Minolta A2

vs.

Panasonic DMC-TZ1

Last Updated 3 Jun 06
Copyright 2006 by Stephen Vermeulen
TZ1 Photos Copyright 2006 by Adam Hough

Summary

Last week (at the end of May 2006) a friend bought a Panasonic DMC-TZ1 (and on Panasonic's site) as his new travel camera, and to replace his old Canon G2. We had a few rainy days in Calgary, so yesterday we had our first chance to take this for a spin and see how it compared with my (now two years old) Minolta A2.

Now before you run out and buy one of the basis of this report, please bear in mind that this was quite an informal (although quite convincing) comparison. We followed no scientific method, we used no controlled conditions, we used no specialized test equipment. Heck, we didn't even go to the trouble of mounting the cameras on a tripod so that we shot the same image. What we did was to wander about the downtown around midday and stroll though the park along the Bow River, shooting as we went. Occasionally we tried to shoot the same thing. Sometimes we tried to shoot something different.

Some discussion of this artical has taken place here in a forum at ClubSNAP.

If you are interested in digital photography you may also be interested in PictaTrove that I am writing.

Results

Telephoto reach

PICT1174 (A2) and P1000049 (TZ1) show the difference in full zoom capabilities. The A2 is equivalent to a 200mm lens (for a 35mm camera) while the TZ1 is equivalent to a 350mm lens. Since the A2 produces a 3264x2448 picture versus the 2560x1920 (which is an near match for the Dell 30" LCD monitor, appart from the aspect ratio) of the TZ1, you can do a loss-less digital zoom of 1.275 times on the A2 (i.e. crop the A2'a image to 5M pixel) which brings the A2's max zoom to 255mm, which is still short of the TZ1. So the TZ1 is the clear winner on telephoto reach. Both cameras handled a rather nasty back lit exposure situation quite well, producing very similar results.


PICT1174 (A2)	P1000049 (TZ1)

Typical file sizes for the TZ1 are around 2.5Mbytes, the A2 were in the 4.5Mbyte range.

PICT1179 (A2) and P1000057 (TZ1) again show the full telephoto capabilities.


PICT1179 (A2)	P1000057 (TZ1)

Wide angle

The A2 has a clear advantage with 28mm coverage versus 35mm coverage for the TZ1. I don't really have a good example to show of this, but from personal experience with my old G1, I found the 35mm wide angle to be limiting when compared with a 28mm view.

PICT1176 (A2) and P1000053 (TZ1) show some of the new river side condos, appart from the A2's slight over exposure the results are very similar.


PICT1176 (A2)	P1000053 (TZ1)

Same Area of Coverage

The Trucks, this time we composed the photos in almost the same way, and the exposures are closer. This pair give you a pretty good idea of how similar the photos these cameras produce are.


PICT1180 (A2)	P1000058 (TZ1)

PICT1209 (A2) and P1000097 (TZ1), another pair of photos that show the slight advantage an 8M pixel image has over a 5M pixel image. This time we framed things pretty much the same way. This was taken though glass so there are some reflections. Lots of little details that you can zoom in to and compare between the two. Below the full size images I have extracted some 1:1 crops of some of the details, the first is a Mini Cooper advert with a street address above it, the second is a no-parking sign and in the third the TZ1 shows a moire effect in the parking garage wall.


PICT1209 (A2) full size above, 1:1 crops below	P1000097 (TZ1) full size above, 1:1 crops below

Macro

PICT1188 (A2) and P1000068 (TZ1) show some tree bark. The A2 seemed to produce a better image (though some of this might be due to camera shake on the TZ1?), especially near the edges of the photo where there seems to be some colour distortion.


PICT1188 (A2)	P1000068 (TZ1)

Since the A2 allows you to tilt the external LCD it is much easier to take pictures near the ground with it than with the TZ1.

Depth of Field Blur (bokeh)

The ability of a lens to throw elements of the photograph that are beyond the depth of field out of focus (to blur them) is referred to as bokeh. This is often used to isolate the subject of a photograph from its surroundings (reducing distraction and producing a more pleasing artistic effect), especially in portait or macro photography. This is something that becomes harder to achieve as a camera's sensor size is reduced.


PICT1189 (A2)	P1000070 (TZ1)

PICT1189 (A2) and P1000070 (TZ1) illustrate the difference in depth of field between the two cameras. I am pretty certain that the A2 has a much larger sensor than the TZ1 (this artical has a table that shows the A2 with a 2/3" sensor and the TZ1 with a 1/2.5" sensor, which is much smaller) and as a result, at a similar f-stop the A2 will have less depth of field. This can be put to good use in isolating the principal subject from a distracting background, giving the photographer another dimension of control. When I moved from my old Canon G1 to the Minolta A2 I really found this a significant change to the better. Here the A2 has picked F3.5 and the TZ1 has picked F2.8, so if they had the same sensor size the TZ1 should have had less of the background in focus, yet clearly, the TZ1's picture has much greater depth of field.

High ISO Speeds

PICT1195 (A2) and P1000075 (TZ1) are both taken with the cameras manually set to ISO800, the A2's image has much more noise. The TZ1 has obviously applied some sort of smoothing algorithm within the camera which as eliminated all visible noise, possibly with the loss of some detail.


PICT1195 (A2)	P1000075 (TZ1)

PICT1194 (A2) and P1000074 (TZ1) show the ISO400 setting. In this the A2's image has a lot less noise than at its ISO800 setting, but still the TZ1 has less noise than the A2. The TZ1 image is a bit sharper than the previous ISO800 image.


PICT1194 (A2)	P1000074 (TZ1)

PICT1193 (A2) and P1000073 (TZ1) show the low ISO setting, for the A2 this is ISO64 and for the TZ1 this appears to be ISO80.


PICT1193 (A2)	P1000073 (TZ1)

Features of Note

The TZ1 has considerably more telephoto reach, but only the typical 35mm wide angle. I would prefer a 28-280mm arrangement in a 10x zoom.
The TZ1 has an effective optical image stabilizer, so its easier to use the long zoom and hand hold at lower light levels.
The TZ1 must have a camera orientation sensor in it (which the A2 does not have) so you don't have to manually rotate the pictures you take in portrait mode.
The TZ1 has a nice, big, LCD display. This is quite visible in daylight (maybe a bit more visable that the A2's). This display is built in, so it cannot be tilted and it cannot be flipped around (to protect it like on the Canon A95 and G series). The lack of tilt makes working near the ground more difficult, although Panasonic has provided a special mode that makes the display more visible at a steep angle that partially solves this issue.
TZ1 is remarkably fast starting up for a compact camera (especially with long zoom), in fact it seemed as fast as the A2.
Focus accuracy, no problems with the TZ1, the A2 had a few miss-focused frames (it is a bit nutorious for this in certain lighting situations).
The colour balance of the two cameras was very similar.
The TZ1 appears to have a touch more in-camera sharpening than the A2 (even more than the A2's +1 sharpening setting which I normally shoot at).
The A2 was slightly overexposing compared to the TZ1, perhaps by 1/2 an f-stop. But that could largely be due to me shooting in the spot metering mode.
The A2 macro appeared superior, you get less depth of field (due to the larger sensor in the A2)
The TZ1 was superior at high ISO settings
The TZ1 had limited manual controls (you can select the "scene type", sports, fireworks... but there is no way to directly set the shutter speed or f-stop and no "EV" correction factor)
The TZ1 does not appear to allow for the attachment of external flash equipment (not a significant limitation for a pocket camera though)
The TZ1 does not appear to allow for the attachment of filters or lenses. At certain times of the day it would be very nice to be able to attach a polarizer. Since the lens does not extend very far it would probably be possible to make a Lensmate-like slip on collar (that would fit around the base of the lens) that could take a 49mm filter and hold it in position. Oddly enough Panasonic could have provided a screw thread on the lens without apparently interferring with anything (though this would be for a rather small filter though, say about 30mm).

Conclusions

Buy one! While I won't be trading my A2 for a TZ1, if I was considering buying a new pocket camera today I wouldn't hesitate to buy the TZ1, the only two features of my A2 that I would miss on a typical vacation would be the lack of 28mm wide angle and the lack of a polarizer. Both of these would be at least partially offset by the increased portability and greater telephoto. It even has an underwater setting, and Panasonic makes a marine case good to 130ft.

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