The aim-and-shoot is once more: Panasonic launches new Lumix out of the blue, with iPhone-trouncing 30x optical zoom
- The Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 updates the ZS80 / TZ80 with USB-C charging
- It incorporates an enormous 30x optical zoom, and shoots 20MP images and 4K video
- Panasonic moreover launched the Lumix G97 mirrorless digicam, designed to modify a price range Lumix G95
One issue I didn’t have on my 2024 bingo card was a model new Lumix point-and-shoot digicam, even if it’s a trending market. Nonetheless Panasonic merely shocked us by asserting the Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 (it’s known as the earlier throughout the US and the latter elsewhere), which can possible be accessible from February 2025.
The Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 packs a Leica lens with a whopping 30x optical zoom – a 24-720mm range that’s way more versatile than your smartphone, and which might be doubled digitally to 60x using Panasonic’s iZoom attribute.
It’s a pocketable snapper that weighs merely 11.35oz / 322g and incorporates a 1.84m-dot tilt touchscreen, plus a model new quick-send image button for smartphone uploads by means of Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth v5.0.
You could shoot 20.3MP images, 4K video as a lot as 30fps, and HD video 120fps, plus there’s a new vertical video mode, all supported by Panasonic’s 5-axis Hybrid Optical image stabilization, which ought to ensure crisp ingredient even when you’re zoomed correct in.
Nonetheless, we now have seen practically all of this tech sooner than throughout the Panasonic Lumix ZS80 / TZ80, the 2016 model that the model new ZS99 / TZ99 mainly replaces. So why are we getting a model new Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 all these years later? Successfully, crucially the model new digicam helps USB-C charging, thus adhering to the EU’s Frequent Charger Directive that comes into drive in 2025. We seen an equivalent switch by Panasonic earlier throughout the yr when it revived one amongst its bridge cameras.
Panasonic retains point-and-shoot alive, merely
The USB-C charging port is the one important substitute throughout the Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 that I can see over the Lumix ZS80 / TZ80 model it replaces. That predecessor is now nearly 10 years outdated, although, as is the case with completely different Lumix point-and-shoots, you’ll battle to hunt out one new to buy, notably since they will all finally be pulled from the cupboards.
Panasonic has even downgraded the newer model by eradicating the predecessor’s digital viewfinder, presumably as a technique to squeeze throughout the new USB-C port and buttons. That’s an precise shame, and it hardly fills me with pleasure for the model new model.
Whereas I would have hottest vital updates and undoubtedly no downgrade, it’s good to see Panasonic sustaining the Lumix point-and-shoot line alive. The Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 on-sale date is prepared for mid-February 2025, and it’ll worth $499 / £469 / AU$999.
Might we see a appropriately upgraded point-and-shoot eventually? I hope so. For now, though, I can advocate the Lumix ZS99 / TZ99 for these looking for an trustworthy low value compact digicam.
