Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera – Black (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0″ LCD which lets you shoot beautiful HD video with almost twice the recording time compared to the conventional Motion JPEG. Optical zoom can be used when shooting motion images. TZ7 is also the world’s first compact camera to feature Dolby® Digital Stereo Creator, which records dynamic, true-to-life audio that brings out the power of the HD video. The wind cut function minimises distracting sound from the background during audio recording.TZ7 is also the world’s first compact camera to feature Dolby® Digital Stereo Creator, which records dynamic, true-to-life audio that brings out the power of the HD video. The wind cut function minimises distracting sound from the background during audio recording.
Depending on the Panasonic Lumix model, iA mode uses up to six bundled technologies working perfectly together to provide the best possible shooting results every time.
Helpful consumer’s review
Fantasic camera that packs in many features into a small body with a 12x Optical Zoom that can be up to 48x with Digital Zoom added in ‘Normal Mode’.
The Digital Zoom feature is not available in the Intelligent Auto mode but the ‘Normal Mode’ (available on the mode selector dial) has many customisable features such as Quality, Sensitivity, White Balance, AF More, Metering Mode, Intelligent Exposure, and Min. Shutter Speed amongst others.
After having used the camera for a number of days I cannot fault it. It has received many excellent reviews on the Internet from many sites and it seems to live up to all of these so far.
Video recording can be performed with either the AVCHD Lite mode or Motion JPEG (which produces Quicktime .mov files). After trying taking movies in both modes I can say so far that the AVCHD Lite produces better quality footage. You can shoot up to 15 mins at a time and the manual recommends that you have a Class 6 SDHC card so that there are no errors when writing to the memory card. There is a dedicated record button on the rear of the camera so you can take footage very quickly.
Using the camera is very easy and the built-in menus are very simple to use. There are 27 individual modes to choose from including Fireworks, Aerial, Baby, Food, Beach, Snow, Starry Sky (with shutter speed selection of up to 60 sec), Sunset, Candle Light, Sports, Scenery, Night Scenery and Underwater (when used with the optional underwater case) and others.
The buttons feel very well built and the mode dial on the top is easy to use. Some Internet reviews did state that the wheel can be dislodged easily so that it can move out of the current mode – this has happened a few times when it is a case or pocket but is not a serious problem at all since you can just turn the dial back to the required mode. When you turn the dial you feel it ‘click’ slightly when it moves into another mode so that you can be sure which mode you are in. The LCD screen also shows which mode you are in when you turn the dial.
The camera comes very well packaged in a small, neat box which contains all the usual accessories (battery, wrist strap, battery case, charger, AV cable, USB cable, printed instruction manual for camera and supplied software as well as a software CD). The camera does not come with a case, screen protector, SDHC card or the HDMI AV cable but these can be purchased separately.
Overall I would give this camera 5 out of 5 and the powerful, compact zoom makes this a fantastic travelling camera and the 25mm wide angle lens makes a massive difference when taking landscape shots.
There are many images that I and other TZ7 owners have taken that are currently available on Flckr including a Group dedicated to TZ7 photos so they can give you a very good idea of the power of this camera.
