Panasonic DMC-FZ7 6MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)
by Panasonic
Our Price: $429.95
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $74.50 (click here)
Category: Digital Camera
See more product details
Customers in the UK,
buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: PanasonicModel: DMC-FZ7K
Color: Black
Product features:
- Leica DC Vario-Element Lens System with 11 elements in 8 groups (3 aspherical lenses/3 aspherical surfaces)
- 12x Optical zoom (equivalent to 36mm to 432mm on a 35mm film camera lens) with aperture of F2.8 to 3.3 & 4x digital zoom
- Compact 6mp camera with Mega Optical Image Stabilization which addresses "anti-blu" of hand & subject movement
- LSI Venus engine II handles image processing, LCD functions, & writing to the memory card simultaneously for incredible responsiveness
- Five software packages included, comes with battery charger& pack, 16MB Sd memoery card, AV cable
- Adobe Photoshop CS5 Upgrade [Old Version]
- Serif PhotoPlus X3
- Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]
- Aperture 3
- Pixelmator [Old Version]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Panasonic DMC-FZ7 6MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)
Customer Review: Fantastic pictures, lives up to all of the good reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this camera two weeks now, and have had no problems whatsoever with it. It's my first digital camera, and so I spent about a month shopping around, reading various reviews, checking what needs I had in a camera, etc. When I knew that I wanted a megazoom, I ended up narrowing my selections to a few cameras: Sony DSC-H2, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7, Canon S3IS, and Fuji FinePix s5200.
All of them are great cameras and review well. In many of the reviews I would regularly read of each owner praising their own camera over the traits of the others. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't afford to own one of each camera to really know what that's like. What I took it to mean was that most of the people who bought any of these cameras were very happy with them. In some ways it made things more difficult (which one should I get?), but then in other ways it was a destresser (at least I won't get a dud, whichever I end up with).
Going to the stores around here and getting a feel for them in my hand was important. Everyone's hands are different, so it won't help for people to know which felt comfy in my hands, but I'll say it was a factor.
Features-wise, these cameras are all in the same neighbourhood. Big zoom, mid-high megapixel, and plenty of user-control when it comes to the settings. The viewscreens vary in size, as does the onboard memory, the kind of memory cards and batteries the camera uses, etc., so these are the major distinctions. Lenses on these cameras are also very good, no matter which you're looking at. Fuji and Canon, for instance, are both camera companies before they were into electronics, and Sony uses the Carl Zeiss and Panasonic uses the Leica. Quibble if you must about the lens quality of one vs. another, but the differences are minute. All offer some form of image stabilization as well, which is most helpful to me and my big, shaky hands.
When decision time came, price became a factor. The Fuji and Canon were $50-100 more than the Sony, and the Panasonic was another 20 below the Sony. Again, it wasn't the only factor, but it was in there.
Other factor: Power source. Some cameras run off AA batteries (Sony and Canon, not sure about Fuji), the Panasonic uses a Panasonic brand battery (Lithium-Ion), but you can buy knock-off brands that are much cheaper. They don't last as long (I have two) as the Panasonic, but I would say they are about 90% of the shooting capacity of the one that came with the camera, at about a fifth of the cost.
And last but not least: Storage. Panasonic and Canon use SD cards, which are cheap and fast. The Sony uses MemoryStick (a Sony product) that costs more. Not sure on it's performance, but from what I could tell from other reviews, a highspeed (UltraII by Sandisk, for instance) SD card was more than adequate. I got a 1G UltraII SD card and it holds 334 pics at max resolution. It's a fine performer, and fits into my laptop's cardreader. Very fast transfer from card to CPU for editing and such. Way faster than the included USB cable.
With the Panasonic, I make the tradeoff that memory is relatively cheap and flexible with other cameras and computers, but I have to have my batteries charged and ready for picture taking. With the Sony I could have gone to any corner store most anywhere in the world and picked up two AA's to operate the camera. They don't last as long as NiMH AA's, but they'll work fine when you have no other choice. To me that was a trade I'm willing to make, since I have three batteries (each rated for 270-300) and being able to acquire more storage cheaply would be better for what I need.
If you get this camera, you will be very pleased with the pictures you take, though that doesn't mean that you would be displeased with the others I mentioned. Make sure you get a chance to hold the cameras in your hand, and see what your priorities are going to be in picture taking. If you're always on the road and charging batteries is a problem, this camera might not be the one for you (charging the battery for this camera takes 2 hours), but if that isn't an issue, this camera is an excellent choice.
The only criticism people have had of this camera has been 'noise' at high ISOs, but that's not something I've noticed. I'll be doing some night shooting soon, so I'll experiment and see what I can get. As for the other positive reviews of picture quality, clarity, colour reproduction, etc. - I echo those heartily. Again, this is not a camera that disappoints. You'll be very pleased with the results.
Happy shooting!
More Panasonic DMC-FZ7 6MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black) reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Digital Cameras
Digital Cameras and Photo Categories
Bestsellers in Digital Cameras
Sony DSCF505V Cybershot 2.6MP Digital CameraSony; Digital Camera
Best price: $429.99
Price in other shops:
KB Gear JamCam 0.3MP Digital Camera, SilverKB Gear; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Minolta Dimage 2300 2.3MP Digital Camera KitKonica Minolta; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Kodak DC5000 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical ZoomDigital Camera
Leica Minilux 35mm CameraLeica; Digital Camera
Best price: $1,995.99
Pretec DC-520 0.3MP Digital Camera, ChampagnePreTec; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Sony MVCFD85 1.2MP Mavica Digital Camera with 3x Optical ZoomSony; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Canon PowerShot S10 2MP Digital Camera w/ 2x Optical ZoomCanon; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Sony DSC-F55 Cyber-shot 2MP Digital CameraSony; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Vivitar Vivicam 2750 0.3MP Digital CameraVivitar; Windows NT; Digital Camera
Price in other shops:
Similar digital cameras and accessories
SanDisk 2 GB Class 2 SD Flash Memory Card SDSDB-2048-A11SanDisk; Release date: 2011-12-03; Not Machine Specific; CE
Best price: $0.60
Price in other shops:
USB Cable For Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8/ DMC-LZ10/ DMC-TZ1/ LZ1/ LX3/ LZ7/ TZ1/ FZ8/ TZ4/ G1/ Z15 & Many More!NEEWERŪ; Neewer; NEEWERŪ; Electronics; PC Accessory
Best price: $0.01
Sony 2 GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Flash Memory Card MSMT2GSony; Release date: 2011-11-14; Windows; CE
Best price: $0.99
Price in other shops:
Zeikos Filter set for Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7, DMC-FZ8 - 52mm High Resolution 3-piece Filter Set (UV, Fluorescent, Polarizer) - BlackZeikos; Digital Camera
Best price: $9.59
Price in other shops: