On the top surface the TZ60 / ZS40 has a small bulge to accommodate the viewfinder housing alongside stereo microphones, a raised but fairly stiff mode dial, generously sized shutter release with zoom collar, and two buttons, one lozenge shaped for power and the other a red record button to start filming video in any mode. Unlike the Sony HX60V and Canon SX700 HS which both have popup flashes, the Lumix TZ60 / ZS40 has its flash built-into the front surface making it available without an additional press. The Sony HX60V is the only one of the three to feature a hotshoe. Multi, centreweighted and spot metering are all featured on the TZ60. Usually I have a preference for spot metering, but I found that the multi option achieved consistent, accurate results even in challenging lighting conditions. In general, the metering prioritises midtones and, thanks to a good dynamic range, most scenes appear very well exposed. Pressing the ‘up’ button on the control wheel brings up the exposure-compensation control, which allows adjustments of ±2EV in 1⁄3-stop increments. However, the accuracy of the multi-metering meant I rarely needed to adjust it. Centreweighted and spot metering are also accurate. On the upside, the TZ60 / ZS40, like its predecessor and the Sony HX60V, recharges its battery in-camera over USB. I realize people are divided over in-camera USB charging versus mains charging in a separate unit, but I’m definitely a supporter of the former, especially for a point-and-shoot camera. This is not a higher-end DSLR or mirrorless camera where many people carry a spare and prefer to keep their camera operational while a battery is charging. On a point-and-shoot camera, most people only ever have one battery and simply want to top-it-up as easily as possible. With a mains charger you need to remember to take the unit with you on trips and find a mains outlet to plug it into. With in-camera USB charging, all you need is the cable then you can simply connect it to a laptop, a portable battery, an in-car adapter, or any USB mains adapter you probably already have with you for another device, such as a phone or tablet. I love being able to topup the charge while I’m driving between locations without needing any special kit, and have also recharged on buses, planes or other vehicles equipped with USB ports. I’m also a big fan of portable USB batteries which can top-up a USB-powered device like the TZ60 / ZS40 wherever you may be; I use an Anker Astro Mini battery which is also perfect for topping-up a phone or tablet that’s flagging. Ultimately I believe USB charging is definitely the preferred solution for a camera that’s designed for travel.

Just before the results though, here’s a few brief specifications for you. The TZ60 / ZS40’s sensor delivers 4:3 shaped images with a maximum of 4896×3672 pixels – that’s enough to make photo quality (300dpi) prints at 16.3×12.2in. Since most people rarely print above 10x8in, you’ve got sufficient resolution to make a good-looking print or even crop-in a little without losing quality, at least at low sensitivities anyway. Both the Panasonic and Sony provide a good range of movie choices, with a 1080p 50/60 best quality HD mode, enhanced stabilisation (particularly so with the newer HX60V) and movies with filter effects. The Panasonic also offers a couple of slow motion modes.

Of course a system which displays landmark names by location can be tripped-up by overlap or simply covering a large area. As such, you may need to move around a park, zoo or golf course before its name is revealed, while anything close to a known landmark will often display its name instead. At low ISO sensitivities, the dynamic range of the TZ60 is very impressive. At ISO 100, the TZ60 was able to capture a total of 12.3EV of light, which is a very high score, although it drops to just 7.4EV at ISO 1600. For high-contrast landscapes, the TZ60’s range is noticeably better than in many cameras with a similar sensor. Also, a good amount of detail is kept in shadows and highlights, which can be brought out in post-processing. However, as the metering prioritises midtones, it can cause a loss of highlight detail, particularly in skies. The dynamic range can therefore be maximised by setting -0.6EV compensation and lightening the shadows in post-production. Other video features include snap movie, which records a short clip of between two and eight seconds in length. With snap movies you can set up a focus pull in advance tapping the screen to define the start and end focus positions, which is pretty neat. You can also add a monochrome to colour fade in our out effect, as well as a simple exposure fade. There’s are also Time Lapse and Stop Motion modes, accessed through the main menus rather than the movie options. Panasonic recommends using a UHS-I Speed Class 3 (U3) SD card for the 100Mbit 4K UHD and High Speed Video modes and a Speed Class 4 card for everything else. Note the TZ80 / ZS60 does not offer CineLike profiles for later grading, but then I can’t imagine many people wanting this capability on this type of camera. There are two options for transferring images; Batch transfer provides a menu from which you can select options to transfer the current day’s images, or you can include the last 3, 7 or 30 days, or if you’re feeling impetuous you can opt to transfer everything. Further options allow you to restrict transferred files to just photos or videos. If you want to browse the images on the card in the camera before deciding which to transfer, then Transfer selection is the option to go for. New to both the TZ80 / ZS60 and TZ100 / ZS100 is 4k Live Cropping which exploits the resolution of a 4k frame to provide a digital pan and zoom feature at 1080p resolution. You specify the start and end of the clip by tapping the screen to position a 1920×1080 sized frame. You can also set the overall time of the clip to either 40 or 20 seconds. The degree of zoom is limited to the full 4k frame at the wide end to the 1920×1080 frame at the ‘zoomed-in’ end to maintain quality. It’s a neat feature which, once again, makes innovative use of the camera’s 4k resolution to make life easier, particularly if you need a super-smooth panning shot, but don’t have a suitable tripod. You can see what the results look like in my video sample below.

Panasonic says it has made great improvements to the autofocus in the TZ60. It claims that the AF at the 720mm (equivalent) end of the lens is as fast as that at the 420mm (equivalent) end on the TZ40, which is reassuring. Want to know whether it’s worth upgrading to the TZ70, or whether you should save some cash and opt for the camera’s predecessor? Why not take a look at our Panasonic Lumix TZ70 vs Panasonic Lumix TZ60head to head. A few notes on the display views. The TZ60 / ZS40 offers a variety of views with varying amounts of information and guides. There’s a dual-axis leveling gauge, and if enabled in the menus, a live histogram or choice of guidelines; although unlike its predecessor, no chance of dragging them around the screen with your finger. Transferring via the USB cable provided in your kit will probably be the easiest choice for most. Almost all computers these days have USB ports, with exception to some of the more recent Apple Macbook Pro's, the reason for which most of us are still dumbfounded. First, you'll need to find where the connection port is on your camera.Sure the new Lumix boasts support for RAW but it won’t miraculously reduce noise or retrieve blown highlights from the tiny sensor. You will be able to do things like adjust the white balance, sharpening and compression, but don’t expect improvements in overall image quality. At the other end the 24mm focal length provides a very wide angle of view that's perfect for land- and city-scapes. The 30x zoom lens makes this one of the most versatile compacts in terms of focal range, especially as it is coupled with Panasonic's excellent POWER O.I.S system, which helps to ensure that the majority of photos taken in good light are sharp. The TZ60's lens isn't particularly fast at either the wide-angle setting, with a maximum aperture of f/3.3, or the telephoto setting, with a maximum aperture of f/6.4, but given the focal range on offer, we feel this is a compromise worth making. Like other recent Lumix models with 4k video, the TZ80 / ZS60 also supports Panasonic’s 4k Photo mode – a fun way of exploiting the fact 4k video captures an 8 Megapixel image up to 30 times a second. The TZ80 / ZS60 is equipped with software that lets 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 (and here’s the clip I filmed), but Panasonic has made it easy to perform the whole process in-camera. Switching to the 40fps mode saw the resolution drop to 5 Megapixels, and allowed me to capture exactly 30 frames in 0.73 seconds, corresponding to 41fps. The 60fps mode dropped the quality again to 2.5 Megapixels, but captured exactly 60 frames in 0.97 seconds, delivering 62fps.

To help combat camera shake, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 has an anti-shake system, on this model the POWER O.I.S. variety. Turn it on and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ60 automatically compensates for camera shake, which is a slight blurring of the image that typically occurs at slow shutter speeds when the camera is hand held. When shooting video, the 5-axis HYBRID O.I.S.+ is automatically added to the POWER O.I.S. system, which effectively compensates for the camera's five types of movement – horizontal, vertical, axis of rotation, vertical rotation and horizontal rotation. Wifi and NFC first came to the TZ / ZS series with last year’s TZ40 / ZS30, and the new model essentially inherits the same capabilities. On the conditions of the day I required a shutter speed of 1/800 or 1/400 at a push to reliably handhold a shake-free image at 720mm, but with stabilisation enabled, I managed the same result at 1/100, or at a push 1/50, corresponding to about three stops of compensation in practice. So what does a range of 24-720mm let you capture? Above are two photos taken from the same position with the TZ80 / ZS60 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.There’s three options: Burst (which records video while the shutter button is pressed), Burst S / S (which starts recording with one press and stops with another), and 4K Pre-burst (which keeps a rolling buffer to avoid unwieldy clips to store and go through). Mostly I used the Burst mode, and above you can see an example selected from about a second of burst shooting which gave me a choice of around 30 frames. 4k Photo isn’t only good for action though, if you’re filming a relatively slow or even static subject, it can give you a choice of compositions and poses. Included among the scene modes is an HDR (high dynamic range) option that takes three pictures of varying exposures and stitches them together in-camera. I found that sensitivities of ISO 400 and below produce the best results, so for day-to-day shooting I chose to set the ISO to auto and limit it to ISO 400. Between ISO 1600 and the maximum extended ISO 6400, slight colour noise starts to become evident and luminance noise is very noticeable,while, the detail along high-contrast edges becomes jagged and smudgy. Alternatively if you’re browsing your images on the camera and you see one you’d like to share, just tap the camera against your NFC phone or tablet and it will automatically establish a temporary network and copy the original over; the entire process again takes about 20 seconds. This is a brilliant feature and makes it easy to share or store your images. Like its shape and size, the TZ80 / ZS60’s control layout owes a lot to its predecessor. About the only difference is the addition of a creative video mode position on the mode dial – for which one of the two custom positions is sacrificed. That’s not so important as there are now more programmable function buttons than before – four in all compared with two on the earlier TZ70 / ZS50, and of course the touch screen provides more opportunities for configuring settings.