Arthur Roberts

Please forward this to the man who's looking for a travel camera: the Panasonic ZS50 and newer models, like ZS60, 70 & ZS 80 are just fantastic.

Leica zoom lens. 24- 720 mm, viewfinder, automatic compensation for backlit scenic shots.
Last trip to France with my wife, carrying Nikon film camera with several lenses, had no need to shoot a frame of film. My Panasonic shot everything day and night perfectly. Compact, lightweight will fit in belt camera case. Absolutely no need to carry anything else with several lenses.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Except, perhaps if you want better image quality than can be had with that tiny sensor.

huyenguyen408

it depends, even for a beginning or amateur, one needs to know how to use/operate the camera, if one does not care to shoot low light, then a cell phone with camera will do the job !

MosheR Loc: New York City

You're absolutely right. I've posted lots and lots of photos here, and I have no idea how many were taken with my Panasonic ZS50's, 60's or 70's. There have been no complaints about the quality of my shots from any viewers ... at least not yet. (Now there probably will be.) On the contrary, they've received quite a few compliments.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I would support the notion that the Panasonic Lumix ZS50, 60, 70, 80 series takes very nice photos. Here are a couple I shot a few years ago of Denali and surrounding mountains, with a ZS60. I don’t have that camera anymore, but it did take nice images. I think these are pretty good quality shots of the mountain.

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mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

The first one is soft and the contrast is low. The second one has better contrast and is sharper but nothing great enough to write home about. The first one especially shows a lot of corner vignetting. It may have been a convenient and fun little snapshot camera, but it's output is not very impressive these days. However, that doesn't mean it won't adequately meet someone's purposes. However, most decent cell phone cameras today will give you better results.

Cameras from this Panasonic range are very inexpensive, especially for those on a tight budget, and easy to travel with due to their small size. They could be the perfect convenient travel camera for some folks, but for many of us for whom image quality is an important factor, this range falls far short of an ideal travel camera.

We all have different needs and different requirements when it comes to travel cameras. For me, my current ideal travel camera is either my Nikon Z fc or Nikon Z50 with the terrific and tiny TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 autofocus lens or one of my Voigtländer manual focus prime lenes mounted. It would certainly not meet the needs of most people's travel camera requirements. For many other people they may be willing to sacrifice some image quality for a smaller and lighter camera with a long zoom lens at a lower price. If there was one perfect travel camera for everyone, competition to it would cease to exist.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

How’s this. I applied some definition and sharpening and adjusted the contrast. I couldn’t entirely eliminate the vignetting.

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mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

It is much better, but I would have expected JPEGs to look at least that good straight out of the camera without the need for post-processing. The main purpose of post-processing is not to fix images with issues but to further improve upon already good ones.

As I said, for many folks this tiny and inexpensive camera might be all they need for travel. I just would not characterize it as a 'magnificent travel camera".

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I agree. Perhaps not magnificent, but not bad, either. A whole lot of folks just want to document their adventures and have the photos look nice, but not necessarily professional quality. I only had this camera a short time and returned it. I replaced it later with the Sony RX100 M7 which is in a whole different class of camera.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Yes, the Panasonic is not bad depending on one's pocketbook and expectations. However, your replacement for it, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 VII is in a whole different class and is a much better choice as a travel camera. If I understand it correctly, version VII maybe the last upgrade for that model line. If so, it's probably due to a combination of its relatively high price and the high quality of many of the current crop of cell phone cameras.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

I like your images. I find it interesting that people find it easier to criticize an image when they know the camera that made that image. I think it would be interesting to take a series of pairs of similar images some with cameras such as your panasonic and others with various larger SLR's, etc. The lets label the panasonic images as being taken with the SLRs and the photographs from the Panasonics as coming from the SLRs. Then lay them out on the table where all the photographs can be viewed and judged between their "four corners". I wonder if the photo experts would be saying either "I can't believe it, these images from the Panasonic are surprisingly good" or " I am surprised to find that these SLR images aren't quite as good as those from the Panasonic" Again knowing what you are looking at helps inform what you think you are seeing.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

"I find it interesting that people find it easier to criticize an image when they know the camera that made that image."

My comments about the image quality of those photos had absolutely nothing to do with knowing what camera they were captured with. The lack of image quality stands on its own. I would not have any problem evaluating the quality of an image without knowing what camera was used to capture it. I'm glad they were taken with a very inexpensive camera. It would have been appalling if that was the best one could expect with some expensive.model.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

One thing to keep in mind is that an experienced, skilled photographer can take amazing images with a “cheap” camera, at least to the degree of the camera’s quality and capabilities, and an unskilled, inexperienced photographer can take lousy images with a very expensive camera. Something else to consider is that not all photographers aspire to professional quality results.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Absolutely agree. A good photographer who understands light and composition will almost always get better results with a low end starter camera then someone who does not possess those skills will get from a state of the art camera and lens.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Roger that. Nothing like high quality, lousy photos! 😜