This is not a review, purely an observation of how the zoom works on my little point and shoot camera, the Panasonic Lumix TZ70. It appears to be a good addition to my camera bag for travelling, especially when I only plan on taking the 24-70mm lens with me when we go on holiday. The TZ70 is a 12 megapixel camera and it has a 30x optical zoom, roughly equivalent to a 28-840mm lens. I have not tried using the zoom in low light and assume that a tripod would be required to make the most of that amount of zoom, but I have used the zoom in full sun and I’m happy with the results.
The following images were taken yesterday afternoon, I was driving by the pond and saw several pelicans and a few magpie geese hanging around the waters edge and thought it a perfect time to test the performance of the zoom on this camera. I have not cropped the images at all and have done very minimal editing in Picasa. The highlights have blown out a little on two of the photos of pelicans, the last photo is the better one in terms of capturing the detail of the white feathers.
I had read numerous reviews of different compact cameras before deciding on the TZ70 and although my experience so far is limited, you could say I’m satisfied with my purchase 🙂
Focal length in 35mm film = 57mm
Two Black Dogs 
I don’t pretend to understand the technicalities of photography, but just know when I like a photo, and yours are always lovely!
You are sweet, thank you 😊
I went shopping quite a few years ago for a good “idiot proof” point ‘n’ shoot, and ended up with a Panasonic DMC-TZ1. I suspect that it could be a predecessor to yours. I have never been so happy with a camera before! Most of my blog pics are taken with it and not only does it have a very useful zoom range, the end result can be so detailed! I can enlarge a pic of Ray’s face and clearly see the moisture and pores on his nose!!!! 🙂
Panasonic make really good “idiot proof” cameras that are so easy to take everywhere and the quality is very good for a compact camera. I will have to look more closely at the pictures of Ray, such a handsome boy 🙂
wow momwithoutpaws has a fun camera, I would want to chase those birds
Birds can be fun to chase 😊
Your photos are lovely! Found your blog through Lyn and Debra’s blog.. I blog on Italy 🙂 (www.ishitasood.blogspot.in)
Thank you! I haven’t much chance to read blogs of late, I love blogs about Italy and will drop in on yours soon 😊
Yay 🙂 Thank you.
Great pictures – those birds have a lot of personality too!
Thanks Meg, the Pelicans reminded me of people strolling, hands behind their backs and chatting about the events of the day 🙂