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Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 reviews
You can find here the most interesting reviews / ratings from the well-known expert sites about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 Camera. Here are the reviewers:
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- 14 October 2009 - |
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- 4 |
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- 06 October 2009 - |
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- 0 |
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- 03 September 2009 - |
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- 2.5 |
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- 27 August 2009 - |
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- 4 |
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- 09 July 2009 - |
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- 3.5 |
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- 14 May 2009 - |
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- 0 |
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- 30 April 2009 - |
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- 4 |
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- 08 April 2009 - |
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- 4.5 |
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- 07 April 2009 - |
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- 4.5 |
CameraLabs 's conclusion / rating - 14 October 2009 |
“ The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 / TS1 is an excellent all-round compact that can also be used in the water to a depth of 3 metres. It has a 12.1 Megapixel sensor, a good all-purpose 28-128mm equivalent optical zoom with very effective image stabilisation. It also boasts excellent video capabilities, delivering 720p HD video in the choice of two formats with the ability to optical zoom during shooting, and output both movies and stills over its HDMI port.
If you're looking for a great all-round compact which can also be taken to the beach without worrying about sand or splashes, then the Panasonic FT1 / TS1 won’t disappoint. It’s also ideal for occasional dives underwater when snorkelling on holiday or taking snaps of the kids around the pool. But the design and controls are not designed with underwater activity as their primary focus, and often frustrated us under more demanding conditions.
So if you're really serious about water-based activities and need a camera to record your adventures in the water we'd recommend you take at look at the Canon PowerShot D10 instead. The FT1 / TS1 is a great general-purpose camera which can also go underwater, whereas the D10 is specifically designed for it... ”
Complete review here
Gadling 's conclusion / rating - 06 October 2009 |
“ Photos and video made with the DMS-TS1 look good. For some reason, I did notice that the glass lens picks up more grime than most other cameras, and because it does not feature a (built in) lens cover, I’d recommend bringing a lens wipe with you... ”
Complete review here
PCMag 's conclusion / rating - 03 September 2009 |
“ If you're looking for a feature-rich camera that's designed for abuse, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 seems like a promising choice, especially given its HD-video prowess. But after extensive use and lab testing, it's difficult to recommend given its middling image quality and the problems we experienced with the leaky battery-compartment door and the finicky Zoom control. If you absolutely need HD-video capture in a rugged shooter, check out the $300 Pentax Optio W80. If not, the Canon PowerShot D10 ($330) is bulkier, but offers superior image quality, and is adequately sealed and protected from water... ”
Complete review here
CNET 's conclusion / rating - 27 August 2009 |
“ Unlike Canon's PowerShot D10, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 is well suited for double duty as a rugged and everyday pocket camera. People concerned with appearance and size, but want the best image quality and better durability would be better off with the D10. If photo quality is less important, but you need something very durable, the Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 is the way to go. However, the TS1 gets my vote because you get a reasonably strong and waterproof package with very good photo quality and performance. If I'm going to drop $300 to $400 on a rugged point-and-shoot camera, it should not have a design that looks out of place away from the water... ”
Complete review here
InfoSync 's conclusion / rating - 09 July 2009 |
“ Right now the rugged compact market is a sea of emerging models, each flaunting waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, dustproof and eventually Earth proof. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 is one of the better choices out there, right alongside the Canon PowerShot D10. The Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 and Fujifilm Finepix Z33WP failed to impress us in our waterproof shootout, so that leaves the newly announced Pentax Optio W80, which has not been released. We were fans of the Lumix DMC-TS1’s AVCHD Lite video quality and overall still performance, though the compact was not really as ballsy as we thought it would be, and never quite acted the same after our shockproof test. The lack of a viewfinder was irksome, but the Lumix DMC-TS1 provided a great LCD and plenty of features to keep us happy underwater. In this exclusive class, we recommend checking out either the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 or Canon PowerShot D10 because they are the tops dogs at the bottom of the ocean... ”
Complete review here
DPInterface 's conclusion / rating - 14 May 2009 |
“ Until recently, the rugged camera market has been dominated by Olympus for years (the reason being, up till this year, no one else in the market came up with any offerings in the rugged camera sector). Yes, at the time, those cameras were unique – built as solid as a tank, able to survive a lot of abuse and still being able to take pictures afterward. What I wasn’t a fan of was “sacrificing image quality for a rugged design” in Olympus’ cameras.
2009 is the year that’s gonna get Olympus off their chairs and straight to work on improving the image quality of their cameras (hopefully). One of the biggest threats to their throne is here: the Panasonic Lumix TS1 aka Lumix FT1, which lets you have your cake (rugged build quality) and eat it too (good image quality)! The Lumix TS1 is solid – waterproof, crushproof and freezeproof – and has the biggest zoom lens in its class: 4.6X optical zoom with optical image stabilization.
It’s apparent that Panasonic didn’t enter the battle without a plan – the Lumix TS1 aka FT1 has all the features, usual Panasonic bells & whistles and a few borrowed ideas (such as the front LED lamp) which make it look like the perfect rugged camera.
To begin with, the Lumix TS1 has the best battery life in the rugged camera category, and even out-performs many ‘normal’ compacts. The camera has an LED illuminator lamp which, in addition to working as the TS1’s autofocus assist lamp, doubles as a torch/video light. Then there’s the 2.7 inch LCD which is sharp and viewable, both indoors and out – pretty useful for diving in the day and when attending a poolside party in the evening.
Ergonomics were decent; the Lumix TS1 doesn’t feel slippery or clumsy in any way and buttons, though not terribly large in size, were well spaced. One thing worthy of note is the Lumix TS1 has a zoom controller which is slightly different from what you’ll find on an average camera. I wouldn’t say it sucks, the controller is nicely textured and operates smoothly, but it surely needs some getting used to.
The Panasonic Lumix TS1 is primarily a point-and-shoot camera and doesn’t have any manual exposure controls. I’ll give credit when it’s due: the camera does have manual white balance with a certain degree of tuning available (warmer or cooler colors), auto exposure bracketing and Starry Sky mode, a faux-bulb mode; none of the competition have any of the 3 features.
Of course, with point-and-shoot operation comes a variety of scene modes (there are many on the Lumix TS1 and the camera provides helpful tooltips for each of them) and automatic “jingle bells”. There’s Intelligent Auto mode where the Lumix TS1 handles everything (literally, from subject tracking to post-shot software redeye removal) and all you have to do is press the shutter button, Intelligent Exposure which brightens dark parts of photos, Intelligent ISO adjusts ISO automatically based on amount of movement in the frame and Intelligent Scene Selection which picks a shooting mode for you (the latter even works in movie mode!)
The Panasonic Lumix TS1’s face detection system is quite elaborate – it can detect up to 15 faces in a frame and ‘recognizes’ people you frequently snap/enter into the system. Face recognition gives priority to those faces the camera recognizes and even displays their names beneath focus points; I’m sure this will be something you’ll be getting ooh’s and aah’s from when flaunting the camera. Face detection (but not recognition) also works in movie mode.
Speaking of movie modes, the movie mode department is another area where the Lumix TS1 shines. Aside from the misleading “60 FPS movie mode” (the CCD sensor still outputs 30 FPS natively, and merely doubles frame rate during playback) and the ability to change “Recording quality” (which, to be precise, changes AUDIO bit rate – nothing to do with Video Recording here, folks), the 720p HD movie mode at 30 FPS on the Lumix TS1 is the best you’ll find on a rugged camera, and pretty good for a compact camera. In fact, none of the TS1’s current competitors have 720p movie modes as the most they’ll go is VGA quality. If that isn’t enough, a wind filter is also available and you can use optical zoom, optical image stabilization, face detection and more while recording video with sound.
Of course, the Lumix TS1 isn’t entirely flawless – the camera does lack several playback features that almost everyone else has, such as image brightening and software redeye removal tools. That means if you forgot to activate Intelligent Exposure or the camera didn’t manage to pick up redeye when it was there, you’re forced to doing some post-shot editing on your computer.
The AVCHD Lite format is also a hassle to deal with if you’re planning to use movie clips for anything other than viewing on your high-def TV/Blu-ray player. You’ll have to convert AVCHD Lite clips into another more common format (like MPEG4 or AVI) on your computer – and Panasonic only bundles video viewing/burning software for Windows, so Mac users may need to download a free viewer or buy software for that. That’s just for viewing, mind you… Panasonic doesn’t include any AVCHD video conversion software in the box, at all, so regardless of operating system, you’ll have to supply your own conversion software. The simple workaround to this issue would be to select the MOV setting in the camera instead.
Performance was excellent with a good full-resolution burst mode and the Panasonic Lumix TS1 aka FT1 was overall quick on its feet. As for image quality, things were generally very good with low noise and distortion levels, decent levels of detail. Chromatic aberration (color fringing) and redeye were both non-issues since the Lumix TS1’s imaging processor removes them automatically. There was some slight graininess, softness and a bit of color bleeding (depending on scene conditions) introduced into photos at ISO 400, but image quality here is still usable up to midsize display/prints. That shows we’ve come a long way from the days of mushy noise reduction and soft images of old Panasonic processors – the crummy noise reduction is just about gone now and softness is not an issue.
The Panasonic Lumix TS1 aka Lumix FT1 earns my recommendation for being a very capable rugged camera. The camera does almost everything right, with the exception of the small handful of dislikes I listed. As of now, the Panasonic Lumix TS1 costs about $50 more than the competing Canon D10 and Olympus Stylus Tough 8000, but it’s the most feature-packed among all the rugged cameras and in my opinion, that extra bit of money justifies the many advantages of the Lumix TS1 has over the competition... ”
DPInterface's rating: |
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- 0 |
Complete review here
PCWorld 's conclusion / rating - 30 April 2009 |
“ There's plenty to like about the Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FT1 apart from its rugged build — it takes great still images and good videos, making it a true hybrid. We think Panasonic should ditch the zoom slider and replace it with buttons, and also make the rotational dial a little tougher. But apart from that, we had tons of fun using this camera and you probably will, too... ”
Complete review here
Imaging Resource 's conclusion / rating - 08 April 2009 |
“ Panasonic has produced a real winner with the Lumix TS1: a digital camera that you can take anywhere, rain or shine, underwater, and you can even mistreat it and it'll still turn in better photos than many other digital cameras on the market. Although there are other rugged digital cameras -- some more rugged than the TS1 -- none so far comes close to the high image quality of the Panasonic TS1. Its 12-megapixel sensor performs very well, and though the Lumix TS1 still exhibits the luminance noise that we used to warn people about, it's of no consequence in the printed results, so not worth worrying about. Some of the heavily touted features of the Panasonic TS1 fall short, including the Face Recognition mode and some elements of the Movie mode, but I still like that one can zoom while capturing video, something most pocket digital cameras don't offer; and the image stabilization is excellent. When it comes to actually giving me most of what I want from a digital camera that I can take anywhere, the Panasonic TS1 really delivers. Its wide-angle lens lets me capture more of the outdoors, and I can use it regardless of the weather without a whole lot of thought -- either for the image quality or the camera's safety. For that reason, the Panasonic Lumix TS1 earns a 4.5-star Dave's Pick... ”
Imaging Resource's rating: |
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- 4.5 |
Complete review here
PhotoReview 's conclusion / rating - 07 April 2009 |
“ The Lumix DMC-FT1 represents a new concept for Panasonic: a tough, slimline digicam that is shockproof to 1.5 metres, waterproof to a depth of three metres and dustproof to the IP58 standard. Olympus has already been down this 'tough camera' track but Panasonic is the first manufacturer to add the ability to record high-definition movie clips in the new AVCHD Lite format with a frame rate of 30 frames/second... ”
PhotoReview's rating: |
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- 4.5 |
Complete review here
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