Having owned a Fuji F10 (a compact point and shoot) I was used to camera with excellent low light ability. My reasons for replacing were mainly due to the limitations of the Fuji’s 3 times zoom range. Plus the fact I know a few people who have Panasonics, with long zooms, and I was jealous…

I sell my photos on stock sites. I do this in my spare time and so don’t make very much money from it. I have, however, learnt a lot. It was always a bit touch-and-go as to whether photos from my Fuji would make the grade (in terms of technical quality). Though, being a compact camera, I would expect no less. These sites are designed for people using pro equipment.
Ideally, when looking at upgrading, my new camera would have everything listed above as well as the quality for my stock photography. In my research, however, I soon realised that I couldn’t tap into all of these different worlds. To briefly explain what quality you need, look at one of your digital photos at 100% and check for noise, artifacts etc. If it has any of these it will most likely be rejected.
Due to the sheer number of pixels this camera is cramming in to a small sensor (10 million) I can’t see any of my pictures being accepted. A shame, but I realised this before purchase. If there wasn’t this ‘Pixel War’ between manufacturers and Panasonic had put a reasonable 6-7 million pixels in this camera I would probably have been able to make my money back by selling my photos – eventually! So why don’t I go into the settings and set the camera to take the picture at a lower pixel count – I hear maybe one of you ask? Well, unfortunately that doesn’t work! Sorry, the setting does work, but what I mean is that doesn’t cure the quality issue.

One thing I do like on a camera is a good wide angle lens. And this camera has one! Not only that but it has a huge telephoto. To have all this optics in one small camera and still take a decent photo is miraculous. The zoom is a bit slow going from and to the extremes of the range and there’s a tiny bit of distortion at the widest angle and a bit of detail lost at the maximum zoom, but most people won’t notice, or probably even care for that matter. At the end of the day to look at on screen or print off for an album, any loss of detail just won’t show up.

I’ve talked about the still functions of this camera, but what about its unique selling point? The HD video? At my research stage (nights and nights of reviews zzzz) I wondered whether I’d really need this function and therefore buy the TZ6 which is basically this camera but without HD video. In the end, obviously, I went for this one. Am I pleased I spent an extra, I don’t know, £70? … Yes, indeed I am. To start recording you simply press one button; to stop, the same button again. There’s no need to twist a dial or flick a switch. This is great if you need to be quick.
I am fortunate enough to have a Panasonic TV with full HD capability. I was, however, dubious of how good this quality could be from, what I’d call, the camera’s 2nd function. No need to be dubious though as the quality is excellent. Although not full HD is produces a very crisp, fluid picture which still amazes me. (One thing I am yet to try is stock video so maybe this camera does have money making ability. Hmmm.) What you lose from buying this instead of a HD camcorder though, is the sound quality. Although very good close up, this is no good pin-pointing someone talking at a distance.
I nearly forget why this camera’s HD video also stands out from its competitors. Quite simply because you can zoom at the same time. The equivalent Canon is unable to do this, which is surprising. And was one of the reasons why Panasonic got my money.

I shouldn’t forget the screen quality of this camera. The resolution on my Fuji was quite low and so in bright light I found it very hard to see anything on screen. Also, if looked at from a different angle other than straight-on the quality wasn’t very good. The Panasonic, however, has a high resolution screen and the difference is amazing. Look at it at any angle in almost any light and you can’t help but be impressed.

Conclusion…
The price of this camera when I bought it was starting to venture towards low spec SLR’s. Some might feel this a bit steep, but take a look at what you get for the money and you realise that actually it’s amazing value. I really can’t think of any other features Panasonic could have put into this camera!