Panasonic just announced the Lumix ZS300 (sold as the TZ300 in Europe), and it is the first significant update to the brand's travel compact lineup since the TZ200 launched back in 2018. A full eight years. And honestly, for a lot of us who loved that old camera, the ZS300 is simultaneously exciting and a little bit baffling.
What You Are Getting
On paper, this thing sounds great. A 20.1MP 1-inch sensor paired with a Leica DC Elmarit lens that gives you 15x optical zoom, covering the 24-360mm equivalent range. That is a genuinely versatile focal length spread for a camera that weighs 337 grams and fits in your jacket pocket. Four-axis optical image stabilisation handles the telephoto wobble. You get 4K video at up to 30fps, RAW capture for the serious shooters, and Panasonic's 4K Photo mode for pulling still frames from video. USB-C charging. Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi for wireless transfer. All of that is solid and expected for 2026.
The price is set at $899 USD, arriving in black and silver from early May. That lands it squarely in the premium compact category, sitting alongside the Sony ZV-1 II and competing with the Sony RX100 VII.
The EVF Problem
Here is where things get complicated. The TZ200 had a viewfinder, small as it was, and a lot of travel photographers absolutely relied on it for shooting in bright sunlight. The ZS300 does not have one. Panasonic pulled it completely, and replaced the micro USB port with USB-C, updated Bluetooth, and essentially called it an upgrade cycle.
We get that stuffing an EVF into a body this compact is a serious engineering challenge. But removing it feels like a step backward when the camera is primarily marketed at people who want to shoot outdoors in variable lighting conditions. Bright daylight and a 3-inch rear LCD are not a happy combination, especially at 360mm equivalent when you actually need to brace yourself and see what you are tracking.
DPReview's headline when this dropped was "Panasonic's new compact is a familiar travelzoom but with a crucial feature missing." That pretty much sums up the vibe across the photography community right now.
Who Should Still Care
If you are not a big EVF user and you want a pocketable camera that covers you from wide architecture shots all the way to close-cropped wildlife and travel portraits without carrying a bag full of lenses, the ZS300 is genuinely hard to beat. Eight years of sensor and processor advancement over the TZ200 is meaningful. Low light performance at 1-inch should be noticeably better, and the autofocus system on modern Lumix cameras has come a long way from where Panasonic was in 2018.
For vloggers and video-forward creators, this is also worth a look. The combination of 4K video, solid OIS, a proper zoom range, and a body you can slip into your back pocket is genuinely compelling if you are shooting travel content. The lack of an EVF matters less when you are watching your framing on the rear screen anyway.
Documentary shooters and photojournalists who relied on the TZ200 for a discreet always-on-you option are probably going to feel burned by this decision, and rightfully so. Those people should be looking at second-hand TZ200 stock instead, which you will probably find at very reasonable prices now that this announcement has landed.
Our Take
The ZS300 is a solid camera held back by a perplexing product decision. At $899 you expect Panasonic to have made some meaningful additions, not just spec bumps and a feature removal. We would have loved to see a higher-resolution sensor, faster video options, or at minimum keeping the EVF and justifying the eight-year wait with a proper generational leap.
That said, if you are coming from a phone or a much older compact, the ZS300 is going to feel like a revelation. 1-inch sensors and 15x Leica zoom glass in your pocket for under $900 is still a good deal relative to the mirrorless system camera alternative.
Are you picking one up, or is the missing EVF a dealbreaker for you? Let us know in the comments.