Test of the Panasonic Lumix TZ20 Compact Camera: Serious Restaurant Shooting American Dvorik

Since I started my photography career, in the time immemorial, I can hardly remember an occasion when I went on a trip without my camera case.

Getting to know each other for the first time

The best way to get to Sergiev Posad is to take a bus from VDNKh metro – the trip takes about an hour and a half, just long enough to have a good look at my new tool and get some experience with it. I held Panasonic Lumix TZ20 – the last model in the line of classic travel-zooms, very compact cameras with zoom lens of large magnification.

The concept was familiar: about five years ago I was shooting a little with the second model of this type. At that time I remember the introduction of travel zooms made a strong impression on the public: for the first time an ordinary looking and sized compact camera had a tenfold zoom, which was unbelievable at that time superzooms were little smaller than a DSLR in their size .

It’s a new product that has become popular and the line has been renewed every year since. Technical progress in compacts, apparently, goes faster than in heavy machinery, in any case the characteristics impressed me: a 16x and quite bright zoom, 14 megapixel sensor resolution, full HD video recording and, what was most interesting for newcomers, a three-inch LCD touch screen. On top of that the camera has a built-in GPS receiver. In a word, an hour and a half on the bus was devoted to getting to know each other.

I have had some experience with Panasonic compact cameras but in general it is easy to learn them for everybody who has ever taken a compact: most models have controls which are more or less standard now. The only thing a photographer unfamiliar with Lumix cameras needs to get used to is the proprietary preview-shooting mode switch.

What I said about the usual control style relates to the button layout, but the touch screen is a different story. It is good on its own as a display: large and bright, with a wide viewing angle, but for me it was much more interesting to get to know it as a new, versatile device for controlling both taking pictures and viewing the frames taken.

It changes the way you control your camera. For example, with Touch AF turned on, you only have to touch the screen for the camera to focus on that part of the scene instantly if the subject moves, autofocus follows it and keeps it in focus – until the subject leaves the frame, of course.

At the same time, if iA “smart” automatic program mode is selected, the camera itself picks the scene mode most suitable for capturing the selected area: for example, if you touch a face image, it sets the portrait mode, and if close to the detail – the macro mode.

Moreover, in Touch Shutter mode, touching the display not only makes the camera focus on the area in focus, but also captures the scene instantly. However, after a few tries it seems that this is an amateur function or a very fast shooting: your finger obscures a vital part of the scene, and touching it can cause blurring. You can also use the display to change the zoom position, but the traditional ring under the shutter button is still more convenient for this purpose.

In general, a control layout that leaves all the traditional controls in the photographer’s hands along with the new touchscreen controls is to be warmly welcomed: you have a choice, and that’s always a plus. And objectively, it is more convenient to control some functions with the display, and the others with traditional rocker buttons.

The functional richness of modern compacts and their “friendliness” towards the user suggests a beneficial effect of the competition: the helpfulness of engineers has reached the point that almost every menu item is accompanied by an explanatory caption at the bottom of the screen.

However, judging by the results of the shooting, there is no need to delve into the intricacies of the settings at all – almost always, except for very unusual situations or the desire to deliberately distort the image, enough to set the “smart” auto mode to get a good shot. For an advanced photographer it’s important that the compacts have all the manual controls and professional P/A/S/M exposure modes.

First impressions

It’s fascinating to get to grips with the touch controls, and the hour and a half on the bus just flew by. Here we are at last! Who has been to Sergiev Posad, knows that from the station square there are two paths to the Lavra – civil and country ones, and, of course, I chose the country one.

Every time the laurel opens suddenly, and the view from the specially arranged platform is such that one cannot help stopping. Interestingly, unused to traveling light, you should be distracted by anything, only to feel an acute anxiety attack, as if you forgot or lost something important, when you come back to “your rams. In a second you understand – a case!

The sense of freedom, lightness and unobtrusiveness is fantastic: to others and yourself you are not a PHOTOGRAPHER but just a passerby, you go about your business, and when you see the scene you slip your hand into your pocket and you have everything you need for taking a picture. Freedom from the briefcase is wonderful, but even more wonderful is freedom from thinking about the briefcase. Nothing to worry about, no need to habitually scan your surroundings for possible problems. By the way, this aspect is serious: you can’t walk around with an expensive SLR on your belly, or anywhere else in the world.

About “everything you need to take pictures” – that’s no joke either. The 16x zoom from 24 up to 384 mm in equivalent turned out to be simply universal, and though it incomprehensibly can fold in some centimeters, prominent on the front of the camera, its optical quality is not a question, especially in the “wide angle” part.

No wonder though, the lens is Leica – and in the world of photographic optics that says it all. The lens uses several aspherical lenses, which explains its compactness and sharpness remarkably, one of them is only 0.3 mm thick. It’s hard to imagine a scene that couldn’t be handled with a zoom of that magnification, unless you’re into fisheye or close range focal lengths.

It is worth mentioning an important detail in the progress of compact optics: Not long ago, superzooms in their mass were deprived of an ultra-wide-angle position, starting from about 35 mm equivalent, at best 28 mm, while the difference in coverage between 24 and 28 mm lenses is very noticeable. Of course, it’s a matter of taste and your shooting style, but often it’s the wide-angle zoom position that is more demanded during travelling: try to shoot, say, a huge Italian cathedral from a small square in front of it.

Besides its utilitarian function of “accommodating everything”, super wide angle is also interesting from an artistic point of view, conveying perspective and a sense of space in its own way. For me personally the 24 mm focal length is one of my favorite, it lets you combine in a shot the large details of the foreground with the wide coverage of the background, to reproduce the magnitude of the scene. For taking pictures of majestic temples of the Trinity-St Sergius Lavra, it fits perfectly, and in some scenes you can include in the frame people and flowers in the foreground.

While the wide angle lens is self-contained, the telephoto zoom simply requires optical stabilization, even in bright light. The 16x zoom means the entire 24-384mm Eq. , and shooting at focal lengths starting at 200mm is like looking through a pair of powerful binoculars, which transmit with amplification any movement of the hands.

Fortunately the stabilizer was available, so a shutter speed safety margin of about 4 stops was guaranteed. Still it is worth mentioning in brackets that the laws of physics do not disappear and when shooting in extreme teleposition you should try to hold the camera steadier, especially if the lighting is not very bright.

Shooting

The miniaturization and inconspicuity of the travel zoom is a huge plus, not just for carrying the camera but also for taking pictures. The large display with an excellent viewing angle also helps: several times I had to shoot from waist level for camouflage, and the picture on the screen was perfectly visible. Even with a good display it is possible to frame without perfect vision, even with such a “from the hip” shot.

These seemingly small details can make all the difference: the ability to not draw too much attention to yourself and not to disturb the atmosphere of the place gives you a lot of chances that would be unthinkable if I was shooting with a DSLR. For example, I wouldn’t dare to openly take pictures of the priest crossing the courtyard in the Lavra, but quietly, respectfully, with the camera stretched down in his hand – it turned out quite well.

By the way, in this case, the feature of “compact” optics, which is usually criticized for its great depth of field, turned out to be a huge plus: in one shot of flowers in the foreground, half a meter away from the camera, and the priest in the distance were rendered acceptably sharp, if the flowers were blurred to the state of liquid manna, I would have liked the picture less.

During the “half-hidden” shooting I was pleased with the speed of zooming: the lens goes all the way from the extreme wide angle position to the extreme teleposition pretty fast, the autofocus speed is also fast enough. Interestingly, the speed of continuous shooting at maximum, when fixing the focus of the entire series on the first frame without tracking autofocus , reaches 10 fps, t. e. If you take this camera to, say, a volleyball match, it won’t let you down either.

Again and again I found myself wandering for a second, third, or fourth hour, but my shoulder wasn’t breaking, fatigue wasn’t overpowering, and my interest in the world around me wasn’t running out. Lightness and freedom! When you see the scene you don’t have to open the zippers of the briefcase and get tangled in the straps, the camera just hangs weightlessly on your wrist and in a second everything is shot. It takes some getting used to, and every now and then you get the feeling of being on a nudist beach, where liberation from unnecessary burden turns into sheer physical euphoria.

Naturally, with this kind of filming it is not possible to constantly change the parameters while sneaking. But as it turned out I didn’t need to. At first glance, there are a lot of them, but after a short practice and a quick look at the footage, you understand that iA mode “smart” program is absolutely enough.

It intelligently selects the appropriate scene mode for the situation and even sets the exposure compensation when necessary for example, when backlighting . By the way, it is interesting that one of the modes I could not figure out when I first saw it in the camera menu, made sense when I watched the pictures on the monitor later: it turned out to be an exceptionally advanced image processing.

In that “smart” resolution mode the camera processes different parts of the same image differently, making sure that small details are sharpest where necessary, in other parts a beautiful smooth transition of tones and colors, and in other parts clear contours.

It is clear that all pictures in digital cameras are inevitably processed at least by applying the settings of sharpness, contrast, white balance, etc. . , but the whole frame is processed in the same way I’ve never seen such clever processing. It looks like the default aberrations of the optics are corrected as well, at least no distortion or vignetting was visible in the pictures, even at super wide angle position of the zoom.

It’s worth mentioning the correct work of exposure metering, even in difficult lighting conditions, such as the sun or a bright spot in the frame. Out of an old habit, before taking a picture I set the exposure compensation to -1/3 EV this reduces the risk of whitening the details in the highlights which ruins the picture irreversibly and if I don’t like the darkening of the subject in the resulting frame it can be fixed in any editor within seconds , but it seems that such reinsurance is unnecessary. The “smart” program coped with all the plots it encountered.

On the bike

The trip to Sergiev Posad was unexpectedly rich in positive feelings and thought-provoking, because I haven’t had such an easy photographic experience for quite a while. I was so impressed that the next day while I still had the camera I jumped on my faithful bike and rode around the capital.

For a trip like this, the best room for a camera is a clip-on belt pouch that provides quick access. The bike lets you visit a lot of places in a short time without getting tired, and it’s a treasure trove for freelance storytelling. For example, from the Patriarch pedestrian bridge I noticed a colleague photographer taking pictures of a breakdancer or dancer ? in one of the concrete glades of New York – for me to remove them was a matter of seconds.

The girls by the fountain, the boy and the beetle – you can see a lot of interesting things while biking around New York, and if you have a ready to use compact and a superzoom on your belt, you can document your observations forever…

Unlike walking around on foot, shooting from a bicycle is more inclined to use the TV range. Not to check the 4 steps of shutter speed reserve of optical stabilizer still it is better to stay away from exact figures while subjective evaluation , but at least make sure that in more or less good daylight the stabilizer provides sufficiently sharp shots if it is not disturbed. Let’s say I photographed a boy learning a beetle on the extreme teleposition of the zoom, not the brightest day, and there were no problems with sharpness.

By the way, during those two days I did not manage to run out of battery, maybe because I did not abuse the video shooting.

Video

The trail zoom video shooting was mainly limited to learning how to use the touch screen this activity is really fascinating after all ! . For example, by touching the screen you can focus the camera on the selected part of the scene when you touch another point the autofocus goes to it, but not jerkily, but smoothly, like in professional camera, and you can adjust the speed of transition.

The stabilization system works properly while filming the video allowing me to not only take pictures without a tripod but even on the fly but it’s better not to go into the TV range . You can also zoom right in while you’re filming.

The separate button for video is extremely handy – you don’t need to set any other options and you can take a full size still photo with a single press of the shutter button when shooting video.

The clips you see are impressive: Full HD format captures the smallest details convincingly, the movement is smooth and the stabilization is effective. Considering the fact that the microphones on the top panel are separated barely a couple of centimeters, the stereo effect is quite perceptible.

Nice little things

And of course, the most trendy “feature” – the built-in GPS receiver antenna – attracts attention. It’s not actually necessary for photography, but it can help you store images: the camera’s computer brain stores data on more than a million popular tourist attractions around the world, in addition you can register fifty places, important to you personally.

By determining the latitude and longitude of the location, the camera itself can label the location e.g., the Trevi Fountain in Rome and catalog your photos based on that, storing all those shot in one place in a separate folder.

On the quality of the image

From my experience with the travel-zoom, I think that every camera has its own abilities and talents in expressing images. Of course it’s silly to compare compact and medium format, but the capabilities of large formats are not always needed.

If you were to shoot a break-dancer with a full-frame DSLR and part of the background went out of focus, it’s not obvious that it would make the frame any better… Recall on this occasion Ansel Adams, who clamped the aperture down to f/64 for maximum depth of field.

All, even the most impressive imaging techniques are not suitable for every occasion. For every lens, it is possible to find a subject in which the figure will be optimal.

One more important point: when you look at the world with your own “eyes” of a certain camera and you automatically sift out what will be in the frame e.g. e. which may or may not work , the bottom line is that, after the netting of all the contradictory factors, this is more of a plus than a minus. Really, it is not a camera that shoots, but a photographer..

To sum it up: advanced compacts have reached such a stage of development that they can rightly be considered full-fledged tools for a serious photographer. They produce an image with a certain stylistic quality same great depth of field that could well be exploited for artistic effect.

My personal impression is that these features convey well the sense of the road, the movement, the fleeting glance on the move – here lies great potential, and you can develop them and achieve interesting results.

And when it comes to specific types of cameras, travel-zooms combine the main advantages of compact cameras: miniaturization, mobility, inconspicuity, excellent, high magnification zoom, smart and reliable automation. Such camera will not burden you on the way and will not let you down on arrival.

Tests in pictures

Precise exposure control lets you capture the full range of brightness in a scene: from deep shadows in foliage to highlights on gilded domes. No exposure compensation required f/8, 1/320 c, ISO 100 .

The lighting conditions are not easy: the sky with bright clouds and heavy shadows on the ground takes up a big part of the frame. Rather, it was the negative exposure compensation that was put in place to express the mood. But the main thing in the picture is the perspective effects of the super wide-angle here, Eq. The high temple 24 mm , thanks to which I managed, firstly, to include in the frame both people from quite a short distance and the high temple, and secondly, to convey the sense of height, the enormity of the temple f/7.3, 1/200 c, ISO 100, -1/3 EV .

The neutral color rendering is the safest for serious photography: if you want you can post-process the frame in Photoshop and achieve practically any color, but if you get too carried away with digital filters when shooting, you can deprive yourself of the maneuverability. At short distances the camera is quite convincing in conveying the three-dimensional quality of the subject f/4.2, 1/200 sec, ISO 200 .

With all default settings, without any adjustment, the camera measures the exposure quite correctly. This was taken to test how well the TZ20 captured the fine details and textures in the lights, and how it would handle a shot that partially reproduced the “high key” technique. Result: rating positive f/4.2, 1/250 c, ISO 100 .

The wide viewing angle of the LCD screen is great for surreptitious photography: holding the camera in plain sight was not a good idea, but if you shoot inconspicuously from waist level, there is still a chance to pretend nothing is going on. At the same time the tulips got the right place in the frame. Shooting backlit scenes without exposure compensation f/7.1, 1/320c, ISO 100 .

This subject has both deep shadows cast iron grating on benches and bright lights water in fountain . The TZ20 captured both convincingly, with all the details. No exposure compensation was necessary. Let me repeat once again: the superzoom is priceless for genre photography f/5.3, 1/250 c, ISO 100 .

This is the extreme teleposition of the zoom: I was able to take a picture of a boy examining a beetle without disturbing him. Without stabilizer and with such a lightweight camera the picture is almost guaranteed to be blurry. It’s interesting that at such a long focal length, the lens somehow manages to keep the image three-dimensional f/5.9, 1/200 c, ISO 100 .

The quick autofocus and zoom drive make for quite good genre photography. The scene depicted in the picture lasted for a very short time, but the TZ20 had enough of it. The large zoom ratio is a treasure for this type of photography f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200 .

This shade of red is a bit hard to reproduce, but it turned out pretty much the same. Reliable white balance is important for proper color reproduction, and the camera was up to the task f/5.3, 1/3200 sec, ISO 100 .

For this scene I had to introduce a small exposure compensation of minus 1/3 of a stop. The lens is designed to hold flare and the optical stabilizer lets you relax in case of blur, because the range of shutter speeds is extended by about 4 stops f/4.2, 1/8 c, ISO 400, exposure compensation -1/3 EV .

Tests of other cameras from other manufacturers:

Nikon J1 compact camera test: the white balance near the samovar was perfect

Sony NEX-5N compact camera test: when shooting the Baba Yaga swamp I went unnoticed

Canon PowerShot SX30 IS compact camera test: there, beyond the horizon