The Lumix DMC-TZ10 (also known as the DMC-ZS7 in the USA) is Panasonic ‘s range-topping travel-zoom camera, featuring a 12x, 25-300mm lens, AVCHD video with stereo sound and built-in GPS geo-tagging. Successor to the TZ7 model, the DMC-TZ10 has a 14.5-megapixel CCD sensor and shoots with up to 12.1-megapixel resolution, reproducing images with the lens set from 25mm to 300mm in any of three aspect ratios - 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9 - while maintaining the same diagonal angle of view. A built-in GPS unit tracks where each photo is taken, automatically embedding the latitude and longitude in the EXIF data. The new Intelligent Resolution function can be used to digitally boost the zoom ratio to 16x without hardly any loss in quality, or to simply make still images and video look better, at least according to Panasonic. The TZ10 also implements a long requested feature for the TZ-series - A, S and M exposure modes for creative photographers, in addition to Intelligent Auto and a variety of scene modes for beginners. 720p HD video recording in the AVCHD or Motion JPEG formats, high-speed and high-performance Venus Engine VI processor, POWER O.I.S. anti-shake system and a 3-inch LCD screen with 460k dots complete the headline specifications. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 / ZS7 is available in silver, black, red or blue for £399 / $399.
Ease of Use
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 is very similar to its cheaper sibling, the DMC-TZ8, in terms of its design, with the most notable differences being the addition of GPS, stereo sound, a one-touch movie record button and a bigger and higher-resolution LCD screen. At first glance the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 strikes you as being a little large, elongated and bulky, but it's actually slightly lighter than the previous TZ7 model. You then have to remind yourself that Panasonic have somehow fitted in a 12x zoom lens, equivalent to 25-300mm on a 35mm camera, which provides a very versatile focal range that will cover every subject from ultra-wide angle landscapes to close-up action shots. Even when set to 300mm, the lens doesn't extend too far from the front of the TZ10, making it look to all intents and purposes like a "normal" compact camera. This helps to make the DMC-TZ10 great for candid moments, as people assume that you're using just a standard point and shoot with a much more limited range.The 25mm focal length, now something of a standard feature on Panasonic compacts, provides an entirely new wide angle of view that can only increase your creativity. You won't want to go back to a "standard" 35mm zoom after using the 25mm lens on the DMC-TZ10, or even a 28mm one - 3mm at the wide-angle end really does make a big difference. The 12x zoom lens obviously makes this one of the most versatile compacts in terms of focal range, especially as it is coupled with Panasonic's excellent POWER O.I.S system, which helps to ensure that the majority of photos taken in good light are sharp. The TZ10's lens isn't particularly fast at the wide-angle setting with a maximum apertures of f/3.3, but f/4.9 at the 300mm telephoto setting is respectable enough.
The DMC-TZ10 is a well-built camera with a high quality metal body. The design is dominated by the large 12x lens on the front and the large 3 inch LCD screen on the rear. There is no optical viewfinder, which does make the camera a little harder to keep steady at the telephoto end of the zoom than holding it up to your eye. There is only a shiny, smooth handgrip on the front of the TZ10 and a small textured area on the rear, something of a backwards step in my opinion from earlier TZ designs. The TZ10 actually has a 14 megapixel sensor, but only uses 12 megapixels so that it can offer three different aspect ratios - 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9 - without having to change the angle of view. The Multi Aspect mode takes an image in all three aspect ratios simultaneously and lets you choose the best one.
The DMC-TZ10 is well-made overall, although there are a couple of external controls that don't instill much confidence. The cover for the battery compartment and SD card slot feels a little insubstantial and is locked using a cheap plastic switch. Thankfully Panasonic have addressed the awful Shooting Mode dial of the TZ7, which on the TZ10 has been repositioned to the left of the shutter release button and given a much more positive action that makes it less likely to unexpectedly change position when stored in a pocket or bag. You shouldn't see the annoying message "Mode Dial is not in the proper position" ever again. As testament to the quality of this camera, the tripod socket is made of metal and positioned directly the middle of the bottom of the camera.
Despite the addition of the new manual shooting modes, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 is still not overly complex in terms of the number of external controls that it has. The majority of the 14 controls are clearly labeled and common to most cameras, with the Q.Menu and iA shooting mode being specific to Panasonic and requiring a quick read of the user guide. As mentioned above, there's a traditional dial on the top of the TZ10 that lets you select the various shooting and scene modes. This dial is a typical feature of SLR cameras, and enables you to quickly change between the various modes. Interestingly there are two Scene modes available, both of which offer exactly the same options, but which can be set independently of each other, allowing a little customization of the camera setup. There's also a new CUST option that allows you save up to three camera configurations, which is very handy if you often use the camera for different subjects or situations.
Also new is the long-awaited addition of A, S and M exposure modes. The DMC-TZ10 joins the handful of Panasonic compacts to offer advanced controls over exposure, with full manual (M), aperture-priority (A) and shutter-priority (S) modes on offer, which will instantly appeal to the more experienced photographer. The range of apertures on offer is rather limited by the lens (F3.3 - 6.3 at 25mm and F4.9 - 6.3 at 300mm), but the ability to choose from 60 - 1/2000th second shutter speeds and set both the aperture and shutter speed if you wish opens up a lot of creative potential. Sadly there's no support for the RAW file format, which would really have been the icing on the cake for serious photographers looking for a backup-pocket camera to their DSLR.
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AF tracking continually tracks a moving subject and keeps it in focus, without you having to hold the shutter button halfway down as on most other cameras. Face Recognition is a fun and genuinely useful new feature, which "remembers" up to 6 registered faces and then always prioritizes the focus and exposure for that person in future pictures. Very useful for group shots where you want your loved ones to be the centre of attention. You can specify the age of the registered subject, stamp the age of the subject onto your photos, change the focus icon for a particular person, and playback only the photos that contain a certain face. The camera will even automatically switch to Baby mode if someone registered as less than 3 years old appears in the frame!
In practice the Intelligent Auto Mode system works very well, with the camera seamlessly choosing the most appropriate combination of settings for the current situation. The 5 available scene modes are Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Night Portrait and Night Scenery, so obviously not all situations are covered by Intelligent Auto Mode, but it does work for the majority of the time. It makes it possible for the less experienced photographer to easily take well-exposed, sharp pictures of people, scenery and close-ups by simply pointing and shooting the camera. If you're feeling a little down, the new Happy Mode has also been added to Intelligent Auto, as the name suggests it boosts the color, saturation and brightness to give you a warm glow inside (but not a terribly accurate picture).
Completing the top of the camera are the Off/On switch, responsive zoom lever, the tactile shutter button, left and right stereo mics and the GPS receiver. The TZ8 now offers stereo sound, with the left and right mics located to the left of the Mode dial. When used in combination with the new Wind Cut menu option, this makes a real difference to the sound quality in movies - check out the sample movie on the Sample Images page. The DMC-TZ7's E.Zoom button, which allows you to zoom to the full telephoto focal length at a much faster speed than normal, has unfortunately bitten the dust to make way for the one-touch movie record button. Indeed, this feature has been completely removed from the DMC-TZ10.
GPS is a brand new feature for both the TZ-series and Panasonic cameras, and also one that has slowly but surely been finding its way into digital cameras as the technology has got smaller and cheaper to implement. This potentially allows you to seamlessly geo-tag your photos (latitude and longitude co-ordinates are stored in the EXIF data, plus the local time) and then sort and display them using geo-friendly websites such as Google Earth and Google Maps. The DMC-TZ10 also has a built-in database of over 1/2 million known landmarks around the world, which it uses to try and tag each image if enabled. In addition you can choose which specific information is set for your photos, with Country/Region, State/Prov/County, City/Town and Landmark the available options.
The GPS can be manually turned on or off - when enabled, it continues working even when the camera is switched off. There's also a special airplane mode which only keeps GPS on when the camera is switched on. The GPS Info option shows you exactly which satellites are being used and importantly when the signal lock was last obtained, with the option of manually updating the positioning process. This last option is important because the DMC-TZ10 has a tendency to keep using an old position if you, say, catch the London tube and travel a few miles underground, in which case it needs to be manually updated. Other than this idiosyncracy, the TZ10's GPS receiver works a lot better than precious GPS-capable cameras that we've reviewed, saving accurate positioning information for most of the images that we shot in built-up central London, making this camera much more useful for urban photographers. The main downside of the TZ10's GPS is the subsequent drain on battery life, with the camera only managing just over 175 shots with GPS turned on instead of the 300 that it can manage without.
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The dedicated Movie button on the rear of the DMC-TZ10 is inherited from the TZ7 model, and a very useful one at that. As you'd expect, it allows you to start recording a movie with a single push of a button, and then stop recording by pressing the same button - a lot more intuitive than having to select the movie mode then press the shutter button, as on most compacts. The TZ10 can record 720p video at 1280x720 pixels at 30 or 15 fps in either the AVCHD or Motion JPG formats. AVCHD Lite almost doubles the recording time in HD quality compared with Motion JPEG, but software support is currently a bit thin on the ground. Panasonic describe it as the best mode for playing back on a HD TV direct from the camera, and Motion JPEG best for email and playing on a computer.
The dedicated movie button makes it much easier to record a movie, and the various movie options are sensibly stored in an easy to understand Motion Picture menu. Stereo sound is recorded during capture, a big improvement on the rather muffled noises recorded by the TZ8, helped by the wind cut function and audio sampling at 48kHz. You can also use the zoom lens during recording and really make the most of that 25-300mm focal range. On the negative side, you'll find that the lens zooms more slowly than when shooting a still image, and if you choose continuous auto-focus, areas of the video will be blurred before becoming sharp again as the camera tries to refocus, although this has been improved when compared to the TZ7. The HDMI port allows you to connect the TZ10 to a high-def TV set, but only if you purchase the optional HDMI mini-cable.
The Camera / Play button on the rear of the camera enables you to quickly and easily switch from shooting to playback without also changing the shooting mode. Also on the rear of the camera is the Q.Menu button which provides quick access to most of the principal controls, including ISO speed, image size, image quality and white balance (there are 9 settings in total). You can still access all of these options from the main menu system too. In addition the TZ10 also has a new Exposure button, which in conjunction with the arrow keys on the navigation pad allows you to change the aperture and/or the shutter speed if you're using the A, S or M shooting modes. This two-button system isn't the most convenient, but it does avoid making the camera too cluttered.
The very large 3 inch LCD screen is the only way of framing your shots, so if you have to have an optical viewfinder, look elsewhere now, but I found that the 460K pixel, high-resolution screen coped admirably with the majority of lighting conditions, even being nice to use in low-light. There's a clever function called High Angle, accessible from the Quick Menu, which essentially brightens the LCD screen when the camera is held over your head so that it is perfectly viewable, which is great for shooting over the heads of a crowd. The Intelligent LCD function automatically detects the current lighting conditions and boosts the LCD backlighting by up to 40% when shooting outdoors in bright sunshine, helping to keep the screen visible.
As with all current Panasonic models, the TZ10 has an anti-shake system, on this model the newer POWER O.I.S. variety. Turn it on and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 automatically compensates for camera shake, which is a slight blurring of the image that typically occurs at slow shutter speeds when the camera is hand held. 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. Panasonic claim that the POWER O.I.S. system is twice as effective as the older MEGA O.I.S, and while its difficult to make a direct comparison, I found that it does make a noticeable difference, as shown in the examples on the Image Quality page. 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.
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The Intelligent ISO mode is the third way in which the DMC-TZ10 attempts to avoid subject blur in low-light conditions. The camera automatically sets the appropriate shutter speed AND ISO speed for the subject that you are taking pictures of. So if you're taking shots of a child indoors, the DMC-TZ10 automatically raises the ISO and in turn the shutter speed to avoid blurring the child's movement. If the subject is still, then the camera chooses a lower sensitivity and slower shutter speed. It's a clever idea that works well in practice, with the camera generally choosing an appropriate combination of shutter and ISO speed. You can also limit the maximum ISO speed that the camera can choose, which I'd strongly advise, as ISO 1600 produces very noisy images - ISO 800 is a better maximum setting.
The main menu system on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 is straight-forward to use and is accessed by pressing the Menu/Set button in the middle of the navigation pad. There are four menu options, Record, Motion Picture, Travel Mode and Setup. Most of the camera's main options, such as white balance, image quality, auto-focus mode and ISO speed, are accessed here, so the Record menu has 22 options spread over 5 screens, the Motion Picture menu 5 options over 1 screen, the Travel Mode menu 6 options over 2 screens, and the Setup menu has 23 options spread over 5 screens. As mentioned previously, the addition of the Quick Menu button on the rear of the camera speeds up access to some of the more commonly used options. Due to the large LCD screen and restricting the number of on-screen choices to five, the various options and icons are very clear and legible. If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're upgrading from a more basic model, reading the easy-to-follow manual before you start is a good idea, especially as a few of the buttons are specific to Panasonic cameras. Thankfully Panasonic have chosen to supply it in printed format, rather than as a PDF on a CD, so you can also carry it with you for easy reference.
The start-up time from turning the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 on to being ready to take a photo is quite quick at around 2 seconds. Zooming from the widest focal length to the longest is very slow at around 4 seconds, but focusing is quick in good light and the camera achieves focus most of the time indoors or in low-light situations, helped by the focus-assist lamp. Note that the camera does struggle to lock onto the subject at the tele-photo end of the lens in low-light situations. The camera is generally very quick to find focus if you use the 1-point high-speed AF option. It takes about 1 second to store an image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card - there is no LCD blackout between each image. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 has a disappointingly slow Burst mode which enables you to take 2.3 frames per second at the highest JPEG image quality, up to a maximum of 5 images in Standard mode and just 3 images in Fine mode.
Once you have captured a photo, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 has a good range of options when it comes to playing, reviewing and managing your images. You can instantly scroll through the images that you have taken, view thumbnails (up to 30 onscreen at the same time and in a special Calendar view), zoom in and out up to 16x magnification, view slideshows, delete, protect, trim, resize, copy and rotate an image. You can also select favourite images, sort images into categories, change an image's aspect ratio, add a text stamp, add a soundclip and set the print order. Face Recognition plays back only the photos that contain a certain face. Dual Play, which allowed you to compare two images onscreen at the same time, has sadly been removed. The Display button toggles detailed settings information about each picture on and off, such as the ISO rating and aperture / shutter speed, and there is a small histogram available during both shooting and playback. When taking a photo, pressing the Display button toggles between the detailed information, the detailed information plus gridlines to aid composition, and no information at all.
