Panasonic's ZS200/TZ200 is a 20MP 1"-sensor compact that updates the existing ZS100 and its 25-250mm equiv. You can select the AF area yourself or let the camera choose the subject automatically, including with face and eye-detection, and you can get the camera to track a subject as it moves around the frame. You can turn off the touchpad AF, but then you end up with no quick way of setting the focus point when using the viewfinder. In return, the maximum aperture has dropped, but only by about half a stop to f/3.3-6.4 (from f/2.8-5.9). To get around this, I reconfigured the Fn 2 button below the thumb-grip to ‘Focus Area Set’ instead of its usual 4K Post Focus mode (which I have no use for anyway). Even if you don’t have good lighting, its 1-inch image sensor is large enough to capture much better shots than a smaller one. We may earn a commission if you click a deal and buy an item. Shop for Panasonic Lumix ZS200 (TZ200) See all prices. Sony has long been a serious contender when it comes to best premium compact for its RX100 series, but with a short (3x) optical zoom ratio until now, it’s not really captured the imagination of the travelling photographer. Panasonic originally invented the ‘travel zoom’ camera class by combining a long zoom lens with a pocketable body. The TZ200 / ZS200 was set to its best quality 20 Megapixel resolution. Sections. Announced in February 2018 it comes two years after the Lumix TZ100 / ZS100, and like that model packs a relatively large 1in / 20 Megapixel sensor into a compact body with a built-in viewfinder and decent zoom. It's a very good pocket camera, but we wish the screen offered tilt. Panasonic’s handy 4K Photo mode is also onboard, which uses video technology to record 8-megapixel images at 30fps without instantly filling up your memory card. Post author: Ivo Freriks; Post published: 1 February 2018; The Panasonic TZ200 is a compact camera with a large, 1-inch sensor. It’s crucial to appreciate that the TZ200 isn’t a direct competitor for ‘enthusiast compacts’ with short zooms and large maximum apertures, exemplified Sony’s RX100 series. Panasonic has held the crown of best travel compact camera for some time now, first with the TZ100, and then more recently with the introduction of the TZ200. Panasonic Lumix TZ200, or ZS200 as it’s well-known in North America, could be a compact travel zoom camera its hugely standard travel-zoom series. Gadget Review works with a variety of eCommerce partners and vendors to help monetize the site’s traffic – instead of advertisers. But even this isn’t totally satisfactory, given that this button is rather difficult to locate by touch. 1/5sec at f/3.9, ISO 1600, 39mm equivalent. USB charging is built in, so the camera can be kept topped-up using a portable power bank. Panasonic’s JPG processing aggressively smears away noise but does a good job of retaining colour – which looks poor close-up on-screen, but makes more sense for sharing images via social media or making small prints. We weren’t surprised, considering this is Panasonic. When it comes to sharing images, Panasonic has added Bluetooth to provide a full-time connection to your smartphone, complementing the existing Wi-Fi system that was in the TZ100. The following images were taken with a Panasonic Lumix TZ200 / ZS200. This is compounded by the small-aperture zoom, which means you have to engage higher ISOs more quickly in marginal light. This means that, on the whole, you’ll get noticeably better results from post-processing raw files. But equally, I can understand the firm’s thinking of wanting to keep the camera as slimline and pocketable as possible. On the whole image quality is pretty good, especially when shooting in the daytime. Overall, the TZ200 works okay if you think of it as a point-and-shoot that offers full manual override when you need it. Panasonic’s JPEG output is very good at retaining colour, but smears away fine detail from ISO 800 and above, making this a camera that benefits greatly from shooting in raw if maximum detail is desired. Now the firm has taken the concept up another notch, by squeezing in two major upgrades without noticeably increasing the size. Switch to macro mode and the camera will focus just 1cm away from the front of the lens, when set to wide-angle. Two years ago, it revolutionised the category with its Lumix TZ100, which used a relatively large 20.1-megapixel 1in sensor for vastly improved image quality.