Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 (Lumix DMC-TZ10)

Opinion: I bought the camera as a carry along for business trips and for hiking with when I didn't want to carry all the weight of my DSLR cameras and lenses.

After 5 or six months I began to notice spots on some of the images. After sending the camera back to Panasonic for repair, they said there was some evidence on the body that the camera had been dropped and therefore the warranty was void.

After I got the camera back I googled the DMC ZS7 and "dust" and found a litany of complaints which was then verified by a local camera shop that said that the long telephoto seemed to be a dust magnet. It's a single, supposedly sealed unit but there are tons of complaints on the web about dust on the lens.

While the telephoto feature is very good, I can say that this is not a camera that you should ever consider. It's my 5th small digital camera and the only one that ever developed dust issues on the images.

Stay away.

Opinion: I have the TZ10 for some months now and like the camera.

Image quality is good, even at higher ISOs usable. Sharp and crisp.
Colours are overall ok.
Build quality is excellent, full-metal.
Battery life is acceptable and spares cheap.
Movie mode is good, not only a gimmick and captures good quality films.
No rolling shutter because it has a CCD sensor.
Hackable with Vitalys firmware mod for improving movie quality.
Set it into test mode for NTSC framerate if you have a PAL camera.

Opinion: This camera is a good all rounder.

Good points.
Very versatile
GPS useful
Excellent images in good light
Lens excellent with sharp images and little distortion.
Still small enough to fit in your pocket.

Bad points
Not great in low light
Noisy above 400 ISO
Battery life not great even with GPS off.

I bought this as a backup to my DSLR, obviously images are not as good as on that, but for a compact in good light they are excellent.
Performance in poor light is the biggest let down, the flash isn't massively powerful, the largest aperture is only F3.3 and any ISO setting over 400 is noisy.
If you want a camera for outdoor shots in the daytime, not many compacts will better the image quality. If you shoot in darker condidtions, the camera will probably not suit you.

Also buy a spare battery, as life is short. You can get 3rd party ones that do work, and some of these have a higher capacity than the standard one.

Opinion: Just downsized my camera from a Pentax K10 which was an excellent camera but because of the size I found I wasn't using this camera as much as I should so I took my K10 and sold it and took my Panasonice DMC-2 and traded in on this ZS7 . So far I'm very impressed at the ease of use although I miss being able to take good night time pictures that it seems all point and shoots have a problem with . I love the zoom and being able to carry this camera with me where ever I go .

Opinion: The best camera!

Opinion: Another user said there were issues importing and using the
HD video on a MAC. Not so !

We just returned from Italy where we took 1500 pics and
an hour of AVCHD HD video. Imported and processed the
still pics with Aperture and iPhoto, no problem. I also
imported the AVCHD movies into iMovie, where I was able
to edit them, no problem. Then I produced Slideshows,
and burned to DVD with iDVD.

The only suggestion I have is that you need to import the
files from the memory card via a card reader and not a
cable hookup. When doing the AVCHD video, the clips are
located in this folder:

Card:\private\avchd\bdmv\stream and have .MTS extension

I am really happy with this camera, both stills and video. I
will say I don't like the menu system, and Panasonic's
software is terrible.

Opinion: In my life and over 25 years of photography as a hobby I can only say that this is probably the best P&S camera ever made, at least of those I have tried. The lens is awesome, sharp, zoom works exceptionally well, the wide angle helps a lot, processor is fast and pictures are coming out as close to perfection as possible. Had no issues with video as well. The only true complaint I have is the battery life - way too poor and short. Everything else works exceptionally well.

Opinion: I bought this camera just before a trip abroad: I was pretty
happy with using the camera and taking photos, other than
the fact that I didn't find the user interface very intuitive,
for several reasons (strange way of switching stills to video,
not obvious how to adjust aperture or shutter speed in
manual modes, bizarre re-use of keys).

However, I was shocked when I got home and plugged the
camera into my Mac. You can't download video at all (at
least, not without going deep into the file system and trying
to figure out multiple files per clip - I'm an IT expert by
profession, but this was beyond me). And you can't delete
pictures on the camera from the PC immediately after
download, as you can on every other digital camera I've
ever used.

It was little better on the PC. Panasonic provide some
software which at least did let me recover the video, but I
couldn't immediately see how to export it to a file that
would be recognised by either Windows Media Player or
Quicktime. I'm sure there's a way of doing it - it was just
beyond me to figure it out.

With a PC interface like that, I don't really care how good
or bad the camera handling might be. It's going back.

Opinion: The camera is not perfect, but in my opinion one of, or maybe THE best compact camera in the world today when it comes to overall functionality.

PROS:
* Excellent 12x zoom range.
* 25 mm wide angle (35 mm eqv.), even @16:9.
* HD video (1280x720/30p).
* HD-video format selectable: .mov or AVCHD Lite
* Full optical zoom range (+digital) during video recording.
* Continuous focus during video recording.
* Very good macro (@25 mm).
* GPS.
* Individual face recognition (yes, it works!)
* SDXC compatible (at least 64 GB, probably 2 TB)
* Program + Manual settings (P A S M).
* Stereo audio recording.
* Flat and compact, considered 25-300 mm zoom range.
* 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9 with approx. SAME DIAGONAL field of view, even at max wide angle.
* Bracketing.
* Full body rubber grip (but only if brown colour.)
* Bright screen (Choose able through Menus)
CONS:
* Series function at max resolution not good: Only 3 frames in a row and 2.3 fps (usually slower!) Max 5 frames series at higher compression. However, much longer and faster series @3 Mpix res.
* Screen blacks out for 1-2 sec. before video recording starts.
* 4:3 video only in 640x480 (why not 960x720 or something? 4:3 video is interesting when you want maximum vertical field of view.)
* GPS does not record altitude. (This would have been interesting when walking at mountain summits.)
* Face recognition remembers "only" 6 individual faces. (I know a lot more than 6 people!)
* No RAW.
* Lens casts a very prominent flash shadow over half the image at macro.
* Bracketing only 3 frames series limited to +-1 EV.
* Internal memory only 15 MB.
* Not very good battery capacity. And GPS is battery thirsty!

HOPEFULLY, LUMIX ZS9/TZ12(?) WILL ALSO HAVE:
(Most of those functions may be found at other consumer cameras today)
* 1920x1080/24~30p and 1280x720/48~60p HD video.
* 4:3 video @1024x768/24~30p mov.
* High speed video at low res (300 fps @QVGA.)
* High speed still shooting at full res (at least 10-20 fps.)
* Time lapse (selectable 1 sec ~ 1 hour frame interval)
* 3~7 frames series bracketing at 1/3~2 EV steps (for HDR).
... AND PERHAPS ALSO:
* GPS with map.
* Miniature flash at lens tip for macro photo.
* Flash shoe.
* Camera body with optional camouflage colour.
* Possible to update firmware, map info etc.
* Bulb.
* Touch screen.
Other info:

* GPS usually locks within 2-3 minutes when pressing "update" outdoor. Indoor may take an hour or more to lock, or may be impossible. Camera memory contains half a million place names worldwide. That's good, but of course often insufficient, especially in rural areas. Coordinates are stored within EXIF-file with 1/100th of an arc second precision (about 1 feet), but actual precision seems to be about 10-20 m horizontally (unfortunately, no vertical position is recorded.)