Panasonic TZ10 the star of 2010?

Panasonic's TZ10, which was unveiled yesterday, has the difficult job of filling the TZ7's shoes.  All of the ingredients are there though, with, as ever, yet more features.  But does it really have a chance of matching--or beating, for that matter--the huge success enjoyed by the TZ7?

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The TZ family of cameras has a special place in our heart here at DigitalVersus: our review of the TZ7 was the most popular camera test of 2009. The arrival of its replacement is big news for us, but we'd already heard rumours that, far from its days being numbered, the TZ7 had a long future ahead of it, without many new features appearing on the TZ10.  It's worth taking a closer at the camera in its own right, of course--but also because we heard the exact same rumours about the launch of the TZ7, which went on to go and gobble up the TZ5's market share in no time at all.

On both the TZ6 and the new TZ10, the concept is the same: they're large compact cameras with a powerful wide-angle (25-300 mm) zoom that can shoot great HD videos with stereo sound.  So what can the TZ10 offer that the TZ7 doesn't have already?  And it's going to need to be able to justify its position, as it will certainly be more expensive …

Here's the big news:

• GPS
• A, S and M modes
• a new processor
• improved autofocus

In that list, there are some real gems and some others that we suspect are red herrings.  Let's take a look.

• GPS could well be in the latter category.  We can't wait to get our hands on a TZ10 to convince ourselves that it's a worthwhile addition, but our initial position is sceptical.  Who actually needs to know exactly where they were on planet Earth when a particular photo was taken?  Isn't it actually only a very small number of photographers who will use it?  Wouldn't it be simple to do the geotagging later by hand?  The results are a little bit less accurate, of course, but you can be sure you tag every shot, including those taken inside.  All of the cameras we've tested so far  with GPS chips have been so slow that we have given up: there's nothing more frustrating than waiting patiently for your camera to get a fix on satellites hundreds of miles above your head.  But perhaps Panasonic's implementation will be better than others?  Battery life is another important problem here though, and GPS chips tend to eat batteries.  The GPS chip is often independent of the camera, and stays on the whole time to keep a fix on the satellites.  If Panasonic wanted to make finding photos easier, we would have preferred a more efficient facial-recognition system that automatically tags people it recognises.  

• The semi-automatic modes have been a long time coming by some of us here.  Shutter priority is excellent news, and we're hoping that Aperture priority will be worthwhile.

• There's a new anti-glare coating on the LCD screen at the back.  We're hoping that it will perform well, as Panasonic's screens haven't always enjoyed a brilliant reputation for being easy to use in bright sunlight.  What is a shame is that Panasonic hasn't moved over to AMOLED technology like Samsung has.

• According to our photo expert Renaud, the new processor could be the really interesting development.  The extra speed, especially for autofocus, will be a real bonus, even if nobody really complained about the TZ7 being slow.  There is also more processing for photos, which we're looking forward to, but not exactly excited about.  We can't wait to actually test the thing to see how big the improvements are … or whether the new contour detection and electronic noise handling systems are an absolute disaster.

Panasonic TZ7 Prices unavailable Recommended alternatives Editor's Choice Canon PowerShot SX260 HS Battery Life and Video Sony Cyber-shot HX20V Quality Budget Snapper Canon Ixus 220 HS

One last thing: the price.  The launch price will be the same as that for the TZ7 last year.  We were hoping that, during the sales, it would fall below £200, but no, it's still stuck at around £250.  That could be the TZ10's main strength, actually, and why it could soon overtake the TZ7, whose price hasn't fallen enoughvery far.

To conclude, the king is dead, long live the TZ10! And, while at it, long live the competition with Samsung, whose WB650 seems to be right in the sights of the TZ10!

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