It's a well-made, incredibly versatile compact camera with a fantastic 12x zoom, GPS tagging, manual controls and HD video.
Folks looking to maximize zoom for their buck or for whom size doesn't matter, may be tempted to look elsewhere. But if you need an easy-carrying digital camera that cranks out solid images and gives you a versatile lens shooting range, the ZS7 is hard to beat. If Panasonic had only fit a viewfinder into this thing, it would be just about perfect.
The [ZS7] is a well-designed, solidly built and extremely versatile camera with a lot of useful features. The 12x zoom, optical image stabilisation, HD video and excellent low light performance are the main benefits, and manual exposure is a nice bonus. The GPS feature is a bit of a gimmick, and drains the battery too fast to be much real use.
With or without the GPS, the Panasonic ZS7 merits a Dave's Pick. Its higher resolution LCD is beautiful and lets you confirm focus more easily, and its 12x zoom gets you in as close as you want, or lets you step back as far as you need, without stepping at all. And when you're done, all of the Panasonic ZS7's zoom power sits comfortably in a pocket.
[The ZS7 is a] solid, well-built camera with plenty of creative control.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-[ZS7] is an excellent travel-zoom camera, with the notable additions of manual shooting modes and GPS tracking sure to continue the [ZS] success story, albeit at the real expense of a higher price-tag than the previous [ZS3] model.
Panasonic makes excellent compact megazooms and the Lumix DMC-ZS7 is certainly one of them. Its manual controls, ample feature set, and 12x zoom, wide-angle lens make it very flexible. The GPS is a nice addition, too, especially for frequent travelers.
Sure the older TZ7 / ZS3 may offer the same core features at a lower price (while stocks last), but if you like the idea of a camera which also knows its location, you'll be happy to spend the extra.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-[ZS7] provides a superb general snapping tool in terms of the subjects its lens focal length can encompass.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is a compact ultra zoom camera that does most things very well. I like its great zoom lens, beautiful LCD, auto and manual controls, well-implemented GPS, and HD movie mode. I wasn't as impressed with the ZS7's image quality, which felt like a step backwards from the ZS3.
