Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ10/DMC-ZS7 12.1 MP Digital Camera - Silver

This is an easy to use camera. It has an excellent zoom, the best that you can get on a compact camera. This means that you can take those close up shots, but still slip the camera in your pocket for those party shots where an SLR is just too bulky to use.

Picture quality is good, and easy to transfer to computer, with a plug in and go system. It also has a good size LCD.

In fact, the only down side is the fact that there is no viewfinder, so you have to use the LCD panel, and the battery. You can't use standard batteries with this, but the battery life is reasonable, and it is rechargeable, so not that expensive to maintain.

An excellent quality camera for a very reasonable price.

The Panasonic TZ-1 do I reccomend it? Yes.
The Panasonic TZ1 was introduced in 2006 and has since been replaced, at the time of writing, by the TZ3. It is a point and shoot camera that will fit a large pocket or purse. And this makes it easy to keep with you most of the time. It is versitile and takes much better photos than a phone cameras.

It is equipped with a long wide range 10x zoom lens which favours the telephoto end rather than the wide angle use. At longer focal lengths the image tends to be somewhat softer than one would hope for, this is not a defect just an unrealistic expectation of performance. The zoom range is a much wider, and usefull, range than other cameras of a similar size. The wide angle aspect is quite useable although one often wished it could go just a little wider. The next generation the TZ3 answers his observation and has a much better wide angle limit than the TZ1.

The lens is backed up by a built image stabilizer which does work well and allows hand held photographs to taken that simply would not of worked with out it. This adds to the fun aspect of this camera.
This camera is designed for simple operation and gives good results on its automatic settings. There are some conditions that a more experienced photographer would want to use different setting to get the best result. There are a limited number of manual settings that allow for this option
There is no viewfinder just a large LCD screen. This shows a live image when taking pictures and is also used to review the pictures taken. It is easy to erase, there and then, any photos that did not work.

The images are stored on the popular SD memory card (maximum size 2GB). This will fit the printing machines that are available at many retailers.

It can record video with sound which is suprisingly good, but well short of any camcorder. It records in a US format which can be played on most European televisions and all computers. This format can NOT be simply transferred to a European video recorder or DVD.

Panasonic have kept the operation simple, and easy, allowing one to take good pictures straight out of the box.

It uses a proprietry rechargable battery which has a reasonable life. The charger will work in most of the world using an adaptor to suit the local power outlet.

I have not covered every aspect of this camera and one wanted further detailed information there are many more detailed reviews on the web. The owners book can be downloaded from the manufacturers for full information.

This is a great compact camera ! The powerful 10 x optical zoom and macro features preclude the need to have a bulky SLR with different lenses. The anti-shake feature means that blurry close-up pictures are a thing of the past. For most pictures its a simple point and shoot, but if you want to get technical there are modes for night, beach, fireworks and lots more - even for babies with a date/age imprint and world time and date stamping. The Li-Ion battery lasts well on a charge, but if you are away from home and don't bring the charger, then the comfort of having a spare battery is a must.

After a series of mediocre compact cameras that could never produce a photo that did not need modifying in some way or other (mainly brightness and contrast), it is such a pleasure to find a camera that has such a good Intelligent Auto setting that it rarely makes a mistake and at least 95% of photos are caught how I wanted them. Occasionally there is a white balance error but it is worth letting the auto flash do its job, even though it may seem a little overenthusiastic on fill-in flash at times, but turning it off when YOU think it shouldn't fire can easily cause sharpness problems.

12x (intelligent to 16x) wide angle Leica zoom lens is incredible - sharp, bright, fast accurate focus, excellent image stabilisation, amazing macro and that bit of wide angle (28mm equivalent) makes all the difference. A real creative workhorse.

GPS facility is great, if seemingly a little slow to lock at times, easy and quick to adjust settings when required.

Just sad I haven't yet had time (in 2 months) to play with all the features!!

All I need now is the ZS7/TZ10 in an ultra-zoom/SLR style body with viewfinder and sRGB colour space - now that would be a real killer!!

This camera has that rare ability to make a amateur picture look professional. The preset features are so quick and easy enabling an amateur (like me) to take excellent pictures.
You know when you've got a GREAT camera when people takin photos of you with your camera, always comment on how good the picture was that they took.
From the view screen right through to the 10x zoom, everything is top quality.
For a point and click, you would be hard pressed to find a camera that took better pictures.