Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 – water proof, shock proof camera

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Good photo and video quality, attractive looks.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive.

Inside the Trunk:

Bundled software Panasonic PHOTOfunSTUDIO 3.0, ArcSoft MediaImpression, ArcSoft Panorama Maker, Drivers & Utilities, Apple QuickTime. Included accessories Lens cap strap, Carrying strap, Battery case, Lens cap. Included cables are USB cord and A/V cable.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

DMC-TS1 is 12.1 mega pixels, has 4x digital zoom, light sensitivity options include ISO auto, ISO 6400, ISO 3200, ISO 1600, ISO 800, ISO 400, ISO 200, ISO 100, ISO 80, shooting programs include high sensitivity, night portrait, hi-speed burst, self-portrait, portrait mode, party/indoor, aerial photo, sports mode, night scene, starry sky, soft skin, fireworks, clipboard, scenery, sunset, candle, beach, baby, snow, food, pet. Maximum shutter speed is 1/1300 second, minimum shutter speed is 60 seconds. Special effects include black and white, vivid, sepia, warm, cool.

White balance presets include daylight, halogen, cloudy, shade. Pictures are stored in JPEG format, videos are stored in AVCHD Lite, QuickTime format. Video capture resolution options are AVCHD Lite – 1280 x 720, QuickTime – 848 x 480, QuickTime – 320 x 240, QuickTime – 640 x 480. Image storage resolutions options are JPEG 1920 x 1080, JPEG 2560 x 1440, JPEG 3264 x 1840, JPEG 4000 x 2248, JPEG 2048 x 1360, JPEG 2560 x 1712, JPEG 3264 x 2176, JPEG 4000 x 2672, JPEG 640 x 480, JPEG 1600 x 1200, JPEG 2048 x 1536, JPEG 2560 x 1920, JPEG 3264 x 2448, JPEG 4000 x 3000.

Flash modes include Red-eye reduction, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode, Auto mode. The camera has zoom lens – 4.9 mm – 22.8 mm – F/3.3-5.9, minimum focus range is 11.8 inches, focal length is 4.9 mm – 22.8 mm, macro focus range is 5cm, optical zoom is 4.6x, lens aperture is F/3.3-5.9, lens is manufactured by Leica. The TS1 has a 2.7 inch TFT LCD.

Additional features on the camera include Automatic display brightness adjustment, Camera orientation detection, Intelligent Scene Selector, Display brightness control, RGB primary color filter, Backlight compensation, USB 2.0 compatibility, In-camera red-eye fix, Built-in help guide, PictBridge support, Exif Print support, Resizing an image, Histogram display, Cropping an image, Built-in speaker, Shock resistant, Date/time stamp, Audio recording, Face detection, Dust resistant, Audio dubbing, DPOF support.

Connectors on the camera include DC power input, Composite video/audio output, HDMI output, USB. There is also a card slot for SD Memory Card. The gadget is powered by Li-ion rechargeable battery – 940 mAh.

Razzle Dazzle:

You pay a bit more for this camera since it boasts of a water proof, shock proof and dust proof body. The exteriors have been made in such a way that it can take shocks, water and dust but it doesn’t make the camera look ugly. In a cell phone a device which can take water, shocks and dust undergoes a lot of padding on the exterior which makes it look ugly, for example, Sonim XP3 Quest. This model is available in three colors – dark silver, orange and dark green.

Inside Dope:

It is not often that you see a rugged cameras in the market and it is partly because people don’t need it much, they know how to take care of their gadgets and partly because the camera needs a lot of protection around it which makes the end product costly. There are also standard cameras which have water proof sold separately but they are so costly that it costs as much as the camera itself.

TS1 is Panasonics first attempt at making a rugged compact device and we must say that it is very well done. It can take shocks up to 5 feet, waterproofing is up to 10 feet and it is dust proof too. Apart from this, it has some features that you rarely find in such compact cameras like wide angle lens, long battery life and HD movie recording.

The camera has a 28mm-equivalent wide-angle lens and is protected by glass which can be cleaned easily. There is a shutter release button, spring based slider button for the 4.6x optical zoom and a power button. The former two buttons are placed in such a way that you will easily mistake one for the other while shooting.

Apart from that rest of the buttons are logically arranged for easy use. There is mode dial at the top and below the dial are the buttons of movie recording and playback. There is a four way navigational button with menu button in the center. This button is also used for controls of timer, macro, flash and exposure. There are three tabs for main menu system – movie settings, photo settings and setup. We found that the menu system was very user friendly and didn’t need much time to get used to it.

Feature wise, the DMC-TS1 is similar to FP8 by the same manufacturer. The latter costs $100 so if you don’t need water and shock proofing, get that unit. You can control focus, exposure, ISO, white balance, color effects and white metering in the AE mode. The Intelligent ISO mode limits the sensitivity to 1600, 800 or 400 and the minimum shutter speed capability is set from 1 sec. to 1/125 second. TS1 has 27 scene modes and 3 are housed on the mode dial – sports, snow, beach & snow.

The Intelligent Auto (iA) mode is there for newbies who don’t know much about settings and just want to get on with shooting. The iA mode helps to correct brightness, focus and blurring issues. The camera can take video recording; there is separate video record button for this on the camera. You can shoot 720p HD video and store it in AVCHD Lite format. You can use the optical zoom for video shooting, something that is rare in compact cameras.

The camera isn’t the fastest but the speed is certainly impressive when it comes to class of rugged cameras. It takes 1.2 seconds to wake up and start shooting and shot-to-shot times is 1.9 seconds with the flash on and it goes up to 2.3 seconds with flash on. In bright conditions, the shutter lag is 0.5 seconds and in low light conditions it is 1.2 seconds. The burst mode is quick at 1.9 frames per second however at the highest quality; you are limited to three shots.

Photos were average and we were not much impressed with the quality. Photos are not sharp and it is due to the glass around the lens for protection. We also found a bit of noise across all ISOs, the quality is good at ISO 400 and ISO 200 but at ISO 800 and ISO 1600 the quality is very inferior. We advice you not to use auto white balance when shooting indoors as everything turns yellow on the photos. In our tests, there was no purple fringing, exposure and colors were good. Colors were natural looking and accurate when the auto white balance was turned off.

Nitty Gritty:

We were completely satisfied with the performance of Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1. It is a bit costly but you pay more because of the hardware that has gone in to making the product shock proof and water proof. Picture quality is nice and it has some goodies like movie capture, wide angle lens and long battery life.