Panasonic LUMIX TZ10 Digital Camera - Black

I wanted to supplement my Fuji S9500, with which I am still well pleased, with a smaller digital camera. I was nearly seduced by a cheaper Fuji XP30 waterproof but went for the Panasonic in the end partly because of the 12 reviews I read, partly because of their photo samples (picture quality is what I buy a camera for) and partly because it is basically a Leica. I've had it only a few days and am delighted - ignore the negative reviews you might find. It is intuitive in use, has all the options a keen amateur (and for all I know, a keen professional) might want including easy and high quality video (even in mpg format, which I'll mostly stick with)and a great lens. It's actually given me a problem, because the picture quality is better, just, than my Fuji so it may supplant rather than supplement it. Thanks, Leica. There have been complaints about battery life and it certainly needs replacing more often than the 4 AAs in the Fuji; but I bought a spare (NOT a Panasonic one) which works perfectly and recharges faster than the original - I have just ordered a second spare, at £12.95 inc delivery. I can take 200 pix a day when out walking, so I don't want to be short of battery. If I find a battery with more than 895 mAh, I'll grab it. The GPS is certainly a drain on the battery but you'll rarely need it; I have a handheld GPS anyway, so I can always backtrack and compare the timings of photo and route waypoint. I've had a Canon AE1 Program for over 25 years and my first digital 8 years ago was a very good Nikon until the shutter delay became a nuisance, but the Panasonic TZ10 is easily the best camera I have handled. I cannot imagine needing to replace it until they make the same package available in a credit-card sized camera. It's also good value now that the replacement TZ20 has come along - I doubt it will be much better. PS - I don't work for Amazon, Panasonic, Leica or anybody in the photographic business! Panasonic Lumix TZ10 Digital Camera - Black (12.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD Premium Range - DMW-BCG10E, DMWBCG10E, BCG10E, DMW BCG10E - 2 Year Warranty Replacement Lithium Li-on Digital Camera Battery for Panasonic Lumix :- Lumix DMC-TZ6, DMCTZ6, DMC-TZ7, DMCTZ7, DMC-TZ8, DMCTZ8, DMC-TZ10, DMCTZ10, DMC-ZR1, DMCZR1, DMC-ZS1, DMC...

Far too much to write about this product, so I'll keep it short. Few points - on board memory is not enough so you'll need to invest in an extra memory card that's generation 6 or above, although I'm doing fine with a 16GB generation 4 card. The battery takes about 1.5 hours or less to charge and believe me, you'll probably want to invest in an extra Panasonic battery as it can drain fairly swiftly with lots of use. Lifting off static pictures to your PC is easy, however if lifting off video, you have to install the software that comes on a CD to do this. At the moment Youtube can't recognise the video format wich is an M2TS file, so you need to convert the file to MPEG for Youtube uploads. To edit HD video your PC needs to be very fast, at least 2.3Ghz even higher I think. Software to handle M2TS files is sparse too at the moment so check what software you need and if your PC is even fast enough to handle this. I edit my videos using a stand-alone Panasonic DVD recorder/Freeview/hard-drive box and not a PC myself as my laptop is not fast enough until I upgrade. Although you can use the automatic function to take pics, this utterly defeats the object in owning a camera like this. I learnt how to control the ISO, shutter and exposure manually and this is where this camera comes into it's own. When I was controlling everything manually, the results were far superior to auto, so I suggest you go off and learn what ISO, shutter speeds and different exposures can do. I found using auto simply wasn't delivering good results for me and if you learn a bit of this, you'll take amazing pics in low level light situations without having to use a flash for instance, where the results are far more atmospheric than bleaching everything out using the flash. The pics are lush and awesome as well as the video. The zoom is simply amazing as well as the macro (I photographed a bee on a flower petal and you can clearly see grains on pollen on it's legs, when viewed back on a PC screen) Slight annoyance when videoing and zooming in as the motor noise gets recorded too but barely noticable. Pics get recorded with all properties which is great, ie, right click the pic on your PC and select details to see all information of that single picture. This camera also has GPS to geo-tag holiday pictures but keep it in the off mode as it drains the battery even when switched off. Overall, this is an awesome piece of kit and truly amazing at how much technology they can compact in such a small unit with absolutely stunning pictures. However, you will not get amazing pics if you do not learn how to control ISO, shutter speed and exposures, imho.

*** Note that this model has now been superseded by the TZ20, which appears to offer improvements without affecting quality; however, it sells for some £100 more so you have to decide if the 'extras' are worth it (until the price inevitably drops !). Panasonic Lumix TZ20 Digital Camera - Black (14.1MP MOS, 16x Optical Zoom) 3 inch Touchscreen LCD As an alternative, you might also be interested in the Samsung WB600: Samsung WB600 Digital Camera - Black (12MP, 15x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD for which I've written a comparison review vs the TZ10; it is dated 14 Jun 11. I've also added a customer discussion post, viewable at the base of this product page, about a tip/trick regarding initialising the GPS; observations on a case and spare battery are at the end of this review. --- I bought my TZ10 only a few months ago but am already very impressed with it and, despite relying quite heavily on a digital SLR with a wide-range zoom, make use of it far more than I thought I would since it is so well specified, takes such good pictures and (most notably) is capable of recording high quality HD video. For me, it has one significant 'issue', related to that video mode, which I expand on in the negative points section of my review. --- A few months later and I've just got back from a month in the USA where I took some 2200 photos/video (shared with my EOS as that has a polarising filter which takes much better photos in bright/blue-sky conditions). The video capability proved to be as good as I have already hinted at below. However, I also found the panorama-assist function to be absolutely priceless. With a bit of effort you can produce stunning wide-vista shots of scenery etc. For the best chance of a seamless panorama, the trick is to use the zoom no wider than a 4x setting, so that the joining photos are not distorted by being at wide-angle and so they merge perfectly since they are all 'flat' views.... Then, use the included software to automatically collate the related photos together and then produce a seamless large/panoramic photo. Left alone to do it's stuff, it takes the software about a minute or so to produce the result, whereas doing it yourself manually could take hours ! Poster enlargements I've had printed of my panorama 'collations' are extremely impressive. My trip also showed that I STILL haven't mastered all the functions of the camera. I completely forgot/was ignorant about the multitude of vital exposure settings you can make via the '+/-' button which sits above the 'Menu/Set' button. I'm used to using exposure compensation/auto-bracketing on my SLR but should have realised that the TZ10 also has those capabilities. See pages 53-55 of the user guide to ensure you don't make the same mistake that I did ! --- Suffice to say that like most relatively high-end compact digital cameras it has more features than you can shake a stick at, but the notable ones are : The enormous maximum and minimum range of the optically-stabilized (NOT the far less desirable digitally stabilized) zoom lens - it's made by Leica. The quality of the 'AVCHD Lite' video footage it can take - it is astonishingly good. Unrestricted access to the zoom range whilst taking video (a LOT of cameras inhibit/freeze the optical zoom setting once you are recording video or only allow digital zoom to be used, which will be inferior). *** The 3 above features are the pivotal reason I bought the TZ10. The (potential) still-picture quality - you obviously may need to fiddle with settings to achieve your aim !. An excellent panorama-assist function which has 4 recording-direction modes (Left-Right, R-L, Up-Down, D-U) and a useful 're-take last shot' option (eg if the picture alignment could be improved). Program, shutter and aperture priority program modes (these are NOT a given even on highly-specified compacts...) - plus the usual array of custom/'scene' modes. The clarity of the operating screen. It is small, well-built, sturdy (the case is predominantly made of metal) and fairly lightweight - considering metal is used in the construction !. Regarding HD video : - It is playable using the provided software (which also has limited editing functions). - If you download a 'm2ts' codec you can also playback in windows media player. - It imports into my Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 - hurray ! - I can't speak for all makes, but the media player in Panasonic Blu-ray players (with an SD card slot) supports playback of TZ10 photos/HD video - check the user guide to confirm. For me, the second-tier plus points are : Built-in GPS (I thought this was a questionable feature but can see it being very useful when touring as you can lose track of where you've been or what the photo is of !). The provided software is, for once, not the usual 'Mickey Mouse' offering but operates well and also gives access to GPS data, playback, a very effective panorama 'stitch' facility (which automatically collates al the related panorama-assist photos you're taken to produce a single, completely seamless panorama 'photo'), file export/conversion and copy to other folder capabilities (good for archiving, especially as it moves the associated GPS data files - you would lost that information if you copied the image files using Explorer for example). The handy placement of the dedicated video record button. The flexible GPS settings, not just always on or off but it also includes an 'activate when camera is turned on' mode. Ability to change GPS location data for individual images/videos. The worldwide GPS co-ordinate/map data is built into the firmware of the camera, so there is no need to download and install it (like some other cameras...). The handy quick-menu (eg easily change the battery-sapping GPS setting). Utilization of an external battery charger (supplied) - I prefer this as you can use the camera/charge spare batteries at the same time, but also it doesn't expose the camera to potential damage from mains-sourced electricity (spikes etc, I've been there !). No camera is perfect, so despite my laudatory comments above there are some gripes (one quite significant) : *** The screen temporarily goes blank after selecting video record. This can be a nightmare if you are tracking something (especially if zoomed-in), as your subject is VERY likely to not be in the frame anymore once recording starts and the display 're-activates' - this often causes missed coverage or having to re-acquire your subject (which may also require you to zoom back out to achieve this !); B_A_D ! Auto-preview is mandatory in 'IA' mode. I dislike auto-preview as it takes up valuable time to generate the display of your last shot, which therefore delays when you can next press the shutter - useless for action shots ! The instruction manual is a shambles. It caters for 3 different models, so you have to permanently check you're reading relevant information. Also, despite often being very (too ?) comprehensive it is prone to omitting pertinent information eg the panorama-assist section doesn't mention what orientation modes are available, merely that a choice exists ! The 'My Scene' mode (allocate a specific scene-mode to a dedicated control dial position, saving you having to select it from the very 'populated' scene-mode menu) doesn't allow the panorama-assist mode to display the initial recording-direction menu which appears if it is selected manually from the scene-mode menu. The zoom control can be very sensitive/erratic/laggy - this makes achieving a precise zoom setting first-time quite tricky, almost impossible in fact. Even with my relatively small fingers it can be difficult to select the desired button on the rear menu/cursor button array - I often select the wrong one by mistake..... So, you can hopefully see that my plus points far outweigh the negative; although the video blank-screen 'feature' really can limit functionality, making a camcorder preferable in certain situations as they usually maintain the lens 'feed' to the screen during the transition to recording - if Amazon ratings could be made in 1/2 point increments, this aspect would make me lean to giving a score of 4-1/2, not 5, as it is so relevant for me. In summary: the HD video, zoom range/functionality and GPS aspects are 'killer' features which make this camera both versatile and highly-capable, elevating it well above the 'norm' of other compact digitals. --------- A case and spare battery usually essential accessories for a camera. I have generated an Amazon Discussion (dated 30 Mar 11) with details of a suitable hard case and higher-capacity battery bought on eBay. I also got another case on Amazon (which has better accy storage), perfect for the TZ10 and competitor WB600 - see my review and usage photos : Hama Sorento 70M Bag - Black/Orange

Bought this camera ready for a holiday and having read and seen other reviews was pretty sure I was making the right choice, upon receiving the camera it immediatley felt of the quality Panasonic products have come to have the reputation for. It arrived on the morning that I was departing for my hols so didn't have time to study any in depth instruction's, however I found the camera intuitive and easy to use, it has a useful on screen help function which tells you about the different scene modes and their best uses along with other useful info to help get the best out of your shots. Having used it for 2 weeks I cannot fault it in anyway and the quality of the shots it takes are extremely good, it does help to play around with the scene setting's and not just rely upon the intelligent auto setting, having a little knowledge about photography will certainly help you get the best from this camera which can be truly stunning photo's with ease. Zoom lens is excellent and the anti shake really makes a notable difference to the quality of long zoom shots. Would definately recommend this as a good all round compact camera, can be a little bulky but a small price to pay for such high optical zoom and it did still fit into my jeans pocket but only without a case.

I bought the TZ10 as an upgrade for my TZ7 which I had only for a year and is attracting high bids on ebay as I type! The TZ10 is a huge improvement for me over the TZ7 - using the automatic everything setting (iA) it takes well balanced photos both inside and out. The TZ7 was a bit underexposed on indoor flash photos. Anyway, best way for me to report my likings of the TZ10 are in a list, so.... PROS. * Superb indoor flash photos on iA exposure setting. * Fantastic lens as you would expect from Leica. No discernable barrelling, vigneting, or aberrations of any sort. How much of this is down to the lens alone or to manipulation by the camera's electronics I don't know but it's the results that count. Excellent zoom range. * Excellent macro focussing ability. I tested this on a hairy catapillar in the garden and some colourful moths I found. The detail is very good indeed. * Love the exposure options - Programme, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and Manual as well as two user definable settings and Panasonic's own iA setting (which I seldom use). * Fast response to pressing the shutter button. I'm in the habit of half pressing the shutter button so the camera sets up the focus, exposure etc. before I take the actual picture. Handy when there are people in the shot because I can make sure I'm happy with the composition at the time I take the shot. For 'grab' shots where I just point and shoot the camera is still quite fast. * OIS image stabiliser. My, this is good! As an example, I took a macro zoom picture of an insect on a branch of a shrub which was blowing gently in the breeze. The immage stabiliser held the shot so that the final picture was razor sharp - no image blur or camera shake, just a super picture! * GPS. I don't use this at home but I do when I'm out and about and then I put it on 'flight' setting. In this mode GPS is switched off when the camera is. With GPS set to 'on' it continues working even when the camera is switched off and it uses the battery up quite quickly. * Movie mode. I'm not a keen movie maker so this camera takes more than adequate movie shots for me. I can zoom whilst recording and it has good quality stereo sound. The picture quality is excellent and I certainly have no need for a seperate camcorder! * Small size and build quality. This camera is small enough for me to carry around conveniently so I seldom leave it in the car or at home when I'm out. This means I take more photos. That's what it's all about, isn't it? Build quality is good and robust - I don't feel like it will break during normal use. CONS. Can' think of any considering this does exactly what I bought it for - to take around with me, to take good quality photos, to give me a level of control over the composition and exposure of the photo and to record short movies when the need arises. It's true that the battery might not last the day if all the bells and whistles are left turned on but this has not yet caught me out. There are many features on this camera that I won't use e.g. superimposed picture frames, so I can't comment about those except that I find them gimmicky and unnecessary. Finally, I bought the TZ10 in preference to the TZ20 because the difference in price didn't justify any benefits for me. Also, the TZ20 has some touch screen functionality which would annoy me if every time I accidently touched the screen I changed some setting! In conclusion, I am so happy with this little camera that I can see me settling in to using this often and for some years.

I was given a TZ10 to replace an ageing Canon and it is, in most respects, an excellent camera. The screen is very good and the lens is amazing. Although I am a bit lazy and take most of my pics in IA mode, the other modes seem to work fine and produce excellent results. I'm quite happy with the battery life although less pleased with the replacement price at about £45 for a genuine Panasonic replacement. As the battery will inevitably fail after a few years I don't look forward to buying another, especially as Panasonic has built in some sort of check that renders the camera inoperable if an unapproved third party battery is used (see handbook page 11) I have only one major quibble - the GPS database is completely inadequate. Although I am quite happy with the GPS function which gives a reasonably accurate fix, the camera stubbornly refuses to display a reasonable named location unless one is in a large town. As an example I live in Suffolk and the camera will not display location data for my village. I recently took the camera on a walk and was told that I was at ---, Norwich, Norfolk, England. I was in fact half way between Thetford and Diss and some 20 miles from Norwich. The problem seems to lie in the size of the database which holds some 500,000 place names across the whole world, of which 30,000 are in Japan. When this is divided across the remaining 80 or so countries for which database holds data, the average number of place names is less than 6000 per country. A quick look at my road atlas indicates that there are some 31,200 place names in the UK alone and this does not include landmarks like churches, zoos, airports, towers, castles, etc (see handbook page 173). What is more we are told that the data will not be updated. This is disappointing especially as there is no function that allows one to add a location name to the database. Panasonic should consider making the data country-specific and allowing us to download the data country by country. This would allow a much greater number of locations per country and the problem would disappear. As it is I have little use for the 30,000 place names recorded for Japan.

Camera arrived safely 4 days ago from Amazon. I've taken just over 100 photos and 6 videos with it. My camera in the last 5 years has been a Canon Powershot S2 IS with 12x zoom and 5 MP sensor and so comparisons are made to that. The Canon has been a good camera with good quality photos and video under most conditions. My reasons for changing were the size and bulk of the camera (even with a thin neoprene cover it's too bulky to carry comfortably in a large coat pocket), to get a wider angle lens (25mm instead of 36mm), a larger LCD screen, simpler controls with fewer buttons and better quality video. Having looked at various reviews and physically checked out the options in a local Curry's I decided on the TZ10. The GPS wasn't important and I've not tried it out yet so can't comment on it at present. I first tried out the TZ10 at dusk indoors. The lens is slower (F3.3 compared to F2.7) so the flash is used more and is also weaker than the Canon, also the ISO setting increases in dull conditions. Both these effects were expected having read the reviews. The first photos were a bit grainy as a result, mainly due to me expecting the flash to perform like the Canon's. Moving a bit closer and using the lens on a wider setting produces really good photos. Photos without flash at dusk also tend to be a bit grainy, again to be expected. The Canon has a manual flash that has to be opened to turn it on. I find the automatic flash on the TZ10 slightly annoying at times, firing when I'm not expecting it. Now tend to keep the auto flash turned off most of the time - just need to get used to the difference. The last 2 days I've been taking photos in good light conditions and the quality of the photos is really good. The iA setting works well in most conditions. The intelligent zoom (using digital zoom to increase the optical zoom of 12x to 16x) works surprisingly well in good light. Videos are also high quality, the zoom works well without any noticeable noise from the motor. There are loads of Scene settings and the few that I've tried seem to work well. There is scope for good control of photos using the various options. The controls and menus are easy to use after a bit of familiarisation. Further experiments with flash indoors have produced excellent results. I've bought a Lowepro Dublin 20 case for the TZ10. This is a good fit for the camera and can be carried in a trouser pocket, although more comfortable in a coat pocket. The camera is easy to remove and starts up quickly ready for use. Linux compatibility - I've used Linux exclusively (Ubuntu and Linux Mint) since 2005. Software supplied with cameras is Windows or Mac based, however Linux programmes such as Gthumb, Shotwell, F-spot, etc. all recognise any camera that's connected to enable easy downloading of photos. I currently use Gthumb which enables easy downloading and viewing of photos and videos from the TZ10, including videos in the AVCHD lite format. VLC media player version 1.1.4 also plays videos in the AVCHD lite format with no problems. Being Linux, it also recognizes the SDHC card in the camera the same as any other device, so it's easy to copy photos and videos manually if preferred. The camera arrived with firmware version 1.1 installed. An update to the firmware was available on the Panasonic website. This was available for Windows or Mac but no specific version for Linux. Knowing that the Mac operating system is based on BSD, a similar system to Linux, I simply downloaded the Mac zip file, extracted it and added it to a SDHC card, following the instructions on the Panasonic web site. The card was then inserted in the TZ10 and the firmware update to version 1.2 was installed with no trouble! Overall this is an excellent camera, it is compact, well made, versatile, has easy to use controls and menus, has a really good LCD display and takes excellent photos and videos, remembering the limitations in poor light conditions. There are no problems whatsoever using the camera with Ubuntu or Linux Mint operating system, in fact it appears easier to view AVCHD lite videos with Linux than Windows. Highly recommended!

I have bought items from Amazon for the past few years. When I ordered my Panasonic TZ 10, I thought I would try Amazon's Prime Service trial. It offered free next day delivery. So, I ordered the item on the 3rd of January as I was going on a trip to London on the 5th. I phoned Amazon when it didn't turn up and they told me that it was sent on the 4th January by First Class Post. Now it would be easy to blame the Post Office for late delivery, but if Amazon are offering next day delivery, they ought to send it by courier and not a method that could take several days. In the end, it turned out on the 9th of January. Not very good for Amazon's Prime next day delivery! The TZ 10 is a nicely engineered product. It feels nice and solid in the hand and the controls are clear and nicely laid out. Picture quality is excellent and the 12 times zoom lens is a real bonus in such a compact camera. I tried out the GPS in the garden. The satellites were found in about 1 minute. I checked the position given in the ex-if file against Google Maps, and the camera was spot on. The Manual controls are somewhat limited in their range but do give you some degree of control over the camera. The intelligent auto mode gives good results and is very simple to use if you don't want to think about it. The movie modes are extensive and very good. However, the high definition modes do eat up a lot of memory, so be prepared to buy a big card if you plan to take movies of some length. As always, I wish Panasonic would supply a Manual rather than a CD - not much good when you're on holiday! All in all, I think this is an excellent all round camera for most occasions and I am well pleased with my purchase. Less so with Amazon's Prime Service.