Panasonic Lumix DSC-ZS100 / TZ100 basic specs
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Panasonic is using CES 2016 to announce the latest two models in its series of travel zoom cameras (known as the TZ series in most of the world or ZS in North America). While one of them is a logical replacement for the existing models, the TZ100/ZS100 is a genuinely more advanced thing altogether, squeezing a 1"-type sensor into a body only slightly larger than we've become used to from cameras in this category.
Traditionally travel zooms have used small sensors (~29mm2) to allow the inclusion of long lenses in a small overall package. Impressively, the ZS100 fits a much larger sensor (~116mm2) while still offering a useful zoom range and sensibly-sized form factor. The larger sensor offers better image quality, which has prompted Panasonic to offer a maximum ISO of 12800 on the ZS100, with an extended setting of 25600.
ZS100 / TZ100 Lens
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The ZS100 has a 10X zoom, offering a 25-250mm equivalent reach - just enough range to classify it as a proper superzoom. And, in all honesty, probably enough for most applications for many people: we suspect the push beyond 80x zooms has as much to do with being able to boast a bigger number on the store shelves than because contemporary consumers find themselves needing so much more zoom than they used to.
The ZS100's lens starts out as a very respectable F2.8 maximum aperture but very quickly slides towards the F5.9 that you're limited to at full zoom. By 50mm equivalent it's already dropped to F4 (F11 equiv., given the crop factor), and it's at F5.1 (F13.9 equiv.) by the time you get to 100mm equivalent - this isn't about to offer you shallow depth-of-field portraits. The camera does use Panasonic's Depth-from-Defocus system that interprets subject distances based on an understanding of its lens characteristics - we've found this system to support surprisingly effective at subject tracking on previous cameras.
Viewfinder specs
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The ZS100 has a 1.166M-dot equivalent viewfinder. That word 'equivalent' makes clear that the finder features a field-sequential design, updating red, green and blue information one after the other, rather than including separate color elements at each 'pixel' position. The 0.2" finder is pretty small which the optics don't do much to rescue. On the plus side it does include an eye sensor to allow automatic switching when you come to use it.
Using the viewfinder pulls the battery life down to 240 shots per charge from the otherwise pretty typical 300 shots per charge.
Higher-end ambitions
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It's not just the sensor that suggests the ZS100 is the most serious travel zoom in the series so far. It features two full control dials, a full-sized dial on the top plate of the camera as well as a ring around the outside of the lens. It also gets a touchscreen (something even the flagship LX100 doesn't have) that can be used either just to point-and-shoot or to reposition the the AF point while shooting through the viewfinder.
In addition, the ZS100 has four customizable buttons, along with five touchscreen slots that can be customized for more fast access.
One thing that detracts from its higher-end ambitions is the camera's construction: the camera feels rather lightweight an insubstantial. This is only an impression, of course: we have no way of knowing how durable the build quality is at this point. What's certain, though, is that it doesn't have the reassuring heft that we usually encounter in cameras costing this much.
4K capabilities for both movies and stills
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As you'd expect from Panasonic, the ZS100 offers 4K video recording and a host of features based around it. As well as the video recording itself: UHD capture at up to 30p (25p for the TZ version), the camera offers a range of photo features derived from the video feed.
There's the now-familiar 4K Photo mode of course, which records short clips of video so that you can grab individual frames from it, including an option that captures the 30 frames before and after you hit the shutter. Then there's post-shot focus, which shoots video while racking focus from the nearest to the further object it can find in the scene, so that you can choose the perfectly focused shot. The ZS100 is the first Panasonic camera to have a dedicated button for the mode.
4K Live Cropping
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New to the ZS100 are two as-you-shoot video options that benefit from the camera's 4K capabilities. The first is the option to crop a 1920 x 1080 region from 4K video then produce a stabilized pan across the rest of the 4K frame. The other gets the camera to zoom in on a 1920 x 1080 region of the frame, as the video runs (akin to the 'Ken Burns effect'). These effects are easily achieved in most high-end editing software but their inclusion in the ZS100 means they can be generated in-camera and incorporated into video clips cut together using less expensive or free software.
Wi-Fi
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Just to top it all off, the the ZS100 includes Wi-Fi and in-camera Raw conversion, allowing images to be fine-tuned before passing them off to your smart device. Panasonic's 'Image App' allows remote control of the device and all the other things you'd expect of a contemporary connected camera.
The only thing that's missing is an NFC antenna - between the cost of the hardware and the fact that Apple won't let iOS owners utilize NFC for anything so frivolous as camera connection, Panasonic chose to use on-screen QR codes to communicate the necessary connection credentials to other devices.
A more conventional offering
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Alongside the ZS100/TZ100, Panasonic has also announced the ZS60, which will be known as the TZ80 outside North America. This model is much more in keeping with the travel zoom models Panasonic has built before (a subset of the market it pioneered).
The ZS60 uses a small 18MP CMOS sensor, allowing it to pack a 24-720mm equivalent zoom into a small package. The downsides are that it's never a terribly fast lens (F3.3-6.4, or F18-35 in equivalent terms) and it loses the ZS100's large thumb dial on the top plate, making do with a smaller combined dial/four-way controller. Beyond this, the features it offers are broadly similar to the ZS100 (including 4K video capture), just with a lower maximum ISO setting and no electronic shutter mode. It will sell for around $450.
Panasonic ZS100 / TZ100 in context
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It's been two-and-a-half years since Sony introduced the first compact with a 1"-type sensor and redefined what is possible from a compact camera. Since then, as you might expect, the number of 1"-type compacts have continued to expand. Up until now it's been possible to choose from pocketable cameras with short zooms or much larger cameras with more reach, what there hasn't been is something offering a little of both. The ZS100 finally fills this gap: a small camera with a big sensor and a long zoom. The cost is that rapidly dropping aperture as you zoom, of course.
The small, field sequential viewfinder is the other other compromise that stands out on the ZS100 but that seems more likely to hit the $699 price point, rather than just a size concern. To put this price in perspective, it's the same as the launch price of Canon's G7 X, $100 less than the viewfinder-touting Canon PowerShot G5 X and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 Mark III, all of which have considerably shorter (but brighter) lenses.
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