And then suddenly I found out that there was a crack on my lens from my Canon SX280HS. With not much time left until our vacation to Madagascar, I suddenly had to buy a new camera... I had oriented a bit before, but then I couldn't figure it out, so I let it go again. But now I had to! It has become the Panasonic Lumix TZ80. In this first impression review you can read why this one and how you like it at first glance.
My requirements
I have quite a few requirements for my new camera. ;) First of all I am looking for a compact camera that is not too big and too heavy. Furthermore, I prefer not to spend more than 300 euros and if it really cannot be otherwise, certainly no more than 400 euros. But I do want to be able to adjust the shutter speed, aperture and ISO value myself. So then you actually quite quickly arrive at 300 euros and then also above that. Furthermore, he must of course just be able to take beautiful pictures. Preferably also when it gets a little dusk. But I also know that this is difficult with compact cameras anyway, so this is not the main requirement.
Why not the Canon Powershot SX720 HS?
First I ordered the Canon Powershot SX720 HS, as a second chance at Coolblue. With this I stayed just under 300 euros and then the buttons would be the same as with my old camera. But when I had it at home, the lens turned out to be dirty and not easy to clean. So I wanted to send it back anyway. But now that I had it at home, I could try what it was like. When I tried to take pictures with a bit of twilight it turned out to be worse than my old Canon camera, so this one went back and I had to look for another one.
Why the Panasonic Lumix TZ80?
In my search on the internet I already came across this TZ80. But still I went to Kamera Express for a while and laid out my requirements there. (That gentleman there also noted that my old camera was really beyond salvage...) The seller then also came with the TZ80. This one was more expensive than 300 euros, but still less than 400 euros and in terms of quality it is the best you can have in this price range and I can determine the shutter speed, etc. on it myself. After some hesitation (I wouldn't be me if I decided right away, that would be too easy ;) ) I took this one! The silver variant, which means it has a silver border on the top.
First impression
Because I don't have much time left until the holidays, we immediately went to Diergaarde Blijdorp the next day, to which we have a subscription. I was able to discover the functions nicely and practice photographing animals, which hopefully we can do a lot in Madagascar.
Adjust settings
The camera has so many functions!!! :O I had already gone through the entire menu once to set everything up, but you still find out when using it that some things are not useful. For example, adjusting the shutter speed and aperture. I had to turn the wheel exactly the other way than with my old camera. Extremely annoying of course! Until I discovered a setting where I could turn that around! jeeeee. Very nice! ;) Now I don't keep turning in the wrong direction.
4K photo
With the 4K function you can take photos very quickly in succession and then choose the best of those, for example, 50 photos. That comes in handy when I'm in Madagascar trying to photograph a ring-tailed lemur running away! You can immediately choose the best one and save it. And it's not that those 50 (or more) photos immediately consume your entire memory card.
Speed
Switching on and off is very fast, so you can react quickly to something you see when the camera is off.
Touch screen
Equally new to me is the touchscreen. Super cool of course! But it takes some getting used to that I don't have to accidentally touch it and suddenly adjust a setting. ;) I also had mastered that pretty quickly and then it's just super handy. With this you can, for example, very quickly indicate where to focus and you can even indicate where you want the exposure just a little bit different.
Rotating wheel around the lens
I thought it was a pity that the buttons to change the ISO value are a bit far away. But I also found a solution for this pretty quickly! There is a turning wheel around the lens. This rotary wheel can give you various functions yourself. I do zoom with the zoom button, because I'm used to it anyway. So now I have set this dial to adjust the iso value with 1 turn! Awesome! So now I can really quickly access all the functions that I often use.
Load
The camera does not come with a separate battery charger. You can charge the battery in the camera by connecting the camera to a power source via USB. I don't think this is very useful for a holiday, because I don't want to leave my camera unattended in my hotel room/house, especially in "weird" countries like Madagascar. And of course I just want to always have it with me, because you never know which beast or amazing view will suddenly appear in front of you. So I immediately bought a set of a separate charger and 2 batteries from Jupio. In any case, an extra battery (and in this case even 2) can do no harm and now I also immediately have a separate charger, which I will leave behind unattended faster.
Much more...
There are many more functions on this camera. But I will definitely discover it during the holidays. In any case, I am very satisfied so far!
