At the same time they offer an incredibly versatile zoom range from wide angle to a (in 35mm DSLR terms) fairly long tele in the 240-300mm region (the only exception in this test is the Sony H-20 which offers a much more tele-focused zoom range of 38-380mm equivalent). They are only marginally larger than your average 5x zoom compact and can therefore easily fit into a shirt pocket or even the tiniest hand bag. It's easy to see why these so-called compact superzooms appeal to the masses. These images (taken with the Panasonic ZS1) represent a typical zoom range currently offered in a compact super zoom camera (12x, 25-300mm equivalent in this case). The only exception is the Sony H20 whose 10x zoom lens offers 38mm at the widest setting (but in turn giving you 380mm at the long end). All cameras in this test offer either 10x or 12x zoom lenses usually starting at a fairly wide angle setting. The compact superzoom cameras in this group test try to appeal to a broad range of consumers by combining easily pocketable dimensions with an extensive zoom range. More recently though, probably inspired by Panasonic's success, most of the large manufacturers have launched their own contenders in the compact superzoom bracket, many of which show that their designers must have been looking quite closely at Panasonic's products before sitting down to develop their own models.
For a short while the company's TZ series was the only digital camera line that combined a long (10x) zoom with compact and pocketable dimensions, and unsurprisingly the TZ series became rather popular with consumers. When Panasonic launched the 'Travel Zoom' TZ1 back in February 2006 the Japanese electronics giant established a profitable new niche within the digital camera market: the compact superzoom.
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