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Introduction
Announced at this year’s CES, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 (also known as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS60) features a 30x optical zoom (24-720mm equivalent) and is a replacement for last year’s TZ70. It sits below the new TZ100 – last year’s TZ57 has been discontinued and will not be replaced.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 has an 18 million pixel sensor, an increase from the 12.1 million pixel sensor of the TZ70. Other new features include a new Venus engine, Light Speed AF (autofocus) with DFD (Depth from Defocus) technology and 4K photo functions. The screen is the same size and resolution (1040k-dot), but it is now touch sensitive. Battery life has been very slightly improved, while the zoom range stays the same.
Another feature which has been carried over from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80’s predecessor include the 0.2-inch 1160k-dot LVF (Live Viewfinder) with eye sensor. The TZ80 can shoot in raw format and includes manual and semi-automatic exposure modes.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 / ZS60 is available in silver or black for £349.99 / $399.99.
Ease of Use
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 is very similar in appearance to the TZ70, with just a couple of mm added to the dimensions of the camera. Considering it has both a 30x optical zoom, it’s impressively sleek. It’s possible to fit the camera into all but the tightest of jeans pockets.
Available in two colours, we were supplied with the black and silver version, which gives the camera a classic / retro look. On the front of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 is a small grip which helps to give the camera excellent purchase – it’s joined on the back by a thumb rest which makes the camera feel comfortable in the hand.
On the top of the camera is a dial for choosing the exposure mode of the camera. Here you’ll find P/A/S/M modes, as well as automatic, creative, scene, panoramic and a slot for a custom group of settings. Also on top of the camera is the shutter release, which is surrounded by the zoom switch. Zooming the lens to its full length is smooth and fluid, stopping for a brief pause before entering the digital zoom (if you have it switched on, and you’re not shooting in raw format).
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| Front of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 |
A video record button can be found just next to the shutter release. It’s away from the rest of the buttons and is slightly recessed into the body of the camera, making it practically impossible to accidentally record a video when you don’t want to.
Around the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80’s lens is a control ring. By default it will control a certain function (i.e. aperture in aperture priority mode), but you can customise it to one of several other functions, if you prefer.
In fact, the TZ80 is great if you like to customise your camera. On the back of the camera there are four physical function buttons, all of which can be customised, and there are a further five “virtual” function buttons which can be displayed on the touchscreen and customised to give you quick access to something.
Also on the back of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 is a scrolling dial, which again has a default function, but can also be customised to change something else if you prefer. There are also a number of directly accessed functions available from the four-way navigational pad. Up brings up the exposure compensation function, left is for changing focusing mode (switching on macro focusing), down is for self-timer and drive modes, while right is for accessing flash modes.
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| Rear of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 |
By default, the Fn3 button is used to access the quick menu. This brings up a number of commonly used options – such as ISO and white balance. You can either touch the areas on screen to make changes to settings, or you can scroll through the various options using the physical buttons on the camera. It’s a great way to make quick changes without having to delve into the more extensive main menu.
There are four different AF Modes you can choose from; Face Detection, Tracking, 49-Area and 1-Area. If you select the 1-Area mode, you can then set the autofocus point simply by tapping an area on the screen. This is an improvement from the TZ70 which didn’t feature a touch sensitive screen and required slower button pressing to move the autofocus point. You can also change the size of the AF point by using the scrolling dial on the rear of the camera, which is useful when you want to focus on a finer detail.
A new addition for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 is 4K photo modes, something which can be found on some of Panasonic’s Lumix G compact system cameras (such as the GX8). As with those cameras, you can shoot at 30fps using 4K photo modes, and then pick the moment you need from the resulting footage – all within the camera. This is very helpful when you’re photographing something fast moving, such as sports, or children.
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| Top of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 |
There’s also a new mode called “Post Focus”. Basically, this shoots a number of photos all with different focus points – you can then choose the focus point you need post-capture. While this is quite a fun and nifty feature, I’m not entirely sure how often you’d use it. Both you and the subject need to be still, so it’s uses are a little limited for now. By default the Fn2 button is set to switch Post Focus on and off.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80’s viewfinder is small, but it’s useful if there’s very bright sunlight – or if you just prefer to compose your images through a viewfinder. There’s a sensor on the viewfinder itself which switches it on – and the screen off – automatically as the camera is lifted to your eye. This makes for a nice seamless transition – but you can switch this off if you need to – for instance if you’re shooting from the hip. Unlike the TZ57, the TZ80’s screen is fixed, which is less useful for selfies and group portraits, but it helps to keep the camera slim.
Inbuilt Wi-Fi can be used to connect the camera to your smartphone or tablet, meaning you can remotely control it, or send photos you’ve already taken across to be shared on social networks and the like. A free app can be downloaded for iOS and Android, and the good news is that it gives you lots of control over the camera itself. While some apps only allow you to trigger the shutter release, from this you can do pretty much everything – alter aperture, ISO, switch on the flash, change autofocus point – and much more besides. It’s also quick to transfer your existing photos across too.
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| The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 In-hand |
There’s quite a few creative options afford to you when using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80. You can switch to the dedicated creative mode, but you can also use one of the several inbuilt filters when shooting in one of the manual or semi-automatic modes. The bonus here being that shooting in raw format gives you a “clean” version of the image should you need it down the line. You can also the less dramatic Picture Modes, such as Vivid and Monochrome, to give your shots a different look. There’s also a panorama mode, which enables you to create super wide angle shots by moving the camera across the view that you’re trying to capture.
The introduction of DFD technology is designed to speed up focusing, and it seems to work well. Focusing speeds are very quick in all but the very darkest of conditions, and it’s rare for a false confirmation of focus to be displayed. The new Venus engine also seems to facilitate very quick operational times, with a very short shot-to-shot time.
Although the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 may be aimed at enthusiast photographers looking for something to take on their travels – the addition of raw format shooting and advanced shooting modes suggests that – there is also a good automatic option, which does a good job of accurately assessing the scene in front of it to set the most appropriate settings. That makes it also good for beginners who are mostly interested in the 30x optical zoom available.
Mac users, we’re pleased to announce Macphun’s all-in-one photo editor Luminar is now available for just $69£52 for new users, or $59£44 for existing Macphun users.Use coupon code “PHOTOBLOG” to save another $10 on Luminar.
We rated Luminar as “Highly Recommended”. Visit the Luminar web site to try it for free.
Image Quality
All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.
Panasonic has increased the pixel count of the Lumix DMC-TZ80 from the TZ70’s 12 million pixels. At the time of the TZ70’s launch, Panasonic claimed that using 12 million pixels was a deliberate decision to get high image quality from having larger pixels.
Somewhere along the line that decision has been reversed, and as a result, it seems that image quality from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 doesn’t quite match the TZ70’s high quality in some situations. In bright light, the TZ80 is very capable, but even at relatively low ISOs (such as 200), you can see image smoothing and loss of detail, which only gets worse the higher up the sensitivity scale you go.
Although noise isn’t particularly visible until fairly high up the sensitivity range – it only starts to become problematic when you reach ISO 3200, this seems to be as a result of extensive image smoothing which render those shots taken at the highest settings of ISO 1600 only really useable at small printing or sharing sizes.
At present, it’s not possible to open the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80’s raw files using Adobe Camera Raw. You can download Panasonic’s own Silkypix software to open and edit the RW2 files instead. If you switch off the default “sharpness”, you can see a lot more noise appearing in ISO 1600 and above images – but also a lot more detail. With that in mind, you can adjust the amount of noise reduction if you would prefer more detail, which could potentially save some shots which have lots of fine areas.
Most of the time, the camera’s all-purpose metering system does a good job of accurately assessing the scene to produce balanced exposures. Automatic white balance also copes well most of the time, but it can be a little thrown by mixed lighting situations (for instance, an illuminated room which also has some natural light coming in from a window). In these cases, it’s best to switch to a specific white balance setting, such as Fluorescent.
At the end of the 30x optical zoom, it’s also possible to see some loss of detail, and again, it seems as if the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 can’t quite match the TZ70 in terms of sharpness and clarity. Images taken at other focal lengths, such as 10x or 20x, fare better though. On the plus side, the camera’s inbuilt optical image stabilisation does a good job of keeping images free from blur when using the full reach of the optical zoom.
Noise
There are 8 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
| JPEG | RAW |
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ISO 80 (100% Crop) |
ISO 80 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 3200 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
ISO 6400 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web – Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can change the in-camera sharpening level via the Picture Adjust menu option.
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Original (100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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Focal Range
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80’s 30x zoom lens provides a very versatile focal length of 24-720mm in 35mm terms, as demonstrated below.
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24mm |
720mm |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with some purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.
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Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop) |
Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 3cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro |
Macro (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Forced Off – Wide Angle (24mm) |
Forced On – Wide Angle (24mm) |
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Forced Off – Telephoto (720mm) |
Forced On – Telephoto (720mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Redeye Reduction |
Redeye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80’s maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is great news if you’re seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 400. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 15 second setting the actual exposure takes 30 seconds.
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Night |
Night (100% Crop) |
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