In 2006, Panasonic created what is now routinely referred to as the travel-zoom compact, with the release of the Lumix DMC-TZ1. At the time, this was the world's smallest compact with a stabilised 10x optical zoom. Ten years on and the Lumix TZ range remains hugely popular.

The TZ80 (unknown as the ZS60 in the US) is a replacement for last year's TZ70 (SZ50). However, Panasonic has a new camera to sit at the top of its travel line-up in the shape of the TZ100.

The TZ80 isn't short of attractive features, but disappointing image quality is hard to forgive from a camera that costs over ￡300. One thing it does well is to take photos of distant subjects in direct sunlight, but that's pretty niche.

I bump into a guy I haven't seen for 45 years called Richard Elphick. It turns out he's done incredibly well in the law – no surprise there – and is a regular reader of this page. I like him already.

So far very happy with the camera. Needed a more compact camera than my dSLR and I am very pleased with this. For a compact camera it packs a punch as far as quality is concerned and is much easier to stick in a small bag when I don't want to take my big camera. Very pleased.

Great zoom and easy to use. However the camera has two significant flaws. 1. The writing on the controls wore off so I had to memorize the functions. 2. The battery cover broke off easily. Love the touch screen.

Compact

Build quality

We just got this camera, and haven't really used it much, but as far as I can tell it takes great quality pictures outdoors. Amazing zoom for such a compact camera. It also looks and feels like a quality product. I hope it'll last

Purchased the camera in 2017. I mainly take mountain scenery both photo and video. the spec looked great for me especially the great zoom. unfortunately I cannot get good pictures out of this camera. the focusing is terrible. I cannot get it to focus.

Great all round camera. Excellent for travel. (Used on a cruise to through the Suez canal/ Jordan/ Abu Dabai. No issues!) Loads of modes/ features. Creates some stunning images under the right conditions. Surprised by the quality of the zoom, when used to identify distant objects. i.e. birds.

A camera that certainly packs an astonishing number of features into a small frame. Particularly impressive are the touch screen capabilities. The zoom power is magnificent. As an everyday camera it certainly does its job, although I have found that the quality of the images captured is certainly...