Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20 (Lumix DMC-TZ30)

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20 is a well-designed, easy-to-use travel zoom camera that stuffs a 20X Leica lens into a body just 1.1 inches thick. As with its predecessor (the ZS10), its design, features, and performance are its best attributes, while...

Broad 20x optical zoom covers every situation in slim body ; 1080p video with zooming, stereo sound and continuous AF ; Built-in GPS with landmarks and basic street mapping ; Touch-screen interface - just tap where you want it to focus ; Fast...

Hard to handhold video at the longest zoom. Can't disable video IS ; Touch-screen not used for text-entry ; Minimal control over image quality - little if any tweaking ; Record / play switch less intuitive than a plain play button

Panasonic originally invented the concept of a pocket super-zoom camera, but now shares this lucrative market with all the big names. As such when it comes to the annual update of its best-seller, the company is increasingly pulling-out all the stops...

The ; has an excellent design and feature set, including an ultrawide-angle 20x zoom lens, GPS, and semimanual and manual shooting modes, as well as fast shooting performance and improved low-light photo quality from previous versions.

Using all of the ZS20's high-performance features, such as its near-pointless touch screen, can really cut into battery life. Also, photos are noisy and soft when viewed at 100 percent.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS20's 20x zoom lens might be the main attraction, but the camera is all-around excellent.