Panasonic Putting the TZ60 through its paces in the Basque country (image heavy)

theoldsmithy

Hall of Famer
Location
Cheshire, England
Name
Martin Connolly
The good lady wife and I visited our son in Bilbao over the weekend. My word it was cold... I don't expect snow, hail and biting winds when I visit Spain but we got 'em. The locals were dressed for "Day after tomorrow" type weather, very amusing to us hardy Brits. Send a Geordie over there, they'll tell them about cold weather!! Anyway I digress. I was trying out the TZ60 for size. It's not bad at all. The raw files brush up nicely in Lightroom, you can definitely improve on the JPEGs. And they also seem to do well with more artistic treatments.

Some from San Sebastian (which seemed a lovely place but the wind coming off the Bay of Biscay was especially cutting so we baled out)

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San Sebastian #1 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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San Sebastian #2 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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San Sebastian #3 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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San Sebastian #4 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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San Sebastian #5 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

Then one from a trip round the coast

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Monument near Gaztelugatxe by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

And now a walk around the centre of Bilbao. It's not just the Guggenheim!

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Bilbao #2 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #3 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #4 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #5 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #6 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #7 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #8 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #9 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #10 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #11 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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P1010071-2.jpg by theoldsmithy, on Flickr

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Bilbao #13 by theoldsmithy, on Flickr
 
Thanks all, yes the camera coped really well and it was a very interesting couple of days. The Basque Country is unlike any other part of Spain I've ever visited. The scenery is fabulous but then it has some quite grim industrial towns too. (Yes, Eibar, I'm talking to you!)
I've also got a LR preset for the TZ60 that improves the DR, sharpens a touch and adds a tiny bit of saturation and clarity, and it's great, you click the preset and the image just pops out of the screen. I would definitely recommend shooting RAW with it, the only down side is that it takes several seconds to finish writing to the SD card. A couple of times I took a shot and hit the power button, and it froze completely saying "writing to file" or something similar. The only solution was to pull the battery. Then the in-camera playback did not find those shots, but they still imported OK into LR. I'll just have to watch out for that in future.
 
Nice series! I got a very similar panorama of San Sebastian / Donostia almost exactly one year ago (feb 3rd, 2014), with similar weather also, but not nearly as well executed. Those hams in Bilbao make me salivate!
 
Lovely set, very evocative. I shot a wedding in Donostia (San Sebastian) 3-4 years ago; it was a three-day event, and the last time I used a FF DSLR (D700). I loved the people (I stayed with one of dozens of aunts - relatives of the groom) and was guided around everywhere by 2 or 3 cousins, who introduced me to the bar/cafe culture. I was also privileged to see a local dance in honour of the newlyweds. I would love to go back with more time. The Basque Autonomous Territory is very different from the rest of Spain and well worth a visit. You've captured it well. Martin.
 
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