Images
It might look like your standard common-or-garden point and shoot, but the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 is actually a powerful hybrid camera, combining a 10-megapixel big zoom compact with an HD camcorder. Yep, that’s right: this can capture 720p pictures with stereo sound.
It even features optical zoom during video capture, making it a cut above the usual point and shoot movie capture modes, and video controls are reasonably handy too. You don’t need to switch from still to shoot a movie clip - you simply hit the dedicated record button on the rear of the camera.
HD movies use the AVCHD Lite format and run at 30fps. They look superbly sharp and stable, whether viewed on the TZ7’s crystal clear screen on blown up on an HDTV, although getting them onto a non-Panasonic telly in full 720p quality might prove tricky unless you shell out extra for an HDMI adapter cable.
Fantastic zoom range
What about still shooting? Well, the Leica lens is a real peach, delivering a huge 12x zoom range (equivalent to 25-300mm on a 35mm camera) and keeping things sharp across its entirety. It can also be used to take fantastic close-up macros at its widest, and will focus with the subject almost touching the lens.
Finished JPEGs display no sign of purple fringing and just a hint of distortion at the wide end. Colours are blazingly bright, particularly reds and greens.
If you delve in to pixel-peep you’ll see signs of compression and artefacts, plus noise at ISO 200 and above, but there’s nothing we’d classify as poor about these images. We do prefer the quality of the Panasonic DMC-LX3 (which also offers manual controls), but that’s slightly pricier and offers less zoom range (24-60mm 35mm equivalent).
Solid build quality
The TZ7’s build quality is impressively solid, while the camera itself is just about dinky enough to qualify as a full-on compact. You’ll be able to stick it in your trouser pocket, in other words (unless you’re an uber-hipster in spray-on skinny jeans, in which case you probably have a manbag anyway).
The 3-inch screen is finely detailed and remains visible in all but the brightest sunlight, while the controls are, for the most part, well placed. Things aren’t perfect though: we’d prefer a slightly chunkier shutter button with more travel, and the selector dial is loose and easy to job by mistake.
Review continues after the break...
Steep price tag
Lastly, we should touch on the TZ7’s price tag. It’s pretty steep - you could buy an entry-level DSLR for the same money - and a lot of people will hesitate to spend so much on a compact with no manual controls. That said, the camera is brand new at the time of writing and we’d expect the price tag to fall before long.
All in all Panasonic has done a fantastic job with the Lumix DMC-TZ7. If you’re looking for a strong all-round point and shoot that also offers pin-sharp video capture then this definitely fits the bill.
Tech Specs
- Dimensions
- 103x60x33mm
- LCD Size
- 3in
- Maximum frames per second
- 30
- Maximum movie resolution
- 720p
- Megapixels
- 10.1MP
- Memory card type
- SD/SDHC
- Optical viewfinder
- No
- Weight
- 229g
- Zoom function during movies
- Yes
Comments
elsbells
3 years ago
Sorry should have also said... it was £305 with a 4GB sd and a case.
elsbells
3 years ago
I have recently been forced into the purchasing of a new camera. I had the wonderful (if not too robust - I got through three in 10 months with various issues) Canon G9. I found its blend of ease of use, manual control and auto features, the brilliance and quality of its picture taking intoxicating. It also cost me £320 with a 4gb memory card, case and replacement strap (so as not to advertise to the world what I was carrying). As with all happy stories of late this one turned sour when along came some little chav to brake into my car and half-inch my beloved MacBook Pro and G9 Camera (5 hd's and a Leatherman also!). So in the market for a new Point and shoot, and with no insurance money to help (long story) I went instantly for the G10, except the G10 is now around the £400 quid mark, no card no case... (cheaper of course if your going to get one shipped from honk kong!). The G10 really is a no brainer if you can afford it (or if you have no need for So what else at the £300 quid mark. Reconditioned/old stock G9 = gold dust. Panasonic lx3 = option one Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ28 = option two Nikon Coolpix P6000 = that's why i bought a G9 Canon IXUS 980 IS = that's why i bought a G9 Fujifilm F200EXR = contender and manual controls, trick CCD Canon PowerShot SX200 IS = again, contender and manual control. the list is long and sure goes on, on and on, much like this so called review! Anyway having fancied the canon I remembered Something that the wonderful world of tech-journalism never seem to touch on, namely the quality of a companies customer support. In my experience Canon Customer Service is quite frankly horrendous. So Canon out. Sony were out too. Not because of the C.S. issue but because they seem to be spec for spec £60 to £100 pound dearer than rivals. Anyway to cut a long story short having decided that to replace my G9 I would have to buy a G10 and if I was spending £400 + I would not buy the G10 I would get a Dslr. The sony 350 twin kit is about £500 at the moment for instance. So I decided Cheaper point and Shoot for now and a Dslr once the bank balance has recovered. So what the heck was i going to buy??? Of the rest I decided the Tz7 suited my needs. 12x zoom and 10Mp and also it had HD720 @24fps, a gimmick I thought but for and extra £30 over the TZ6 i thought why not. It is actually a 12 megapixel camera. Admittedly it only takes 10 megapixel stills but if you switch to a 16:9 picture mode rather than crop the 4:3 10mp shot down it uses the extra width of the 12mp sensor to take the shot at 9.5mp. The overly long, Short and curlies... The Pictures are great. Look up any pro review if you want the real lowdown, I will say I notice that colours are crisp and vibrant and images sharp. The Superzoom lens suffer slightly in low light when at the higher zoom setting (bound to really due to the nature of a super zoom lens!). But It recently gave sterling service at a wedding both day and night. The Videos were bright and very free from flicker. I also discovered that it also has some manual control of exposure and focus, limited but still better than 'ought!. I would mention that it did get confused when being rushed to take consecutive photos, the auto focus being the worst culprit. The Flash is not the quickest to recharge either. It also once or twice struggled with auto exposure and white balance. But after over 100 pictures I would say only 10 were not on the money - I was well oiled as well for the last 40 or so, which is a testament to ease of use! The Facial recognition worked well for a gimmick. By this I don't mean the fact that it can DETECT the difference between a car and a persons face but the fact that the camera apparently has the technology to recognize a saved preferred persons (otherwise known as a friend) face (which you teach the camera to recognize up to six people, though even the manual advises you to take a profile shoot and a head shoot so really it is three people). It picked my partner out of the crowd more than once to focus on her rather than those around her, though I can see where this could also be a pain. I also like the "focus - hold" or focus track feature where the camera will track and refocus to follow your chosen subject rather than hold focus - mind it will also hold focus if you chose. The base of it is this. It is a fab camera. The battery could last a bit longer. I took 115 photos and two 8 min HD videos, 3 shorter ones and it just started to flash a red empty battery. I suspect that it would have done around 300 pictures with flash and rear screen on without shooting the videos. Not mentioned above is the fact that you don't have to record HD video in AVCHD, you can also Jpeg Motion for easier Computer Import in HD, VGA and QVGA (Jpeg motion take up to twice the space on the SD card than the AVCHD files which are a little smoother). The Pictures are great, you'll only find fault if you are coming down from an DSLR or a G10 alike and even then why the heck are you moaning about this kind of quality from this price point! Also as mentioned the mode select dial has a VERY weak ratchet and the camera wont take a picture if it is incorrectly set. Last Points, HDMI out = cool, proprietary Usb = Arrrggghh just put a standard one on there you Numpties! Lecia lens = lovely, TZ7 = for what it is Brilliant, oh yeah the rear screen is stunning also!