At low ISO sensitivities, the dynamic range of the TZ60 is very impressive. At ISO 100, the TZ60 was able to capture a total of 12.3EV of light, which is a very high score, although it drops to just 7.4EV at ISO 1600. For high-contrast landscapes, the TZ60’s range is noticeably better than in many cameras with a similar sensor. Also, a good amount of detail is kept in shadows and highlights, which can be brought out in post-processing. However, as the metering prioritises midtones, it can cause a loss of highlight detail, particularly in skies. The dynamic range can therefore be maximised by setting -0.6EV compensation and lightening the shadows in post-production. So the Lumix TZ60 / ZS40 now sports a new 30x zoom, equivalent to 24-720mm in 35mm terms, and allowing it to zoom 50% closer than its predecessor. This range matches the Sony HX50V and HX60V, and is essentially the same as the 25-750mm range delivered by the Canon SX700 HS. The focal ratios are similar too, with the Panasonic, Sony and Canon starting off at f3.3, f3.5 and f3.2 at the wide-end respectively, and ending at f6.4, f6.3 and f6.9 respectively at the long end. The closest focusing distances with the lenses set to wide are 3cm, 5cm and 1cm respectively, allowing all to capture good macro images, although giving the Canon the overall edge. Above left: 100% crop, 4.3-129mm at 129mm, 1/25, 80 ISO, OIS off. Above right: 100% crop, 4.3-129mm at 129mm, 1/25, 80 ISO, OIS on. The Lumix TZ80 / ZS60 charges its battery in the camera via the standard USB port. An a/c adaptor and a USB cable are included in the box, though you can use any USB Micro B cable and any suitable power source, you can’t externally power the camera while shooting. If you switch the Lumix TZ80 / ZS60 on while it’s charging an alert that tells you ‘To begin charging turn the camera off’ is displayed. You can still shoot, but the battery won’t start charging until you turn the camera off. The PowerShot SX720 HS battery can be charged in-camera over a USB connection, or externally using the supplied AC unit.

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 Both these features, along with a 30x optical zoom and Wi-Fi connectivity, really improve what is already an excellent series of travel cameras, but I’m sure the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 will also attract a few admiring glances from enthusiast photographers. 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.

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. The button layout of the camera is straightforward, with a familiar selection of rear controls and the useful addition of a control ring around the lens. I had no issues accessing any of the exposure or image settings, and the various shooting modes can be selected via a dedicated dial on the top of the camera. Panasonic Lumix TZ60: Other features Like Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-HX50, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 uses a 30x zoom lens. The lens on the DMC-TZ60 is a Leica DC Vario-Elmar 4.3-129mm f/3.5-6.4 zoom, the equivalent of an incredible 24-720mm in 35mm format. Indeed, the zoom range of this lens goes from being wide to an extreme telephoto in just a couple of seconds. To help combat camera shake, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 has an anti-shake system, on this model the POWER O.I.S. variety. Turn it on and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 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. When shooting video, the 5-axis HYBRID O.I.S.+ is automatically added to the POWER O.I.S. system, which effectively compensates for the camera's five types of movement – horizontal, vertical, axis of rotation, vertical rotation and horizontal rotation.

The AVCHD mode can record video in either 1080p at 28Mbit/s, or 1080i or 720p, both at a rate of 17Mbit/s. 1080p footage is recorded at 50p or 60p depending on region, while 1080i footage is recorded at 50i or 60i depending on region. 720p footage is recorded at 50p or 60p depending on region. You can choose to tag AVCHD movies with GPS location data, although it may cause incompatibilities with some devices. Using the best quality 1080p AVCHD mode, you’re looking at about 200Mbytes per minute of footage, considerably more than the 1080i and 720p AVCHD modes which consume closer to 120 Mbytes per minute of footage. I found that sensitivities of ISO 400 and below produce the best results, so for day-to-day shooting I chose to set the ISO to auto and limit it to ISO 400. Between ISO 1600 and the maximum extended ISO 6400, slight colour noise starts to become evident and luminance noise is very noticeable,while, the detail along high-contrast edges becomes jagged and smudgy. To put the capabilities to the test I fitted the TZ60 / ZS40 with a freshly formatted SanDisk 16GB UHS-1 SD card and timed various bursts. Starting with the 5fps mode and the quality set to 18 Megapixel Fine JPEG, I fired-off six frames in 1.37 seconds, corresponding to a speed of 4.4fps; after this initial burst the camera slowed to about 2.5fps. Moving up to the 10fps mode, again with 18 Megapixel Fine JPEG quality, I fired-off six shots in 0.44 seconds, corresponding to a speed of 13.6fps; after this burst the camera stopped recording until the buffer cleared. Transferring from your memory is a much easier and probably a widely more preferred method, if you're computer has the capability. Most, if not all Lumix cameras will take an SD card and similarly most modern day laptops and Macs – again with the exception of a few Macbook Air's and newer Macbook Pro's, will have an SD card slot within the body of them, so connecting and accessing images, or even files, documents, anything contained on an SD card is incredibly easy.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.

Despite a bright display and an anti-reflective coating, the 3in, 920,000-dot screen struggled in the extremely bright sunlight of the Mojave Desert, and it was awkward to compose images. In more subdued daylight the screen was fine, with good colours and a pleasing level of contrast. Panasonic Lumix TZ60: Build and handling There’s three options: Burst (which records video while the shutter button is pressed), Burst S / S (which starts recording with one press and stops with another), and 4K Pre-burst (which keeps a rolling buffer to avoid unwieldy clips to store and go through). Mostly I used the Burst mode, and above you can see an example selected from about a second of burst shooting which gave me a choice of around 30 frames. 4k Photo isn’t only good for action though, if you’re filming a relatively slow or even static subject, it can give you a choice of compositions and poses. Well, that's easy. Just look for the only slot up the side of your keyboard that might look like it accommodates a relatively small, flat, card. If it isn't there, you don't have one. While the TZ60’s predecessor – the TZ40 – featured a reasonable 20x optical zoom, the new model increases the zoom by some 50% and now sports a 30x optic. The lens is a Leica DC Vario-Elmar unit and covers a focal range of 24-720mm in 35mm equivalent terms. If you’d prefer the camera only searched for its position when it was switched on (to save power or avoid interference in planes), you can enable Airplane mode in a separate menu. The plus-side is knowing exactly when the GPS is operating, but the downside is taking anything up to a few minutes to re-acquire your position from cold. Meanwhile the GPS OFF option really does turn it off altogether.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.