Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera – Black (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

A. Butterfield

at 7:10 pm

Review by A. Butterfield for Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera – Black (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD
Rating: (5 / 5)
To get the best photos, you obviously need an SLR and some great lenses. Hmm. Well, I have an SLR and some great lenses, but I tend to leave them at home when I go on a trip.

So I bought this TZ7 to take with me when I can’t be bothered to take my SLR, which is nearly all the time. The TZ7 is small enough to go in a jacket pocket, or to hang unobtrusively from your belt. But is it good enough for anyone used to the quality of an SLR?

For me it is good enough, as long as you adjust your expectations. Which you have to do when you have such a small camera with a 25 to 300 zoom. Try getting a 25 to 300 zoom for an SLR! Even more amazing is that it’s a very decently sharp lens. It’s a little bit less than razor sharp at the extremes of the zoom range, but almost all my shots came out nice and sharp (but not too sharp, meaning the camera isn’t over-processing things).

So the lens is good, and since the lens is the TZ7’s party piece, that’s a good thing.

Next on the list of killer features is HD video. This is 720p video, not `full’ HD, but what do you expect? The great thing is that you can use the optical zoom while taking video, which is rare in these cameras. It zooms slowly so the noise of the zoom isn’t picked up by the microphone but works very well. You get stereo sound too, and the quality of the sound is way ahead of any camera like this I’ve tried before. You might think that you wouldn’t get proper stereo with microphones so close together, but it does a decent impersonation of it. Videos look pretty good, with the image stabiliser smoothing things out even at full zoom. Hold it carefully and it looks like you’re using a tripod. You will need a decent computer and graphics card to play HD video though, or a compatible HD TV. You may need to buy an HDMI cable since you don’t get one in the box.

The next great thing is the LCD. It has 460,000 pixels and looks fantastic. It even brightens and dims automatically depending on the ambient light, and you can see it from any angle, so Panasonic’s ‘high angle mode’ is no longer necessary.

If you know what you’re doing you can use the good smattering of `manual’ features to good effect. I’m not talking about changing the aperture or shutter speed, but you can adjust exposure compensation, bracketing, white balance, ISO etc. You can set auto ISO to not go higher than 400 or 800, which is useful since things look less than great above ISO400.

If you can’t be bothered with all that, set the mode dial to iA (intelligent auto) and leave everything to the camera. It works remarkably well, and you’ll see the symbol change in the top corner of the LCD to tell you what scene it thinks you’re taking. It even automatically goes into macro mode when set to iA.

But I use mine mostly in standard mode, and I keep the ISO to 80 for the very best results.

One of the best things about the TZ7 is the superb auto exposure system that gets the exposure spot on in an amazing variety of challenging situations that would completely fool my other cameras. Reliable auto-exposure, top-notch image stabilisation, really quick and accurate autofocus, a great LCD… these are the things that give you the confidence to pack the TZ7 as your only camera on a trip.

There must be downsides though… mustn’t there? Not many, to be honest, unless you expect the unreasonable, like good performance at ISO1600, or in very low light. The TZ7 doesn’t overcome the laws of physics.

But minor niggles for me are that there’s a physical switch between record and playback mode, so unlike some cameras, you can’t just half-press the shutter to get to record mode if you’re in playback mode. Also, I’d prefer to have the metering options in the quick menu, which is otherwise very useful for changing settings. Face recognition I think is little more than a gimmick and one I couldn’t get to work reliably. Face detection works very well though.

Actually, there is one other thing, and it’s the battery. The TZ7 uses a battery with a Panasonic microchip in it. If you want a spare battery, and you probably will, since battery life is just average (HD video seems to sap battery life quite quickly), you’ll have to buy a proper Panasonic one, and they’re quite expensive. Third party batteries won’t work, at least for now. I nearly knocked off the fifth star because of this.

But the bottom line is that the TZ7 captures sharp, well-exposed images pretty much all the time with the minimum of fuss. I like mine very much indeed.

Paul Stebles

at 8:53 pm

Review by Paul Stebles for Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera – Black (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD
Rating: (4 / 5)
As I’m sure a lot of you will have seen the Gadget shows review of the Panasonic Lumix TZ7 vs the Fuji F200EXR.

I just bought my TZ7 2 weeks ago, and a friend at work has the F200EXR, so I thought I’d do a direct comparison shot for shot. I left both camera’s in full auto (Intelligent Auto and EXR Auto). After taking a series of identical shots with both I can honestly say the difference is very small. I would say the EXR sensor is superior and produces slightly more natural looking photo, as the F200EXR generally uses its flash far less. But in contrast some shots the Panasonic might overexpose, the Fuji would under expose making a very dark shot. A close call between them it really is, but the Fuji just beats the Panasonic on image quality, but it is minor, probably more pronounced in low light conditions.

If you could marry the sensors from the Fuji and the Panasonic’s other features you’d have one brilliant camera.

The tough choice comes with the other features, for the £40 or so extra you pay for the Panasonic, you get 12x zoon, over a 5x and this really does make a big difference on distance shots. Just taking a shot of a horse in a field the other day, I could zoom to having it in full shot, as opposed to a distant figure taking a quarter of the shot.

The other feature, Video, was the biggest easily comparable difference between the two, the Panasonic just walks all over the Fuji. Comparing two video’s side by side, take simultaneously, the Fuji is grainy and a far lower resolution and quality, whereas the Panasonic is sharp, high res and superior in every aspect. Plus you can zoom in the video, big bonus, the Fuji was totally unresponsive when trying to zoom mid video.

To answer a lot of concerns about loose dials, battery life etc. I bought mine from Amazon 2 weeks ago in late August 09, it came with the firmware 1.2. They’ve obviously fixed the dial now, it clicks into position fine, I can see how in the past it may have been easily knocked, but its fine now.

The battery is good for about 300 shots, I’d say that’s accurate, I took 80 shots yesterday, 20 today, and a short video and its dropped one third, it was still showing full after the 80 shots. I have bought a spare myself for day trips out with lots of video in mind. It seems better after its been used for a few charges than the first time it was fully charged.

The zoom can be a little sensitive and takes a bit to get used to the fast zoom speed, but its ok.

Why 4 stars, well it would take a lot to get 5 stars, I still find I need to take 2 shots of things to make sure I get the best photo possible, intelligent auto is good, but it overly uses the flash. If it doesn’t pick up a scene it can be best to switch to scene mode and choose the correct one for a good shot. The Fuji was slightly better in that respect, detecting the scene correctly. All in all a great camera, highly recommended, but there’s room for improvement.

Personally I would stick with my TZ7 over the F200EXR, but it depends on your priorities.

A. Taylor

at 10:20 pm

Review by A. Taylor for Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera – Black (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD
Rating: (5 / 5)
This camera is the most impressive walkabout camera I have come across in quite a few years of using digitals. I have a Ricoh, Canon, HP, Minolta and TZ3 digitals as well as a couple of Canon DSLR’s and none of the non DSLR’s come even close to what this camera can achieve, and it beats the lot for all round portability and `handiness’. It does everything and does it very well.

The video capture is 1st rate and plays back crystal clear. The various picture taking options cover all the bases and I’m totally impressed with the `intelligent auto’. Even the digital zoom is not the total disaster that they normally are.

Nothing more to say, think I’ve finally found the ultimate `grab and go’ camera – for this year at any rate