Panasonic 16.1MP DMC-TS20 Waterproof

Panasonic announced two new waterproof cameras - the Lumix DMC-TS4 (aka DMC-FT4) and the DMC-TS20 (aka DMC-FT20). The TS4 is a replacement for its 2010-model Lumix DMC-TS3 with the addition of a new manual shooting mode together the Program, Scene, and Intelligent Auto modes of the earlier model.The DMC-TS20 is a replacement for its 2010-model Lumix DMC-TS10 camera with a variety of changes including a new, more water-resistant body. The 16.1 Megapixels DMC-TS20 can support waterproof to approximately 16 feet (5 meters), shockproof to approximately 5 feet (1.5 meters), dustproof and freezeproof to temperatures as low as 14ºF. 

The TS20 features a flat and slim profile with a 25mm ultra-wide-angle lens, a 4x optical zoom (35mm equivalent: 25-100mm) and a 2.7-inch Intelligent LCD with High Angle mode. It can shoot 720p High Definition video in the MP4 format and the 4x optical zoom is available during video recording. The recorded videos can be directly uploaded to YouTube when the included software is installed. 

The Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TS20 is available in orange, blue, black and red for $179.99. Here's the summary of review by ePhotoZine, giving the camera a rating of 3.5 out of 5:"Images are sharpest in the centre with the corners becoming slightly softer. Noise is visible in some of the sky in the corners, even at ISO100. Distortion is low with very little purple fringing visible. Exposure is generally very good, with the camera produces reliable results. Macro performance is reasonable allowing the subject to be roughly 5cm from front of lens at the wide-angle setting. 

ISO100 and 200 provide reasonable results and it's not till ISO400 that you start to notice noise in the image. At ISO800 noise increases to become more dominant in the image and there is a slightly drop in colour. ISO1600 is best avoided as noise increases reducing detail and colour saturation. ISO3200 produces a resized photo and the image is very soft and therefore best avoided if possible. Auto White Balance performs quite well under Tungsten light with the Tungsten preset doing little to improve the image, instead giving it a slight orange cast. 

Auto White Balance performs very well under fluorescent lighting. The camera has a miniature mode, but little else in the way of digital filters, instead it has a few colour modes: Standard, Vivid, B&W, Sepia, as well an auto retouch option in playback. A panoramic scene mode is included. The panoramic mode automatically stitches the photos together as your pan the camera around.The Panasonic Lumix FT20 offers excellent value for money as one of the cheapest waterproof cameras available rated at depths up to 5 metres. 

This combined with bright colourful images and an easy to use camera make it a good option. Some of the features are a little slow such as the miniature mode and the camera only has 720p video, but for the price these features are quite reasonable. The camera also offers some useful features such as AF tracking and automatic panoramic stitching and is available in a number of colours."

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