I dropped on a real bargain from Jacob’s in Liverpool to supplement my Leica C-Lux 3; a Panasonic DMC TZ-10 compact camera. What a grand little camera it has turned out to be getting lots of use alongside my Leica. Both comapcts have been bought for those times when I don’t feel like lugging my full Nikon kit around, which during the poor summer in the UK has been quite often.
The TZ-10 has a Leica DC 25mm lens and a 12.1MP sensor, lots of programme modes and “scene” settings. It’s light, easy to use and produces some wonderful images. It fits neatly in my pocket, is quick to start and quite unobtrusive in use. I’ve used it for street photography, sunsets, landscapes, portraits using natural light, flash and mixed light - which it handles very well indeed - architecture, wildlife and nature, simple record shots and macro.
The Leica DC lens is superb being very sharp at most apertures. Focusing is quick and accurate although sometimes it struggles a little if there’s a “busy” background. Exposure is also good but I’ve found that 1/3rd stop under exposure makes for richer colours; there’s a little too much noise at higher ISO ratings. I’m sure there’s a way round that! So far I’ve had to do very little post-processing and I’m very satisfied with the results particularly in mixed light situations.
The TZ-10 is now discontinued hence the bargain prices they were being sold for but if you’re considering a compact I can’t praise the Panasonic range highly enough - good quality, good value and great results. Several friends have Panasonic’s in one form or another and the images I’ve seen are very good indeed.
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The images were taken on two separate street photography trips to Liverpool using the TZ-10. The colour one is a panorama using two shots stitched together in Elements while the monochromes were processed using Silver EfexPro 2.
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