My sister-in-law asked me to choose a camera for her. I was originally looking for the older TZ1 (35-350mm equivalent) but the salesman said that there was an offer for 5 TZ2s that day, the same price as the TZ1, and that there was just one left.

I had not found any reviews or comments about this model, but seeing as reviews of the TZ1 and the newer TZ3 were generally favourable, I chose the TZ2. The TZ1 has the unique capability to zoom while shooting video, which the TZ2 hasn't, but the TZ2 has a 28mm equivalent focal length at the wide end, which I think is worth the trade-off.


Specifications

The main draw for the TZ2 must be its lens, a whopping 10-times zoom starting at 28mm and going out to 280mm. It's a useful wide-angle for panoramas (especially with the 16:9 wide-screen mode) and a useful zoom for going in close, really close.

The long end of the zoom would not be as practical without stabilization, which it has. If you hold the camera quite steady, and use the OIS mode 2 as recommended for greater effectiveness, you can get shots at quite slow speeds. I could get relatively acceptable shots at 1/4 and 1/10 seconds zoomed to tele, not pin-sharp but quite impossible without OIS.

The whole package is quite neat and small. Just imagine how bulky an SLR with equivalent focal lengths would be! This is no credit-card snapper, but it can fit into a pants pocket. I think it would make a nifty travel camera.


Build

The camera feels quite reassuringly solid, and there's a good-size area for the thumb to grip the camera well. There's a good heft, in my opinion making it easier to steady the camera. But the buttons are tiny, though not too difficult to press precisely. My main gripes are that the door for the cable connections is too easy to unintentionally open, and the top dial is too easy to accidentally turn.


Operation

It's quite easy to access all the functions via the menus, as long as you're not in a hurry. In my opinion it's too fiddly to keep going into the menus (they don't remember where you were last) to change just about everything. And mostly you need a confirmation press. Just highlighting the desired option doesn't select it. Generally speeds (starting up, focusing etc.) aren't very slow, but certainly there is a certain leisure to how the camera gets to work.

I had a bit of trouble getting the camera to focus on some small flowers for some test shots. Generally, if you want to put the background out of focus, you zoom in to a longer focal length. When I did that, I just couldn't get the camera to lock on, either in normal or macro modes. My Fujifilm F31 had no problem with it. I could get the camera to focus on another plant at a wider angle, but that wasn't the effect I was hoping for earlier. Macro shooters will want to test this for themselves specifically.

On the other hand, the 'i' mode 'intelligent ISO' is quite well thought out. If the camera doesn't detect much subject movement, it won't increase the ISO when OIS can keep the camera steady. And when flash is used, the ISO is capped at 640. As covered below, this is probably a good idea.

Another useful thing I must mention is the live histogram in shooting mode. It's really a bit too small, but at least you can gauge and adjust exposure before releasing the shutter.


Photo Quality

I think Panasonic has taken a lot of beating over its over-enthusiastic noise reduction. The TZ2, to me, doesn't deserve such bad press. Frankly, the images it produces are eminently usable. At ISO 100, there is a bit of texture visible at 100%, more when using the Vivid setting. But pictures are generally clean and detailed (though don't expect biting sharpness). At ISO 400, sharpness decreases, but I'm saying this looking at images 100% on-screen. ISO 800 and 1250 are quite mottled, and saturation dips. Okay for small prints I think, but not for large ones, and not for image editing on computer. Any processing such as Levels or Unsharp Masking will only intensify the noise.

Colour fringing is well-controlled. Overall, if you use the OIS and stick to low ISOs (100, 200, at most 400), you should get good results. Honestly, this is no digital SLR. I wouldn't expect it to produce professional quality. But as a pocketable super-zoom, I think it's done quite well.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 232