Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ6

Panasonic’s latest Lumix compact can’t lay claim to being the weeniest in the world. It can’t grab the title for the most stupendous number of megapixels either, sticking with a distinctly normal 10.1MP.

But, if you’re after something with a bit more creative flexibility than your average snapper, the TZ6’s lens looks tempting. It’s impressive at both ends of the scale. There’s a super-high 12x zoom magnification at one end, and a super-wide 25mm setting at the other.

That’s even wider than even the old TZ5 model’s 28mm and gets you into truly wide-angle territory. Use it too much and all your photos will all look like they were taken through a goldfish bowl, but for the odd arty architectural shot it’s great to have.

Step backwards?

Oddly, though, one of the old TZ5’s best features has disappeared from the new model. The TZ5 could record impressive 720p HD video at 30 frames per second; the new model can only manage what Panasonic dubs WVGA, at a much lower resolution 848 x 480. That’s a shame since the TZ5 made a pretty good fist of being a basic camcorder.

Panasonic has shaved a little off the start-up time compared to the old model, but the few seconds the TZ6 takes still doesn’t compare too well with most models from Nikon, Canon and Sony, which start up before you can blink.

It’s cured a few foibles of the menu system too, but again it’s still more difficult to navigate than we’d like.

There’s an irritating proprietary USB connector as well, but at least it does take standard SD or SDHC card memory. You can just pop the card in an external reader in the absence of a cable. There’s also 45MB of memory built in to get you going out of the box.

Spoilt for choice

Beyond the fully auto setting, full manual control is limited to the usual basics like a few stops of exposure compensation. But if you can really be bothered to trawl through them, you do get nearly 30 scene modes. Taking pictures of food, babies or doing aerial photography? The TZ6 has them all covered, believe it or not.

When you’re bored of zooming in and out and left trying to cram its large body into a small pocket, you might start eyeing more svelte competitors than the TZ6.

At this price level you can get HD video and better looks from the likes of the Canon IXUS 110. Overall it’s not a massively impressive outing for Panasonic.