Panasonic TZ60/ZS40 review

Panasonic's flagship travel compact gets a 30x optical zoom and EVF

Panasonic TZ60 review
It fits in your pocket but it's got a 30x zoom lens

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We shoot a specially designed chart in carefully controlled conditions and the resulting images are analysed using DXO Analyzer software to generate the data to produce the graphs below.

A high signal to noise ratio (SNR) indicates a cleaner and better quality image.

For more details on how to interpret our test data, check out our full explanation of our noise and dynamic range tests.

Here we compare the Panasonic TZ60 with the Panasonic TZ40, Sony HX60v, Olympus Stylus SH-50and Canon PowerShot S120

JPEG signal to noise ratio

Panasonic TZ-60 JPG Signal to noise ratio

These results show that the Panasonic TZ60 JPEG files have a strong signal to noise ratio indicating that its images are fairly clean at the low to mid sensitivity settings. It improves on the performance of theTZ40 and compares well against the Olympus Stylus SH-50 and Canon S120, although the Canon S120 beats the competition for much of its upper sensitivity range.

Raw signal to noise ratio

Panasonic TZ-60 raw Signal to noise ratio

The signal to noise ratios of the TIFF images (after conversion from raw) from the Panasonic TZ60 beat the Canon PowerShot S120. These results show that while noise is apparent above ISO 800 it is well controlled.

JPEG dynamic range

Panasonic TZ-60 JPG dynamic range

JPEG results for dynamic range compare well against the Canon PowerShot S120, Panasonic TZ40 andOlympus Stylus SH-50, although the Canon S120 beats the competition by around 0.5EV at some of the higher sensitivity settings. The graph shows that while results are close at ISO 400 and 1600, the TZ-60 beat the TZ-40 at all other sensitivities.

Panasonic TZ-60 TIFF dynamic range

Across the complete sensitivity range the Panasonic TZ60 beats the Canon PowerShot S120, with the gap between the two extending dramatically above ISO 800.

Imaging Lab Manager

Ali Jennings is the imaging lab manager for Future Publishing's Photography portfolio. Using Imatest Master and DxO Analyser he produces the image quality tests for all new cameras and lenses review in TechRadar's cameras channel. Ali has been shooting digital since the early nineties and joined Future's Photography portfolio back in 2003.