Superzooms seem to be trending recently, and the Panasonic TZ90 is certainly undercutting the competition with this price point.
The Panasonic TZ90 offers a whopping 30x optical zoom. With it you also get nice features like the flip-up screen and 4k video modes making it a great option as a vlogging camera.
4K Video
In the video below you will see a1080P and 4k demo, along with a vlogging test.
Bokeh
Whilst taking photos with the camera, I was impressed with what the zoom could offer. The TZ90 produces smooth bokeh when using the superzoom.
Superzoom Lens
Yes, using the zoom in low light conditions will be tricky due to the slow aperture of the lens when fully zoomed in. But for most situations, this will work well.
The Panasonic TZ90 also offers a digital zoom taking it almost to 900mm zoom in total. I found this worked pretty well for video modes with not much noticeable loss of quality. For photos, I would recommend turning it off but it still performed okay.
The following series of photos shows the zoom range you can get with this camera. Starting from the widest to fully zoomed in.
Viewfinder
The only downside I found with the Lumix TZ90 was the viewfinder. Yes, it’s nice to have one, but I found the screen inside to be very small. Personally, I found the LCD screen to work well even in reasonably bright situations. But you may prefer a viewfinder, in which case, great to see one included in this price range.
Update: Panasonic have recently released the Lumix TZ95 which is based on the TZ90 and said to have a better Viewfinder. This comes in at around £400 so £100 more for this privilege.
Overall
Overall the Panasonic is great value for money if you are after a camera with superzoom and 4K. It would also make a great travel camera with its sheer flexibility.
Thanks to Campkin Cameras for providing me the Pansonic Lumix TZ90 for review.
Alternatives
I recently made a comparison of the Pansonic TZ90 along with the Canon SX740HS and Sony HX99. The Canon SX740hs is the closest competitor which lacks a viewfinder but does have a longer zoom. It also costs £30 more which isn’t much more if you need more zoom or prefer Canon brand.
The Sony HX99 has a similar zoom range but costs 50% more than the TZ90. Sony are more known for their RX100 VII superzoom which has a 1-inch sensor. This of course, comes with a price tag over £1000. Which makes you realise, how good a deal the Panasonic TZ90 is.
Your thoughts
Are you looking for a superzoom compact camera? what are the main features you are looking for?
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