By viewing full size sample images you can see (prior to purchasing) if the camera's image quality is acceptable for your preferences/ usage.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80's maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 4 seconds at ISO 400. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 15 second setting the actual exposure takes 30 seconds. Above left: Panasonic Lumix TZ90 / ZS70 4k video coverage. Above right: Panasonic Lumix TZ90 / ZS70 1080 video coverage. The remote control feature shows a live image on your phone or tablet’s screen allowing you to take a photo or start or stop a video recording. If the camera’s mode dial is set to Aperture or Shutter Priority, you can remotely adjust the aperture or shutter speed respectively, and in Manual you can change both. You can drag the AF area to position it just as you would on the camera screen; at least you can if the AF mode is set to Pinpoint or 1-Area. It’s not possible to position the Custom Multi AF area group using your phone – you have to do that on the camera screen, however, this is minor omission in what is otherwise a very feature-rich app.

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The 4K Photo mode is great for capturing the perfect moment when faced with fast action, but it’s also surprisingly useful for portraits, especially of kids, where an expression can change between frames. AFS] SH: 40 frames/sec*, H: 10 frames/sec, M: 5 frames/sec (with Live View), L: 2 frames/sec (with Live View) [AFC] H: 5 frames/sec, M: 5 frames/sec (with Live View), L: 2 frames/sec (with Live View) * Electronic shutter only. The TZ90 / ZS70’s combined battery and card compartment is accessed via a door in the base – note it’s not possible to change the card or battery when the camera is mounted on a tripod. The BLG10E battery (the same one used in the TZ80 / ZS60) provides enough power on a full charge for 380 shots using the screen exclusively or 250 shots with the EVF so, in practice, probably somewhere between the two. That’s a little better than the 250 shots you’ll get with the Canon PowerShot SX730 HS, but the SX730 HS’s Eco energy saving mode extends that to a more generous 355 shots. Although the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 may be aimed at enthusiast photographers looking for something to take on their travels - the addition of raw format shooting and advanced shooting modes suggests that - there is also a good automatic option, which does a good job of accurately assessing the scene in front of it to set the most appropriate settings. That makes it also good for beginners who are mostly interested in the 30x optical zoom available.

This is essentially the same as the 25-750mm equivalent range of Canon’s earlier PowerShot SX710 HS, but with the newer PowerShot SX720 HS Canon has extended the zoom to 40x with a range in 35mm terms equivalent to 24-960mm. And although its zoom is longer, the PowerShot SX720 matches the f3.3 focal ratio of the TZ80 / ZS60 at the wide end, closing to f6.9 when fully zoomed in. The closest focusing distances with the lenses set to wide are 3cm, and 1cm respectively, allowing both to capture good macro images, although giving the Canon the edge. AFS] SH: 40 frames/sec*, H: 10 frames/sec, M: 5 frames/sec (with Live View), L: 2 frames/sec (with Live View) The TZ80 probably does in fact produce slightly inferior low-light images, but worrying about which camera is better in this regard is kinda like worrying about which spoon to bring to a knife fight. If low-light performance is a priority then you should be looking at completely different cameras.

At the end of the 30x optical zoom, it's also possible to see some loss of detail, and again, it seems as if the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ80 can't quite match the TZ70 in terms of sharpness and clarity. Images taken at other focal lengths, such as 10x or 20x, fare better though. On the plus side, the camera's inbuilt optical image stabilisation does a good job of keeping images free from blur when using the full reach of the optical zoom. This is the same touch-sensitive screen that’s used on the TZ100 / ZS100 and, as on the flagship Lumix travel zoom, can be used to place the AF area for focussing, meter exposure, shoot and select soft function buttons, it also allows menu selection and entering of details when making network connections. I’m very pleased to see the touch-screen return to the TZ / ZS series and it’s one of the big advantages the TZ80 / ZS60 holds over Canon’s SX720 has which has neither a touch-screen nor a viewfinder.

It’s clear from the views above that filming in the 1080 modes captures a wider field of view, but how does the quality compare? Below are 100% crops made from the 4k footage on the left and the 1080p footage on the right. Note that the 1080p crop on the right shows a larger area with smaller detail not just because of the lower resolution of the 1080p clip, but the wider field of view. What’s interesting about this comparison is that though the detail is larger in the 4k crop on the left, there isn’t more of it, what you can see though is more noise. So though you’re getting more pixels shooting with the TZ80 / ZS60 in 4k video mode, thanks to the noise you’re not really getting more detail or better image quality.As you can see from the 100 percent crops below, with stabilisation enabled I was able to get shake-free shots with the TZ80 / ZS60 at shutter speeds down to 1/25 – nearly five stops slower than conventional wisdom dictates is safe. the ZS50 has less megapixels, which usually means - with small sensor cameras - less noise in lower light.

All that’s required is the Panasonic Image App ( Itunes or Google Play) and photos can be sent in seconds between the camera and your phone, tablet or computer. As before, Panasonic’s 4k Photo modes provide a fun way of exploiting the fact 4k video captures an 8 Megapixel image up to 30 times a second. Panasonic equips its 4k Photo cameras with menus that let you easily capture bursts of video before scrolling through the footage and extracting the perfect frame as a JPEG image, all in-camera. You could of course frame grab from video externally, but Panasonic has made it easy to perform the whole process in-camera. Above are two photos taken from the same position with the TZ90 / ZS70 using each end of the zoom range, illustrating the range at your disposal – at one moment capturing a wide field before getting very close to distant details the next. It’s extremely flexible, and while you need to take care for camera shake at the long end, especially with the much reduced aperture, the stabilisation is excellent and there’s the option to use the viewfinder for even greater stability. Below you can see the range of the Canon PowerShot SX730 HS for comparison. As you can see, the 24mm equivalent wide-angle is the same for both models, but the longer 960mm equivalent zoom on the PowerShot SX730 HS gets you that bit closer to distant subjects. Below are ZS50 (1/2.3" sensor) 800 ISO JPG NR vs. RAW NR comparisons; in both comparisons left image JPG; right RAW PP with PSE14 & DeNoise (view original size).ZS50 for low lighting/ action shots?" HERE. Images posted are from RAW processed files, but also posted a couple out-of-camera JPG's to see the IQ differences between the RAW processed and JPG images. 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. In terms of image quality, the TZ80 hasn't really made an improvement on its predecessor, and in some cases, when comparing like for like images, it appears to be slightly worse. This is probably down to an increase in pixels, and it's a little disappointing to see.