer models. One thing which has impressed me over the years is the lack of any great difference in output quality between them.

Just for fun I ran a simple test yesterday. I photographed the same scene with each of  five cameras:

Nikon Z6 with Z 24-70mm f4, Lumix G9 with Lumix 12-35mm f2.8, Sony RX10.4, Lumix FZ1000.2, Lumix FZ300.
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It’s the silly season  so maybe readers will forgive me the occasional  post expressing what I would like a camera maker to do in the year(s) ahead.

This time I lay out what I would like Panasonic’s camera division to do over the next year or so. Well, maybe it could take a bit longer……….

I have great sympathy for product development people at any corporate enterprise which makes stuff  for consumers who can be notoriously fickle and unpredictable.

The rise and rise  of smartphones has seen a dramatic fall in compact camera sales. Many internet sages have predicted that compacts will disappear altogether.

Many camera industry commentators make no mention of compacts at all, suggesting that for these people the extinction event has already occurred.

But wait:  Leica’s best selling model is the Q, Fujifilm’s X100 series sell well to a niche cohort and the Ricoh GR series compacts have a loyal following of supporters.
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This is Camera Ergonomics annual review of the camera industry. Camera Ergonomics is completely independent with no affiliation to any entity in the business of making or selling photographic products.

As I see it there are now and have been for over a hundred years two groups of people who seek to make photographic pictures.

These are the snapshooters and the enthusiasts  (and some professionals but they are a numerical minority).
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The full name of this lens is Panasonic Leica DG Vario Elmar 100-400mm f4.0-6.3 Asph Power OIS for Lumix G Micro Four Thirds cameras.

It was announced in January 2016.

The initial response to this lens was mixed. Some reviewers praised its optical and mechanical performance. But negative feedback appeared on user review sites around two main issues, a stiff zoom action and inconsistent quality control.

The full name  of this lens is Venus Optics Laowa Compact Dreamer 7.5mm f2.0 Ultra wide angle lens for the Micro Four Thirds mount, standard weight.

Spoiler alert…..this is a very good lens.

Read on for the details…………

As described on the Venus Optics website, Anhui Changgeng Optics Technology Co was established in 2013. The growing organisation has 131 employees at the time of posting, located at Hefei China.

There are currently 10 Laowa lenses in production with more promised soon.

The number of photography websites  confidently predicting the total demise of the compact camera has risen sharply in recent months. The purveyors of this view are not prescient or even particularly clever. If one simply projects the recorded downward trajectory of compact camera sales year-on-year the line will hit zero tomorrow. Or next month. Or next year. Sometime, anyway. Soon say the savants.

Smart phones have won the battle, compact cameras are done.

Maybe they are right.

Lord Howe is a small (about 10x2 kilometres) rocky island in the Tasman sea about 550 kilometres East of Australia. It was listed as  a World Heritage area in 1982. It has the most southerly coral reef on the planet.

I recently spent a week there enjoying the sights.

As I knew birds and BIFs would be prominent photographic subjects I elected to take my Sony RX10.4 bridge camera. This has more reach and speed than the Lumix FZ1000.2.

Each year Sydney hosts a sculpture festival with works displayed on the pedestrian path from Tamarama beach to Bondi Beach. Many of the sculptures are elaborately conceived and constructed to fit a precise location on the rocky headland overlooking the sea.

I thought this year’s entries might have lacked a little of the extravagant style seen in previous years.

Nevertheless there was plenty to interest the huge crowds which always show up for this event.
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When I reviewed the Canon Powershot G7X.2 in April this year I wrote:

“Between the G5X and the G7X.2 Canon has potentially got the makings of a good compact camera. They just need to gather all the elements together in one device.

Instead we have the EVF and better ergonomics in the G5X and the faster Digic7 processor in the G7X.2.

With a bit of redesign to the handle and controls, the Digic8 processor and a better lens a G5X.2 could be very appealing.

Current model Panasonic M43 and fixed lens cameras have a feature called 4K Photo. This can be used for a range of purposes including pre-burst and focus stacking which is the subject of this brief post.

When photographing small things which are not flat it can be a challenge to render sharp all the parts of the subject which we want to appear sharp and clear in the photo.  

This is because when working in close the depth of field becomes very shallow.

The Lumix G9 is Panasonic’s top tier camera for still photos with an emphasis on performance making it suitable for sport/action and similar subjects.

One might expect this model to achieve a high ergonomic score and it does. But the final score is only just ahead of several other Lumix models indicating that there is a group of Lumix cameras each providing the user with a very good operating experience.

Over the last few years Canon has released a succession of boring, underspecified models which have received their share of criticism on this blog.

Now we have  the G5X.2 which comes as a welcome improvement over Canon’s previous Powershot compacts with much improved performance and usability.

In fact I am finding I actually enjoy using this camera which is not something I could say about most of the many compacts I have used over the years.

My wife and I recently joined a conducted tour of 4800km from Perth to Broome in Western Australia, the highlight being visits to locations in the Pilbara region.  Fortunately someone else was driving. It’s a long way from everywhere to everywhere else in Western Australia.

I took my Sony RX10.4 with no backup camera. I rate the RX10.4 as the most versatile and capable all purpose model  on the market today.
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I was a dedicated Canon user until I wasn't which was about ten years ago when two things caused me to look elsewhere.

The first was chronically unreliable autofocus in Canon’s DSLRs of the time.  By the way Canon appears to have fixed this problem with the dual pixel AF system which now operates on many models.

The second was the arrival on the scene of the Panasonic Lumix G1, the first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with autofocus.
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