The new(ish) Panasonic LUMIX DC-TZ300 is the successor to the very successful DC-TZ200, and it arrived on my desk yesterday.
I suspect it had been elsewhere for review as there were some settings I am guessing are not default, and one of them had me absolutely flummoxed for a period.
You see, no matter what settings I had the rotary dial on, the shutter press created an MP4 file. ie video. No manual came with the camera sadly – vendors please note this is almost a prerequisite for reviewers – so I had to do some online digging to see what was going on here, along with downloading the PDF manual from the Panasonic site.
It turns out the DC-TZ-300 has a burst mode that effectively takes a bunch of images and lets you choose one of them as the best. And yes, it stores these as an MP4 file ergo, video. This had been set to the default hence my issues.
Rather than muck about and go through every menu option to see what else might have been turned on (or off), I simply did a complete factory reset.
Camera Description
The LUMIX DC-TZ300 is described as being a “travel camera” and in this area, I suspect it will be a booming success due to as number of factors, not the least being a brilliant Leica lens that has a super wide optical range of 24-360mm.
Ally this with a genuine 1” CMOS sensor and the Leica lens and you have excellent imagery.
Panasonic has also seen fit to add backside illumination to the sensor to improve low light performance over its predecessor, and the company says it’s improved the 5-axis stabilisation too.
Physically, the TZ300 is a genuine pocket size with the lens being fully retractable. The controls are all pretty straight forward either being accessed via the rotary dial on the top of the camera’s body, or in the usual place to the right of the LCD screen, but there are so many features in the camera itself, I’d strongly suggest reading the manual and becoming conversant with all the settings and functions available to you before tripping off to Bali or wherever (although it’ll give you a bit of light reading on the flight maybe).
There is a lot to absorb.
The Letdowns
Speaking of the screen, this is one area that is, in my opinion at least, a bit of an issue.
Now, I am not a fan of the “selfie”, but I can understand there are many that are, and what is a good travel shot of say, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, Margaret River surf or even the Sydney Harbour Bridge if you, as the traveller, are not in the shot?
I mean it’s almost mandatory, isn’t it?
But I’m sorry, you cannot take a decent selfie if you cannot frame it right. And to frame it correctly you need to see what is being shot, yeah?
Well, for some inexplicable reason, Panasonic has chosen to make the LCD screen fixed – it cannot rotate in any direction.
On a travel camera? What were they thinking?
Adding insult to injury, Pana has also removed the viewfinder that was on the TZ200.
I am absolutely baffled by both these decisions, especially in a camera costing around $1600.
There are some other limitations too; the aperture range is not that flexible at f/3.3 to 6.4 so you may need to push the ISO a bit in lower light despite the backside illumination on the processor, and you don’t get much scope for background blur.
I also had a bit of an issue with the auto focus on fast moving objects if that is your thing – for everyday travel shots that is not too much of an issue and I admit I am heavily into sport photography having said that.
If you plan on doing travelogues as well as just happy snaps, be aware the DC-Z300 has a 15 minute limitation on clips too, which might cramp your style a bit if you tend to be on the verbose side. And unlike other LUMIX models, LUTs are not supported so on the creativity side, you are pretty much stuck on creative filter effects.
Speaking of filters, similar to the Sony ZV1-M2 I reviewed yesterday, there is no provision for adding ND or polarisation filters etc there being no lens thread available.
Positives
On the positive side, there is a built-in pop-up flash and microphone. Wi-fi and HDMI are there too and so is smartphone control.
Bluetooth is available so I was hoping Bluetooth based mics could be used, but sadly not, as the USB is for charging only. However savvy users will know they could record any audio via Bluetooth or other wireless systems to their smartphone and sync it later in post-production to the video captured from the camera.
Conclusion
The Panasonic LUMIX DC-TZ300 is overall a great little camera with very little competition in its class.
The closest are probably the Sony RX100 VII or the Canon G7X Mk III.
It’s just sad that a few things like the fixed LCD and lack of viewfinder plus no external mic port stop it from being a brilliant little camera.