Panasonic TZ70 review

The Panasonic TZ70 is a compact camera with a 30x optical zoom, making it the perfect complement to a zoom-less smartphone camera. The only trouble is that fitting a 30x zoom into a pocket-sized camera comes at the expense of image quality in low light. It’s a basic limitation of optical design that a small camera can have either a big zoom or a wide aperture for improved image quality in low light, but not both.

Panasonic is looking to address the balance this time around. Whereas its predecessor, the TZ60 used an 18-megapixel sensor, the TZ70 drops down to 12 megapixels. That means less detail, but having fewer pixels means more light hits each one, which pushes down the grainy noise that blights most compact cameras. We found that the TZ60’s 30x lens wasn’t quite sharp enough to match the 18-megapixel sensor, so the prospect of a lower resolution and less noise seems promising.

As with the TZ60, Panasonic has positioned the TZ70 at the top of the price range for a pocket ultra-zoom camera. There’s plenty to justify it, including an electronic viewfinder, full manual exposure and focus control, RAW format support, a 10fps top burst speed, 1080p video at frame rates up to 50fps and slow-motion capture at 720p and 100fps. Photo shooting modes include HDR, panorama and 3D capture.

There’s a mode dial, rear wheel and lens ring for quick access to settings. The lack of a touchscreen is disappointing, though. Moving the autofocus point without one was a bit of a chore, although it was less so after we reassigned the Fn1 button to this task.

The handgrip on the TZ60 was just a slender ridge, so the nicely contoured rubber grip on the TZ70 is welcome. The flash is just as impractically placed as before, though. There’s a high risk of obscuring it with a finger, and it’s liable to throwing shadows above the subject in portrait orientation.

Panasonic is currently the only manufacturer to include a viewfinder in this type of camera. We weren’t hugely impressed with the TZ60’s viewfinder, as the view was small and the 200,000-dot resolution looked pixelated. The TZ70’s viewfinder is much sharper at 1.16 million dots, but the view is still pretty small, and not much different to using the 3in LCD screen. Still, any viewfinder is welcome when direct sunlight makes the screen hard to see, and it makes it easier to hold the camera steady too.

Wi-Fi is to be expected these days, but Panasonic’s implementation is among the best around.  There’s comprehensive remote control in the companion iOS and Android apps. There are options to send photos directly to mobile devices, computers and various other destinations, either on demand or as soon as they’re captured.

GPS was built into the TZ60 but it has disappeared this time around. It’s still possible to geo-tag photos with the help of the app, which uses the iOS or Android device’s GPS radio to log the location and then retrospectively tag photos later. It’s a bit cumbersome, and there’s no excuse for not having clear instructions for use in the app, but we managed to get it working.

Performance used to be one of the TZ series’ main strengths but we’ve seen it dwindle in recent years. As such, it’s disappointing that the drop from 18 to 12 megapixels hasn’t come with a hike in performance. We timed one second between shots in normal use, which is marginally slower than we got from the TZ60. RAW shooting is much more responsive, though, at 1.1 seconds rather compared to two seconds from the TZ60. The fastest continuous mode managed 8.5fps and lasted for six frames in our tests. Whereas the TZ60 kept us waiting for around five seconds before it was ready for another burst, the TZ70 was ready to go again after 1.5 seconds. There’s also an option to shoot at 6fps (5.3fps in our tests) or 3fps with updating focus between each shot. Its ability to keep up with moving subjects was hit and miss but it’s better than most cameras’ fixed focus for the duration of the sequence.

Video quality was excellent, with smooth, crisp details and lifelike colours. Powerful stabilisation played an important role when shooting at the long end of the zoom. Videos shot under household lighting had a gloomy yellow cast but noise was kept reasonably under control. There’s an option to capture up to 10 photos while simultaneously recording video, but these 9-megapixel snaps are really just 1080p (2-megapixel) video frames that have been scaled up to the larger dimensions.

Photo quality had its ups and downs, too. The relatively modest 12-megapixel resolution delivered appreciably smoother colours and more natural-looking fine details than the TZ60, both in brightly lit and gloomier conditions. There was a slight loss of detail but the benefit outweighed the drawback.

^ Details are impressively sharp throughout this wide-angle shot. There’s a bit of purple fringing in the top corners but it’s not too intrusive. (1/80s, f/3.3, ISO 80, 24mm equivalent)

^ This brightly lit shot is hard to fault, with sharp focus and smooth, accurate colours. The dense textures are handled well, too. (1/500s, f/4.3, ISO 80, 61mm equivalent)

^ Focus isn’t quite as crisp at the long end of the zoom, but we could happily live with it. (1/100s, f/6.4, ISO 125, 720mm equivalent)

This sensor is by no means a game changer, though. Ultimately, it’s still a small sensor sat behind a lens with a narrow aperture, so noise was a problem when shooting in low light – and also when shooting shaded subjects at the long end of the zoom. The camera choose surprisingly slow shutter speeds on automatic settings to capture plenty of light and minimise noise, but while the stabilisation did an impressive job of counteracting shake, blur due to moving subjects could be a problem.

^ Shooting telephoto subjects in overcast weather pushes noise levels up, and the resulting noise reduction smears details. This example is still reasonably presentable. (1/100s, f/6.4, ISO 400, 720mm equivalent)

^ This shot is by no means bad, but close inspection reveals grainy noise in place of fine details. We had to raise the shutter speed manually to avoid motion blur of the subject. (1/200s, f/6.4, ISO 1600, 373mm equivalent)

^ Skin and hair textures are captured faithfully in direct sunlight . (1/250s, f/5.9, ISO 80, 322mm equivalent)

^ Indoor skin textures aren’t so flattering, with a smudged, spidery textures when viewed up close. (1/13s, f/4.1, ISO 400, 50mm equivalent)

Most photos looked fine at typical viewing sizes but it required a generous dose of sunshine to produce shots that stood up to close scrutiny. The same could be said of the TZ70’s direct competitors, such as our current favourite, the Nikon S9700. The TZ70 has a small advantage for image quality over the S9700, but we’re not convinced it’s enough to justify paying twice as much for.

For this kind of money, we’re much more tempted by the Panasonic FZ200, which is bulkier but much more capable in low light. Then again, if you need something pocket-sized with a big zoom and a viewfinder, the TZ70 is the obvious – and indeed only – choice.