Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera - Silver (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD
Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera - Silver (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £209.99Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
Good but with some reservations
(3 out of 5) by Mr. Hm Bennett on Jul 27, 2009 (London)I won't write War and Peace about this item like some contributors.
Good Points:
1. Focus in INSTANT and RELIABLE
2. Video quality is OUTSTANDING
3. Lens is great - very WIDE (with unavoidable distortion) with a huge range of focal lengths
4. Anti-shake is fantastic (though it kills the battery - see below).
5. The screen is VERY BRIGHT (but again, kills the battery)
Bad Points:
1. Battery life is APPALLING - if you are going out and taking a days photos, take a spare battery with you - I had to buy another. I can't put into words how shockingly bad it is.
2. The MODE dial at the top of the camera is constantly being knocked leaving you in the wrong preset.
3. Flash exposures are POOR and the flash mode button requires you to cycle through the flash modes and then press another button to select each one - crazy, slow and out of the ark. The fill-flash mode isn't as good as my 5 year old Canon which I had to use to get nice flash shots of my daughter's birthday party.
4. The zoom control is a bit hit and miss and coarse in operation.
5. There is a simple push control on the back of the camera to cycle between Photo and Video Mode - this also gets knocked and puts you in the wrong setting - REALLY IRRITATING. Considering how relatively rare will be your use of video, this button should be out of the way.
All in all, this is an outstanding camera, in many respects but it does have flaws.
The quality of results it can produce are excellent but I can tell you that's it's little foibles do get to you from the moment you first use it and don't become any more appealing over time.
I'm keeping mine because of the spec which is quite simply unequalled on any other camera but I can't say I love it because of the drawbacks that reduce its appeal more than you would think.
Good Points:
1. Focus in INSTANT and RELIABLE
2. Video quality is OUTSTANDING
3. Lens is great - very WIDE (with unavoidable distortion) with a huge range of focal lengths
4. Anti-shake is fantastic (though it kills the battery - see below).
5. The screen is VERY BRIGHT (but again, kills the battery)
Bad Points:
1. Battery life is APPALLING - if you are going out and taking a days photos, take a spare battery with you - I had to buy another. I can't put into words how shockingly bad it is.
2. The MODE dial at the top of the camera is constantly being knocked leaving you in the wrong preset.
3. Flash exposures are POOR and the flash mode button requires you to cycle through the flash modes and then press another button to select each one - crazy, slow and out of the ark. The fill-flash mode isn't as good as my 5 year old Canon which I had to use to get nice flash shots of my daughter's birthday party.
4. The zoom control is a bit hit and miss and coarse in operation.
5. There is a simple push control on the back of the camera to cycle between Photo and Video Mode - this also gets knocked and puts you in the wrong setting - REALLY IRRITATING. Considering how relatively rare will be your use of video, this button should be out of the way.
All in all, this is an outstanding camera, in many respects but it does have flaws.
The quality of results it can produce are excellent but I can tell you that's it's little foibles do get to you from the moment you first use it and don't become any more appealing over time.
I'm keeping mine because of the spec which is quite simply unequalled on any other camera but I can't say I love it because of the drawbacks that reduce its appeal more than you would think.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Great product
(5 out of 5) by R. Bailey on Jul 2, 2009 (Essex, UK)After comparing lots of cameras in this price bracket, some 12 or even 14mp, I went for this one because it had the extra optical zoom. I can only say it is a breeze and delight to use and I am truly pleased with my choice. I can take high-def movies of the children, take macro zoom pictures (look stunning), and its an ease to use for everyday photos.
Some reviews I read complained about battery life, but for me taking family photos it has not been a problem. The newly removable batteries make it easy to recharge or carry a second if you needed.
My only grip is the software Panasonic supplied only works on Windows, not my Mac. This is not a big issue since I never really use them anyway, preferring to just load the pictures/movies onto my hard-disk (iPhoto is all I need). But the first few movies it recorded were in a format you can't load directly from disk access, you can only see them via the Windows software package. Once I managed to recover these I switched to jpeg movie recording that can be seen as a regular file and copied along with your photos.
Some reviews I read complained about battery life, but for me taking family photos it has not been a problem. The newly removable batteries make it easy to recharge or carry a second if you needed.
My only grip is the software Panasonic supplied only works on Windows, not my Mac. This is not a big issue since I never really use them anyway, preferring to just load the pictures/movies onto my hard-disk (iPhoto is all I need). But the first few movies it recorded were in a format you can't load directly from disk access, you can only see them via the Windows software package. Once I managed to recover these I switched to jpeg movie recording that can be seen as a regular file and copied along with your photos.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
If only it had a battery!
(3 out of 5) by J. Caine on May 13, 2009 (Isle of Man)Very easy to use, intelligent auto the best I've ever used!Lens is good,especially given the very neat packaging, Image stabilizer very impressive for still photography, not as good as I expected from a top video camera manufacturer in movie mode though.Autofocus a little slow and quite ponderous in low light again not great in movie mode where youd expect the much lower resolution to really speed things up! The good news for movie mode the image quality is very good and the audio good fidelity if a tad noisy. The real let down is the battery life, how can Panasonic market this as a travel camera when you cant take it away from a mains supply even for a day, my Fuji F3 Will actually take the 550 shots they claim and it's a few years old, Panasonic claim 300 for this, more like 150!!!
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Small wonder
(5 out of 5) by Simon Alexander on May 26, 2009Following a lot of research I decided to buy the Panasonic Lumix TZ7 Digital Camera - Silver (10.1MP, 12x Optical Zoom) 3.0" LCD. The quality of the still pictures and HD video is as expected, very high. The selector dial is as described by others a little vague sometimes, but at least you can see on the screen what you have chosen. The screen is large and clear and the pictures options are easy to choose between. I would highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for something small, but very versatile and producing excellent quality still pictures and HD video.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Don't hesitate!
(5 out of 5) by bosun on Jul 21, 2009 (England)I have owned many different cameras and camcorders over the years and this work of art is the best thing since sliced bread! A HD camcorder and photo taker all in one with fool proof intelligent autofocus/wide screen/huge zoom/in focus throughout the zoom/automatic macro, night photo, back light etc etc to boot! Chuck away your standard def camcorder & your plastic camera and buy into the clear Hi Def world of the TZ7!