What a lovely little camera. I bought it for my wife who had a TZ60 which was useless in low light. This one has a 1" sensor and quite a wide aperture. Anyway, she loves it.
From my perspective, it also has decent PASM controls and takes nice pictures, even at 10x zoom.
I'm looking at the TZ200 - but I can't see why that's twice the price.
Alan
The TZ200 adds a grip to your wife's TZ100 bar of soap. I occasionally borrow my wife's ZS100 and have always used the wrist strap when handling it. I recently borrowed her ZS100 rather than taking my FZ200 on a work trip to Saudi Arabia. My hotel was trackside for the Jeddah Corniche Circuit for Formula 1 and they were preparing day and night for the event. I wanted to get a shot of the track from my room and went to pull her ZS100 out of its case, only to have it slip through my fingers and land onto the window sill. Unfortunately, it was a full-height window with a marble sill (too much marble is used over there!).
When I turned it on, it made a grinding sound as it reached full zoom. It still worked but I wondered how well and for how long? After a few days of grinding, whatever had jarred out of place must have found its way back to where it belongs and it seems to be back to normal. Whew!
The TZ200 also offers 50% more zoom (I often wish the ZS100 had more) and an improved EVF. But the lens is a bit slower and the aperture drops quickly when zooming.
Whether it's worth double the price is debatable. But I bet you'd be happy with it!
Bruce
That grinding sound unfortunately sounds familiar. I had the same thing happening to me with the TZ100. It seems highly sensitive to even the smallest piece of dirt on the extending barrel, so I recommend keeping it meticulously clean.
The ZS2OO is a dust magnet for the sensor. Using a Dustbuster I've vacuumed my sensor successfully three times so far in five months of ownership. Be careful in dusty environments.
I have the ZS200 and really like it as a supplement to my phone camera when I go on long walks.
But I agree it's a matter of personal choice whether it's worth the price for the zoom -- I'm sure a good chunk of people out there won't use it, or will trade a faster lens for even less zoom.