TX1 review (ZS100, TZ100, etc. outside Japan)

Henry Richardson · Feb 20, 2019

About 5 weeks ago here in Japan I got a new Panasonic TX1 (ZS100, TX100, etc. outside Japan) for $419 and this, finally, feels like the real successor for my wonderful Canon G16. I have been shooting mostly with m4/3 (Olympus PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, E-M5, Panasonic G3) for the last 7 years (and Canon and Sony DSLRs before that and various film cameras before that). But, I have been using various smaller cameras as my carry everywhere camera. Canon G16 (and G15 before that), Sony RX100, Canon S95, etc. I haven't used the G16 for the last couple of years because tech had moved on a lot and I wanted more. I had reluctantly started using my m4/3 Olympus E-M10 II + 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 EZ pancake as my carry everywhere camera. It is bigger/heavier than the G16 and has just a 28-84mm-efl lens, but the EVF is very good, the AF and responsiveness is great, the 16mp files (raw and jpeg) are excellent, wonderful IBIS, and so on. I still really wanted something smaller more along the lines of my G16 though.

The Panasonic TX1 has a great 1" Sony 20mp BSI sensor, 25-250mm f2.8-5.9 lens, EVF, is fast to turn on, fast AF, doesn't have an EVF hump, has a built-in flash, and is very satisfying to use. The TX1 is actually a bit lighter and the size is very similar to the G16:

TX1: 312g, 110 x 65 x 47 mm

G16: 356g, 109 x 76 x 40 mm

Before buying the TX1 I looked at it side-by-side with the TX2 (ZS200) multiple times at stores in Japan, but I decided for my purposes the TX2 at twice the price was not the better choice. The TX2 has a longer zoom range, slower aperture, and a slightly bigger EVF and those are the main differences. Although when switching between them I could see that the TX2 EVF was a little bigger, in real use with the TX1 I don't notice it. It is sufficient for this small camera, IMO.

There is a sort of thumb grip on the back of the TX1. I place my thumb in that notched indentation just beneath the mode dial. The camera is light so I have never felt the camera was not securely in hand. It came with a wriststrap, but I don't like them much so I bought a 1cm wide neckstrap for it.

Panasonic TX1

I have not found the metal surface to be any problem for me at all. The camera is light. I held the TX1 and TX2 several times at stores and played with them so I knew what I was getting. I guess for the TX1 Panasonic went with more a Leica metal look with no rubber grip. In fact, the TX1 is pretty similar looking to the Leica TL2. I do not recall reading any complaints by users and reviewers about the Leica metal styling.

Leica TL2

Here you can see the measurements for noise, dynamic range, tonal range, and color sensitivity of the sensors in the Panasonic TX1, Canon G16, and Olympus PEN-F:

https://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Com...00-versus-Canon-PowerShot-G16___1070_1064_903

You can see that the TX1 sensor is a pretty big step up from the one in the G16 and just a small step down from the one in the PEN-F.

The TX1 has lots of configuration choices which I like. Overall I am very pleased with it. I have the rear dial set to do exposure compensation and the front dial around the lens sets the aperture when using A mode and does program shift when using P mode.

By the way, when I shoot jpegs I set noise reduction to the minimum -5.

Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

cgarrard · Oct 23, 2019

Not yet bud, but it will be soon. I have a couple others in the pipeline and keep getting hit with new camera news too.

It's next after a retro review on the S5 PRO. Both are pretty short articles (not 30 pages of indepth stuff), but hopefully informative.

Henry Richardson · Dec 9, 2019

If you shoot jpegs then don't overlook the Panasonic i.Dynamic Auto setting. I use it quite a bit on my TX1/ZS100/TZ100. It isn't just a simple minded curve setting, it is much more sophisticated. When you playback the photo it will tell you whether the i.Dynamic Auto setting used None, Low, Standard, or High for the photo.

Panasonic i.Dynamic uses the Apical tech that is also used by Olympus, Nikon, Sony, and maybe others. Here is a good article about the Apical tech for their jpeg auto shadow/highlight adjustment that does varying amounts in an image depending on regions:

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/3798759501/apical

Shooting raw, of course, is the best way to get the maximum from your photo editing and with the most flexibility. But, some people prefer to shoot jpegs. Although I shoot raw a whole lot (I have 57k raw files and 49k jpeg files in my Lightroom catalog) I sometimes shoot jpegs when I am out on a photo walk in places I go almost daily. If I choose to I can quickly switch to raw, of course, and sometimes do. I never shoot RAW+JPEG. A waste of space, IMO. Everything doesn't need the belt and suspenders approach. Live dangerously and choose.

Cyril Catt · Dec 9, 2019

Sony TX1 2009

Canon TX1 2007

Panasonic TX1 2016

--
Cyril

Henry Richardson · Dec 10, 2019

Henry Richardson said:
If you shoot jpegs then don't overlook the Panasonic i.Dynamic Auto setting. I use it quite a bit on my TX1/ZS100/TZ100. It isn't just a simple minded curve setting, it is much more sophisticated. When you playback the photo it will tell you whether the i.Dynamic Auto setting used None, Low, Standard, or High for the photo.

Panasonic i.Dynamic uses the Apical tech that is also used by Olympus, Nikon, Sony, and maybe others. Here is a good article about the Apical tech for their jpeg auto shadow/highlight adjustment that does varying amounts in an image depending on regions:

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/3798759501/apical

Shooting raw, of course, is the best way to get the maximum from your photo editing and with the most flexibility. But, some people prefer to shoot jpegs. Although I shoot raw a whole lot (I have 57k raw files and 49k jpeg files in my Lightroom catalog) I sometimes shoot jpegs when I am out on a photo walk in places I go almost daily. If I choose to I can quickly switch to raw, of course, and sometimes do. I never shoot RAW+JPEG. A waste of space, IMO. Everything doesn't need the belt and suspenders approach. Live dangerously and choose.

Panasonic cameras have iA and iA+ (intelligent auto) modes that are actually pretty amazing. The difference between iA and iA+ is that the latter allows a few adjustments such as exposure compensation, etc.. iA/iA+ is a pretty sophisticated computational photography mode similar to what is in many smartphones. Check the manual for more information, but here are the basics of what it can do:

Auto Focus, Face/Eye Detection, and Face Recognition
Automatic flash (if it is in the raised position)
Automatic Scene Detection: i-Portrait, i-Scenery, i-Macro, i-Night Portrait, i-Night Scenery, i-Handheld Night Shot, i-Food, i-Baby, i-Sunset
iDynamic (already explained in my OP above)
iResolution (smart sharpening that sharpens differently depending on regions of a photo so that smooth areas such as the sky get none (to reduce graininess), but areas with detail get sharpened)
Automatic Backlight Compensation
Automatic HDR (if you turn on the iHDR option while using iA/iA+ the camera will automatically decide whether to shoot a multi-exposure, automatically pixel align HDR image -- handheld okay)
Background Defocus Control

I have only played with iA/iA+ once on my TX1/ZS100/TZ100 back when I first got it in January 2019. My smartphone can take surprisingly satisfying photos (as long as I just look at them on a phone screen) and for awhile one day I took about 20 photos of various subjects with different lighting using both the phone and the camera in iA+ mode. The photos looked very similar in most cases, but in a few the camera did a better job. And then when I downloaded both sets then, obviously, the camera photos looked better on a big screen when zoomed in to 100%. Naturally at higher ISO the camera photos looked much better. The camera has a very good 20mp 1" BSI sensor and the flexible zoom lens.

The next time I am out with the camera I may play around some more with iA+.

i.Dynamic Auto and iA are in all Panasonic cameras. At least ones for the last few years. I bought a Panasonic G3 m4/3 about 8 years ago and it had all this stuff too. I never used it back then because I only shot raw with the G3, but recently one of the new buzzwords is computational photography in relation to smartphones I thought it would be useful to remind everyone that Panasonic and Olympus (and other camera companies too) have been doing things such as this for years. 2019 cameras probably do it better than my 2011 G3 and 2016 TX1/ZS100/TZ100.

Smallpox · Dec 12, 2019

Member said:
If you shoot jpegs then don't overlook the Panasonic i.Dynamic Auto setting. I use it quite a bit on my TX1/ZS100/TZ100. It isn't just a simple minded curve setting, it is much more sophisticated. When you playback the photo it will tell you whether the i.Dynamic Auto setting used None, Low, Standard, or High for the photo.

Panasonic i.Dynamic uses the Apical tech that is also used by Olympus, Nikon, Sony, and maybe others. Here is a good article about the Apical tech for their jpeg auto shadow/highlight adjustment that does varying amounts in an image depending on regions:

Good advice. Just put on max level.

Henry Richardson · Mar 3, 2020

Over time I have noticed that I often have a very slight green tint to many of my TX1 jpegs. I am often using Auto White Balance so maybe it is the culprit, but when shooting jpegs I also occasionally select a non-Auto White Balance setting and sometimes I notice the same thing. Note, this is a very slight green tint and sometimes I am not sure I even see it when looking at my photos. I think I have found the easy solution though.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a very nice, used m4/3 Panasonic GX7II (GX85, GX80) for the equivalent of US$269 here in Japan. As I was going through the PDF manual for it I discovered something about making custom adjustments to the built-in white balance settings. I then checked and discovered that the TX1/ZS100/TZ100 can do the same thing. In the ZS100 PDF manual it is on page 137. I made an adjustment on my TX1 and I bet it fixes it. My GX7II seems to not have this very slight green tint so no need to adjust.

I wrote a GX7II user review:

Panasonic GX7II (GX85, GX80) is a wonderful camera

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63703723

Note, I read the ZS100 PDF long ago just before I bought the camera so I must have seen this section before, but it wasn't until months later that I started to feel like there was a slight green tint to my jpegs and by then I had completely forgotten about the ability to adjust it.

Henry Richardson · May 1, 2020

There was someone in this thread who wanted to compare the TX1 to the Sony RX100M6. Please do not reply in this thread with that comparison because I have another thread where it is welcome:

Panasonic ZS100 vs. Sony RX100M6

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63716626

I add the link to this thread for completeness so that in the future people who search and find this thread will also find the other thread.

Henry Richardson · Oct 7, 2020

I was in Bic Camera today and I was surprised to see the Panasonic TX1 is still for sale. It came out in 2016. I thought it had been replaced by the TX2 in 2018, but it is still for sale today. I bought mine in January 2019 at Bic Camera for about 47,000 yen and the price now is actually higher. I wonder if Panasonic is still making them? We discovered today that the GX7II (GX85/GX80) which also came out in 2016 and was replaced by the GX7III (GX9) in 2018 is still being made:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64432049

Here is the TX1 in Bic Camera today.

--
Henry Richardson
Bakubo Photography by Henry Richardson

Cyril Catt · Oct 7, 2020

Curiously, DPR doesn't list the Japanese Panny TX1, only the Canon TX1 and Sony TX1

Digital Nigel · Oct 7, 2020

Henry Richardson said:
I was in Bic Camera today and I was surprised to see the Panasonic TX1 is still for sale. It came out in 2016. I thought it had been replaced by the TX2 in 2018, but it is still for sale today. I bought mine in January 2019 at Bic Camera for about 47,000 yen and the price now is actually higher. I wonder if Panasonic is still making them?

That's nothing! The original Sony RX100 from 2012 is not only still on sale, but is still being made.

It appears that the hardware spec has been slightly updated (probably because some of the original parts ran out, and it was cheaper to use updated parts from a newer model than to make a new batch of the legacy component), but with no notification. So, if you buy an RX100 now, it comes with a newer version of the firmware that isn't offered for older examples (the switchover date seems to have been about 2018). Presumably the new firmware only runs on the updated hardware. It even has a few new features from a later RX100 (again, with no notification).

Sony is also still making the other six RX100 models (except that the RX100VA replaced the RX100V).

So Panasonic is still probably producing the TX1 and its clones, probably from a stockpile of old parts. The question is what it does if/when that stockpile eventually runs out.

buratino · Oct 7, 2020

Henry Richardson said:
About 5 weeks ago here in Japan I got a new Panasonic TX1 (ZS100, TX100, etc. outside Japan) for $419 and this, finally, feels like the real successor for my wonderful Canon G16. I have been shooting mostly with m4/3 (Olympus PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, E-M5, Panasonic G3) for the last 7 years (and Canon and Sony DSLRs before that and various film cameras before that).

The TX1 has lots of configuration choices which I like. Overall I am very pleased with it. I have the rear dial set to do exposure compensation and the front dial around the lens sets the aperture when using A mode and does program shift when using P mode.

could you comment on the ZS100 video and audio quality, if you tried it?

Member said:
http://www.bakubo.com

you have a great set of pics there!

Tatouzou · Oct 7, 2020

I dont do much video, but the few UHD clips I shot this summer with my TZ110 (australian FZ100) were OK, the OIS and electric zooming control did a good job.

I bought the TZ110 in spring 2020, during the shutdown in France.

I am mostly a still shooter. The TZ110 overall IQ is close to M43 IQ (my main system today) and I enjoyed the compactness and lightweight while hiking on the Mediterranean shore footpaths.

The lens is sharp at the wide end, up to 70mm equivalent. It is soft at the long end, and you need to take care of the field curvature and move the AF point carefully to nail the focus at telephoto FLs (even at the wide end, you better avoid center AF and recompose).

kkardster · Oct 7, 2020

Henry Richardson said:
I was in Bic Camera today and I was surprised to see the Panasonic TX1 is still for sale. It came out in 2016. I thought it had been replaced by the TX2 in 2018, but it is still for sale today.

I assume the TX1 == ZS100 while the TX2 == ZS200, so no surprise that both are still available, as the '2' models have a longer lens.

Tatouzou · Oct 8, 2020

A link to the TZ110 album in my flickr gallery to show the versatility of this little compact camera when hiking around.

Panasonic TZ110

Un compact polyvalent avec zoom 10X et capteur 1" Le TZ110 s'appelle aussi TX1, TZ100 ou ZS100 selon les régions

flic.kr

or:

Panasonic TZ110

Un compact polyvalent avec zoom 10X et capteur 1" Le TZ110 s'appelle aussi TX1, TZ100 ou ZS100 selon les régions

www.flickr.com

Most pictures are OOC JPEGs, full definition, with only slight PP in lightroom 6, mostly framing and overall contrast.0(IQ can be improved in processing the RAW file to taste)

Compared to Panasonic GM5 with 14-140, it is obviously softer ouside the central area and also at the long end, but overall IQ (contrast, dynamic range, rendering) is OK for casual snapshots.

Compared to my previous generation 1/1.7 sensor advanced pocketable compacts (Panasonic LF1, Olympus XZ10), or to my Samsung S8 smartphone (whose photographic performance is highly rated), there is an obvious IQ improvement at usual viewing magnifications: higher definition and sharpness, better dynamic range and low light performance, more pleasant rendering of textures and less visible artefacts.

Handling is also much improved, with direct access to the most usual settings and lots of customization.

AF is snappy and accurate, but beware of field curvature across the range: you need to move the AF point to nail focus on the desired target. This matters most when you want everything in focus with faraway background for landscape shooting.

The auto-panoramic feature, derived from the video engine, is quite efficient; yet I recommand to shoot the scene twice as somme stitching errors may sometimes occur.

Overall, compact 1" sensor superzooms fill the gap between your smartphone or any truly pocketable camera and a M43 or APS-C system.

My shooting experience is close to what I enjoyed whith my 1/1.7 sensor Fuji X10 (stolen when my home was robbered in 2016) and X-S1 (sold when I switched to M43, as it is as big as GX8+14-140 or K3+18-135).

saudidave · Oct 8, 2020

Tatouzou said:
I dont do much video, but the few UHD clips I shot this summer with my TZ110 (australian FZ100) were OK, the OIS and electric zooming control did a good job.

I bought the TZ110 in spring 2020, during the shutdown in France.

I am mostly a still shooter. The TZ110 overall IQ is close to M43 IQ (my main system today) and I enjoyed the compactness and lightweight while hiking on the Mediterranean shore footpaths.

The lens is sharp at the wide end, up to 70mm equivalent. It is soft at the long end, and you need to take care of the field curvature and move the AF point carefully to nail the focus at telephoto FLs (even at the wide end, you better avoid center AF and recompose).

I had a TZ100 for over about 18 months, a TZ200 for a year until the lens failed and I bought another TZ200 about 4 months ago, having tried a Sony RX100M6 that I hated. Despite my reservations about build quality, the handling and specs of a TZ200 are unmatched by anything else available at the moment. I've used all the TZ's extensively from TZ3 onwards and defended their criticism on this forum many times

The ZS/TZ100 is now both old in digital camera terms and superseded with a far superior model. It is a good digicam but flawed.

The handling is lousy and it requires a lot of stick on bits and pieces to achieve a decent grip.

The EVF is inadequate and a clearviewer is a useful, if not clumsy addition.

The "soft" lens is more attributable to the default settings than lens design (as is the case with its successor the TZ200) and quite why Panasonic persist in marketing them without addressing that issue is a total mystery to anyone with a brain larger than that of an amoeba. To address it would cost nothing, prevent incorrect and scathing reviews from the likes of DP review and increase both sales and thus profitability no end.

Try:

Sharpness +2

Contrast+2

Noise reduction -5

These settings will transform the TZ100 & improve the TZ200.

I would add that anyone thinking of getting a TZ100 should try a TZ200 first because they are vastly superior as a photographic tool overall but be warned that the build quality and lens variation of both, particularly that of the TZ200 is substantial.

Dave.

trampas · Oct 8, 2020

saudidave said:
I had a TZ100 for over about 18 months, a TZ200 for a year until the lens failed and I bought another TZ200 about 4 months ago, having tried a Sony RX100M6 that I hated. Despite my reservations about build quality, the handling and specs of a TZ200 are unmatched by anything else available at the moment. I've used all the TZ's extensively from TZ3 onwards and defended their criticism on this forum many times

The ZS/TZ100 is now both old in digital camera terms and superseded with a far superior model. It is a good digicam but flawed.

The handling is lousy and it requires a lot of stick on bits and pieces to achieve a decent grip.

The EVF is inadequate and a clearviewer is a useful, if not clumsy addition.

The "soft" lens is more attributable to the default settings than lens design (as is the case with its successor the TZ200) and quite why Panasonic persist in marketing them without addressing that issue is a total mystery to anyone with a brain larger than that of an amoeba. To address it would cost nothing, prevent incorrect and scathing reviews from the likes of DP review and increase both sales and thus profitability no end.

Try:

Sharpness +2

Contrast+2

Noise reduction -5

These settings will transform the TZ100 & improve the TZ200.

I would add that anyone thinking of getting a TZ100 should try a TZ200 first because they are vastly superior as a photographic tool overall but be warned that the build quality and lens variation of both, particularly that of the TZ200 is substantial.

Dave.

I have also had a few different small sensor TZ cameras and also a TZ100 and then a TZ200. My favourite is the TZ200 and I agree that the handling is much better than the TZ100. The settings I use are diffent though, less drastic:

Sharpness: 0

Contrast: 0

Noise Reduction: -2

These were from a set of tests with various settings. Of course each TZ200 can be different (!) and mine is a Panasonic refurbished one which may be a factor.

saudidave · Oct 8, 2020

trampas said:
saudidave said:

I had a TZ100 for over about 18 months, a TZ200 for a year until the lens failed and I bought another TZ200 about 4 months ago, having tried a Sony RX100M6 that I hated. Despite my reservations about build quality, the handling and specs of a TZ200 are unmatched by anything else available at the moment. I've used all the TZ's extensively from TZ3 onwards and defended their criticism on this forum many times

The ZS/TZ100 is now both old in digital camera terms and superseded with a far superior model. It is a good digicam but flawed.

The handling is lousy and it requires a lot of stick on bits and pieces to achieve a decent grip.

The EVF is inadequate and a clearviewer is a useful, if not clumsy addition.

The "soft" lens is more attributable to the default settings than lens design (as is the case with its successor the TZ200) and quite why Panasonic persist in marketing them without addressing that issue is a total mystery to anyone with a brain larger than that of an amoeba. To address it would cost nothing, prevent incorrect and scathing reviews from the likes of DP review and increase both sales and thus profitability no end.

Try:

Sharpness +2

Contrast+2

Noise reduction -5

These settings will transform the TZ100 & improve the TZ200.

I would add that anyone thinking of getting a TZ100 should try a TZ200 first because they are vastly superior as a photographic tool overall but be warned that the build quality and lens variation of both, particularly that of the TZ200 is substantial.

Dave.

Click to expand...

I have also had a few different small sensor TZ cameras and also a TZ100 and then a TZ200. My favourite is the TZ200 and I agree that the handling is much better than the TZ100. The settings I use are diffent though, less drastic:

Sharpness: 0

Contrast: 0

Noise Reduction: -2

These were from a set of tests with various settings. Of course each TZ200 can be different (!) and mine is a Panasonic refurbished one which may be a factor.

It's subjective too, personal taste. I've actually upped the sharpness on mine to +3 and increased saturation to +1. The saturation increase was to bring it closer to the depth of colour my G85 has at default and to be honest my My TZ200 has an IQ now that is so close to that of the G85, I do wonder why I bother with the latter.

I too tried a Panasonic refurb with my TZ200 second time around but returned it as the lens was a disaster zone! I've had a dozen or so other official refurbs though and they have all been excellent

kh1234567890 · Oct 8, 2020

saudidave said:
The ZS/TZ100 is now both old in digital camera terms and superseded with a far superior model. It is a good digicam but flawed.

I still can't find anything wrong with mine ...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kh1234567890/albums/72157715187115192

Panasonic TZ100 / ZS100

Panasonic TZ100 Set - in random order ...

www.flickr.com

Henry Richardson · Oct 9, 2020

buratino said:
Henry Richardson said:

About 5 weeks ago here in Japan I got a new Panasonic TX1 (ZS100, TX100, etc. outside Japan) for $419 and this, finally, feels like the real successor for my wonderful Canon G16. I have been shooting mostly with m4/3 (Olympus PEN-F, E-M10 II, E-M10, E-M5, Panasonic G3) for the last 7 years (and Canon and Sony DSLRs before that and various film cameras before that).

The TX1 has lots of configuration choices which I like. Overall I am very pleased with it. I have the rear dial set to do exposure compensation and the front dial around the lens sets the aperture when using A mode and does program shift when using P mode.

Click to expand...

could you comment on the ZS100 video and audio quality, if you tried it?

I have not tried the video with mine so, unfortunately, I can't answer. There are lots of reviews (including on dpreview) -- written and video --- though that address it.

buratino said:
buratino said:

http://www.bakubo.com

Click to expand...

you have a great set of pics there!

Thank you very much!

saudidave · Oct 9, 2020

kh1234567890 said:
saudidave said:

The ZS/TZ100 is now both old in digital camera terms and superseded with a far superior model. It is a good digicam but flawed.

Click to expand...

I still can't find anything wrong with mine ...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kh1234567890/albums/72157715187115192

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kh1234567890/albums/72157687585421680

I didn't say there was anything wrong with the IQ, I said it could be improved by adjusting the default settings but I also caveated that it was subjective.

To recap, The handling and EVF are garbage.

I can't comment on your photo's I'm afraid because the links aren't working

Dave

TX1 review (ZS100, TZ100, etc. outside Japan)

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