Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20 zoom compact camera with GPS

Pocket cameras with large zoom lenses, known as ‘travel zooms', are good because they can pull a subject close in despite it being hundreds of feet away.

Panasonic has shoehorned just such a lens into the Lumix DMC-TZ20. The 16x zoom is equivalent on an old film camera to starting at a wide 24mm and going up to 384mm at maximum zoom. To set this in context, most digital compacts have a maximum zoom of just 5x.

The 14-megapixel camera also has a GPS receiver that records the coordinates of where a shot was taken so you can re-trace your travels and plot them on an online map.

It can record high-definition video in the highest 1080p resolution video with stereo sound, and it has a dedicated Record button for video. Another new feature is a 3D shooting mode for still images, which automatically creates a 3D image from a sequence of shots, although the file produced is only viewable if you have a 3D-capable TV or computer.

Images are both composed and reviewed on the good-sized 3in colour screen on the camera's rear. Besides the few buttons on the back there are limited touchscreen controls too. For instance you can control the camera's focus by tapping on the screen where your subject is. Another tap will make it take a picture, though we found it too easy to accidentally do this when merely trying to handle the camera.

Fortunately the touchscreen can be switched off if you are finding it a problem, and there are enough physical controls alongside it to enable the user to operate it happily without having to switch the touch-controls back on.

Using the reliable ‘Intelligent Auto' mode that detects common scenes or types of subject and adjusts the camera's settings appropriately, we were able to get great-quality results from the TZ20 with a minimum of fuss. At the maximum zoom the shots tended to come out with a tiny amount of blur because of camera shake, as the camera lacks a decent handgrip, but generally colours were attractively warm and detail was sharp.

Though most manufacturers offer travel zoom cameras, Panasonic's TZ20 has more features than most models we've seen, and it performed extremely well. The HD video means you don't need to go on holiday with a separate camcorder, which makes the TZ20's high price more palatable.