Panasonic DMC TZ-10

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.

I'm Down on the Street

Having joined the Street Photography group on Fotoblur I thought I'd better get some street images together so I wandered around Liverpool city centre and captured these images. Two have been previously published on Fotoblur.

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*Out in the Street by Bruce Springsteen from the album 'The River'

French Street Photography

It was a good Christmas with lots of fun, great food, lovely people and some super gifts. On the photography front I had another external hard disk for my ever expanding archive, a bean bag pod to support cameras, an Ansel Adams calendar and two excellent books, both by Henri Cartier-Bresson: 'The Minds Eye', which is a collection of his essays, and 'A Propos de Paris', which is based on the catalogue for his 1984 exhibition 'Paris at a Glance' (thank you Men, Lisa & Matt and Nik!). 

Getting the Paris book was a real treat because it was so unexpected. I have always liked Cartier-Bresson's work particularly his street photography, something that the French seem to be remarkably good at. I really have enjoyed looking at the photographs so much so that I also dug out my little book of Robert Doisneau's images, another accomplished French photographer whose most famous work is probably 'The Kiss' taken in Paris in 1950. There has been some debate in recent years whether this picture was posed rather than a candid snapshot. It matters not because it is a great image.

I was lucky enough to visit France in the summer of 2010 and took some street photo's wandering around Cahors, a delightful and very photogenic city. Trawling through the images  I found a picture that evoked the work of both Cartier-Bresson and Doisneau both of who captured French couples kissing. I didn't quite capture the kiss but it's close enough and, I think, an intimate shot.

'Le Baiser de l'Hotel de Ville' by Robert Doisneau (Paris, 1950)

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My image (above) is not posed! Converted to black and white using Adobe Camera RAW and cropped to 5x5.

This picture doesn't fit within the thirty minute rule and I hope you'll excuse me stretching the rules by which my blog usually abides by.