Panasonic DMC-ZS20 Digital Camera Review

Image Quality

Last year's Panasonic DMC-ZS10 was an appealing collection of features, cramming a 16x optical zoom lens into a compact little body that could fit in your pocket. It was an impressive feat of engineering, but it sacrificed image quality significantly with a poor sensor and a lens that restricted image sharpness. The Panasonic ZS20 is a complete reversal of the ZS10, with an even more expansive zoom range in front of a retooled and dramatically better 14-megapixel image sensor. We were impressed especially by the sensor's high ISO performance, which preserved some measure of detail while keeping noise to a bare minimum. There are some performance hitches, of course, and you'll want to read on to get our full impressions of the image quality returned by the ZS20.