Which compact camera?

EssexExile

I've had several TZ... & never had a problem with any of them, dust or otherwise. I just upgrade when the newer ones have better features. I've not noticed a battery problem with my TZ60 although I never have the GPS on, if that makes any difference.

command

Thanks for the replies everyone. The Panasonic TZ series seems to have low battery life and maybe particles getting in the sensor issue. According to Which? review, Panasonic DMC-TZ80 has a poor performance in low light. The Canon Powershot and Sony Cybershot cameras look interesting. I'd like one that can easily fit into a pocket and has decent performance in low light as well.

command

I’m leaning towards Canon PowerShot G9X mark II. Any opinions on this?

virgo17

command wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone. The Panasonic TZ series seems to have low battery life

My wife uses a TZ8 and I use a TZ10. These are quite old cameras now but they serve our needs. Other than a GPS and a bit of extra zoom on the TZ10 they are quite similar. The battery life on the TZ10 is about half of that on the TZ8 on a similar trip.

I have always put this down to the GPS. We even swapped around batteries, both main and spare, but the usage remains the same.

PDC

I've not used that model but the four previous Powershot cameras I had were all well made and I was pretty happy with them, I was a little underwhemled with the last one I had (a couple of years ago) so spent more on the Panasonic TZ which as mentioned was a bit of a dissapointment itself - Now you mention it the battery life was/is noticably worse in comparison to the Cannons, I'd forgot about this and just adjusted to charging it more often.

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

I've got a TZ90 and very happy with it. Wife has the Cannon Powershot SX70(?) and works well, slightly stronger zoom but I don't like the colour cast on it.

Advantage with the TZ90 is the ability to get the RAW pictures out of it, which is good for sorting out exposure issues, I don't do much in Photoshop but any good pictures I tend to run through a quick routine to rescue detail from exposure issues (any JPEG photo will compromise on exposure, but with Photoshop you can quickly rescue detail that is under-exposed in one part of the photo and pull back over-exposed detail in other parts without too much effort).

The other advantage of the TZ90 was the ability to set up point focus in programmed mode. When trying to take pictures of pesky things like birds who have a habit of moving around or taking pictures through twiggy surrounds, the auto focus cannot resist focusing on exciting twigs rather than boring woodpeckers and the like!

Main downside of the TZ90 is that to take advantage of the features, you need to use the complexities of the software which is the same as their Mirrorless cameras.

The other downside of all the compact cameras is that their lens systems are designed to cope with close up macro to strong telephoto in one lens, all while giving good low light and strong sunlight. The lenses are a compromise but you will get pictures you would not otherwise get without lugging a good few kilos of kit with you (and then you have the wrong lens fitted at the vital moment). So don't expect Canon L lens performance out of these, but I've got some shots I'm really proud of out of my ZXs.