There's Life in Ye Olde Digicam Yet

Panasonic has a new digicam out. A specialty device, sure, but it's a digicam—that antiquated old type of device like your Dad once used, along with phones hardwired to the wall and, you know, buggy whips. "Where's my teeth, Ma?" Just kidding, but they're pretty passé, is what I'm saying.

It has a 20-MP sensor. The promo verbiage doesn't admit it's a 1/2.3" sensor until we're deep into the fine print.

Why this digicam, at this late date in their history? Well, it's "tough." That is, our ratty smartphones we're so proud of aren't waterproof to depths up to 102', nor can they withstand impacts from 6.6' high (don't test this at home), nor are they freezeproof down to 14°F (–10°C) or crushproof up to 220 lbf. This digicam is all those things.

Panasonic says it has optimized the viewfinder and screen for outdoor use (bright light). It has a 28–128mm-e lens, and Wi-Fi. It's called by the fetching name of DC-TS7. (See if you can remember that. There will not be a quiz.) ~$450.

Oh, and by the way, that post title? No one ever said "ye" for "the." It was just typesetter's shorthand for "the," relacing the Old Norse letter called thorn (þ), because there was no thorn in the English typecase and also unusually a shortage of t's and h's along with a surplus of y's. "Ye olde" was pronounced "the old" (short e) even back in the days of Ethelfrith, Ethelbald, Ethelwulf, Ethelbreath*, and Alfred.

Mike, who is at this time for some unknown reason reading a 1,040-page history of England

*I made that one up. The rest are medieval English kings.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Moose: "Olympus pioneered this genre and has been doing it for many years, although their TG-5 is obviously passe, as Panny has started with '7.'

"I wonder how it actually performs. It uses a folded light path design similar to the lower-end Olympus Toughs. I had a 16-MP TG-850 and was mightily disappointed in the IQ (yes, I know, but it's such a useful shorthand for 'makes crappy photos.' Really awful.) The 12-MP Tough TG-4 that I have now makes much better photos. [Current version is the TG-5. —Ed.]

"The single-digit TG series use an excellent lens in more normal relation to the sensor, that somehow manages not to protrude from the body, on or off, zoomed or not.

"The Panny may have one superior feature. DPR saith, 'The main attraction is a 0.2" electronic viewfinder with 1.17M-dot equivalent viewfinder for shooting outdoors.' I say 'may have' because it's another iteration of the tiny EVF used in the GM5 and the ZS series. I like it on those cameras, but others won't.

The Olympus TG-5

"Other than the EVF, the Panny is larger, heavier, and has a slower lens. The TG-5 zoom range is less. It's also 1.5 stops faster at the short end, 0.5 faster at the long end.

"The Oly has an amazing 'Microscope' Mode with Focus Stacking that works well. This was shot outdoors at night, all light from the ring light pipe. Oly also has attachments for light-piping the AF light as ring light for Macro, GPS, ringlight-like flash diffuser, compass, manometer, thermometer and add-on, waterproof, Tele (1.7x) and fisheye lenses. The tele aux lens makes for 170 mm-e, with no loss of speed. I can attest that the Macro ring light and tele lens both work well. Unlike the GPS I've had on older compacts, this one is actually useful.

"Also, because it's been out longer, the Oly is at the moment $60 less expensive. Absent reviews of the quality of the photos lens and sensor make, I can't tell if the EVF outweighs the Oly's several other better qualities."

Mike replies: Thanks Moose. Very useful info.

Comments

[dwig]

That "fetching name" is easy to decode:
DigiCam - Tough SOB generation 7

[Daniel]

No RAW image capability. No sale here for that reason.

[Roger Bradbury]

Verily, 'tis a compacte device œf rare design fore it doth häve a finder of þe view. þe olde knowledge comest again!

Rememberest thou, doubters, my wordes are of þe authentic Eanglishe spëche, for I amest An Eanglishman!

Poste scripte:
Michael, your firste two links worketh not!

[Rob L.]

I'm actually excited by this camera despite having given up waiting for a replacement for the TS3 my family eventually killed. I love my Olympus TG-4, but glad there are at least three options in this segment(Nikon is this game, too).

But I'm mostly pleased by the coordination of this camera with the 'it Must be Color' post.

[Peter Croft]

I nearly went on a small boat cruise from Bali to Flores last year and if I had, I was going to buy an Olympus TG-4, due to it incorporating GPS. I wanted to be able to identify photos taken in a fairly featureless sea and among anonymous islands. And a compass display. And waterproof to 10m.

When I saw this Panasonic, I was curious, but no GPS, no sale, I'm afraid.

[Joel Wolford]

You left out Ethel Merman....that couldn’t have been intentional....

[Henning Wulff]

I've had a Panasonic TS-3 since 2011, and it does what it's supposed to. Yes, I'd like a faster lens, better high ISO performance and RAW capability, but it really does just fine. We just came back from a trip to Costa Rica with son and family, and taking pictures of grandkids swimming underwater (where they were found nearly as often as above) made it very worthwhile.

I hope it lasts a number of years more.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

Passing on paraphrased comment on the product domain (water/dust proof, shock/drop proof, operate in cold temps etc), from Mt Hogan - this is probably the one area in which camera manufacturers will continue producing bodies with sub 1” sensors, even though smart phones are eating up the P&S segment. The market still wants them, and there’s still a profit to be made.
I used to do wet canyons with panny’s 2nd model. I bought the Nikon AW1 & lenses to get a 1” sensor & a bit better image quality, but haven’t done canyons since the birth of my child. At least it’s also drool proof :-)

[Steve Rosenblum]

Some of us fisher-folks have found these sorts of digicams to be quite handy. More likely to survive when you are wading in a stream, trip on a slippery rock and fall in. Many a fishing guide has shot "hold out that fish and grin" photos of their clients with these (we like to call those "fish porn"). I have friends who have taken pretty remarkable photographs of trout just by dunking the camera in front of them and snapping away. Myself, I just carry an older digicam in my vest, the loss of which would not be a tragedy.

[Roger Botting]

I use my Panasonic TS5 a lot for my kayak photos. A great little camera, it fits nicely in my life jacket, is wet and cults proof and easy to use. And the photos are good as long as it isn't too dark out.
Most of the other kayaker a use them too.
The Olympus TG 4 and 5 are used by a number of my scuba diving friends. They do use the underwater housing but the waterproof camera is an added insurance against leakages. Been there, done that.
And all this is for a fraction of the size, weight,cost and fragility of my housed Nikon D7000 which I do use for scuba diving.

[Andre]

A correction: Unfortunately, this frumpy little digicam is sporting a 1/2.3" sensor, not a 2/3" sensor.

[Fixed. Thanks! --Mike]

[Isaac]

I wish Olympus would take one of those Tough cameras and put a SIM module and Android in them, reduce the bezel as much as possible (as it's the norm today) for a slighly larger screen and that'd be my perfect smartphone. Would it look weird when talking? No worries, I was the proud owner of a Nokia N-Gage (QD).

[Bruce McL]

For roughly twice the price, the SeaLife DC2000 has a 20MP 1" sensor.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1294158-REG/sealife_sl740_dc2000_digital_underwater_camera.html

[Jock Elliott]

I'm in.

Finally a manufacturer who understands that, if you can't see the rear screen in the bright sunlight to compose the shot, you have to rely on "Go full wide; spray and pray." (This isn't theoretical; I've been there, done that, trying to frame a shot one handed while holding on to a kayak paddle.)

I can also see this as a backup camera for anyone who will be in extreme conditions and absolutely has to get the shot . . . just in case the "big gun" camera gets splashed with salt water or exposed to high pressure fresh water.

Luminous Landscape used to sponsor sea-based trips to Antarctica (perhaps they still do); I seem to recall reports of some folks shooting with rugged cameras on days when the seas were rough and threatened to expose their "good" cameras to salt water during the trip to shore in a zodiac.

The announcement of this camera is very good news, for me at least. I see this as an every-day-carry camera; one that can ride in a shirt pocket and I don't have to worry if I get caught in a cloudburst or sprayed by a waterfall.

I've had very good luck with Panasonic fixed-lens small-sensor cameras (The FZ150 and FZ200), but the FZ200 did pick up a dust particle on its sensor twice. The weather sealing ought to eliminate that. Further, since there is no lens that has to trundle out before you can use the camera, my guess is that it will be pretty much instantly available for use as soon as you press the power button.

A couple of times in a decade I've taken a tumble with a camera in hand. Nothing was broken either biologic or photographic, but still . . .

So, bottom line: Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I will likely be an early adopter of this camera.

[Dale P]

For what it's worth, our family has used one of the "little brothers" of this camera for years with our kids. I *think* the current model is the TS-30. It's reasonably affordable, and reasonably kid-resistant (water resistant, shock resistant, etc.). Our 5 kids have enjoyed using them, they're not as expensive (or fragile) as a smartphone, and the kids can make reasonable images (from their perspective) and videos of their lives.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1109393-REG/panasonic_dmc_ts30_b_lumix_dmc_ts30_digital_camera.html

[Mark]

I have a TS3 (which replaced a TS1 that I lost) that I take skiing and flyfishing. Biggest issue has been the lack of an EVF. This looks great! I just wish they put in a bigger sensor - I really dont want to give up on photo quality.... oh well...

Waterproof

Compact

Big Sensor

“Choose any two”