Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 review

One thing that’s less excusable at this price is the lack of a RAW capture mode. However, from looking at the noise levels in JPEGs, it’s easy to see why Panasonic might be reticent about letting users see the unadulterated RAW image data.

Noise was hard to ignore even in bright conditions at ISO 100, comparing badly even to other 14-megapixel compact cameras. Noise reduction did its best to hide it, but it gave fine details a painted appearance and still struggled to suppress grain in darker areas of frames. When low light or long telephoto settings demanded fast ISO speeds, details became extremely muddy and vague. At least the heavy use of noise reduction meant that photos at up to ISO 800 looked fine when resized to fit a computer screen.

A Handheld Night Shot scene mode helped by aligning and superimposing 10 frames to average out the noise, while watching out for moving subjects to avoid ghosting. However, it wasn’t as effective as a similar feature in recent Sony cameras; details were extremely soft and subject motion in any part of the frame scuppered the process for the whole frame.

Problems with detail and noise – click to zoom image

These problems with noise and details were all the more frustrating because the lens demonstrated extremely sharp focus throughout its 16x zoom range – a superb achievement for a compact-shaped camera. Colours were balanced, too, and automatic exposure settings were expertly judged.

It’s hard to stomach excessive noise in a budget camera, and at this price we feel it’s unforgiveable. It’s particularly regrettable here because the TZ20’s more affordable sibling, the TZ18 (see What’s New, Shopper 280) is a little better for noise. Those in the market for a feature-packed compact ultra-zoom camera are much better off with the Canon Ixus 1000 HS.