Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37290 in Camera & Photo
• Color: Silver
• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: DMC-FZ7S
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

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, USB connection cable, AC cable, strap, CD Rom, Lens cap, lens hood, & lens hood adaptor

From the Manufacturer
The Panasonic Leica DMC-FZ7S 6MP Digital Camera with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom features a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit Lens with a remarkable 12x optical zoom, equivalent to a 35 to 430 millimeter lens on a 35mm film camera. While a film camera with an optical zoom this powerful would be so big and heavy you couldn't handle it with one hand, the digital Panasonic Leica DMC-FZ7K small, lightweight and easy to handle. It also has Panasonic's Extended Optical Zoom feature. While causing minimal deterioration by using the center part of the high-resolution CCD, this function magnifies the image to give you total zoom power of 17.5x -- roughly equivalent to a huge 1680 millimeter lens on a 35mm camera.

The camera also features Panasonic's advanced MEGA Optical Image Stabilizer, which helps eliminate blurry pictures. Jitter from shaky hands is one of the main reasons why cameras produce blurry images. The Panasonic Leica DMC-FZ7K has a built-in gyrosensor that detects any hand movement and relays a signal to a tiny microcomputer inside the camera, which instantly calculates the compensation needed. A linear motor then shifts the Optical Image Stabilizer lens as necessary to guide incoming light from the image straight to the CCD. You won't even notice it working; all you'll see are the outstanding results!

The Panasonic Leica DMC-FZ7K also features a large, 2.5-inch diagonal LCD and a Power LCD function. Simply touch the power LCD button, and the display becomes about 40 percent brighter for easier viewing on sunny days. The camera also has the world's first developed high-angle LCD feature, which makes it easier to check the LCD when you need to hold the camera high over a crowd to take a shot. The large LCD lets you check the focus, frame the shot, and use functions like 25-thumbnail display and calendar view in comfort, with no eye strain. In addition, Panasonic has aligned the electronic viewfinder and LCD along the same line of sight to minimize differences in the images you see when framing shots.

With mega-burst consecutive shooting, you can snap off up to 14 consecutive shots at a swift 3 frames per second in standard mode. The camera also has unlimited consecutive shooting, so you can keep on shooting until the SD memory card is full.

The joystick on the back of the camera gives you quick, easy and accurate manual focusing. You can also use the manual focus assist function, which helps you set a perfect focus by magnifying the center of the LCD image and displaying a bar graph of the focal distance and depth of field. The joystick also makes it easy to manually adjust the exposure and focus. You can set the aperture, shutter speed and focus with your thumb while framing the shot on the LCD monitor. Press and hold down the joystick, and you can also instantly change four key settings -- white balance, ISO sensitivity, image size, and image quality -- while viewing the subject on the monitor. There's no need to switch to the menu screen.

What's in the Box
DMC-FZ7S digital camera, battery charger, battery pack, SD memory card (16 MB), lens cap, lens hood and adapter, AV cable, USB cable, and strap.

Customer Reviews

Best Yet of the small FZ series
I just upgraded to this camera from my FZ3 and I love it. It will take a little time to get used to it because they changed some of the methods of accessing settings. All of those changes are a big plus in my book. The lens is still great, the handling has been improved and image quality is excellent. Some of the new featurs over pervious version;
- 2.5" LCD is just huge, yes lower res but still good.
- Standard 52mm filter adapter much better then FZ3/4/5
- High angle LCD mode works! I don't need tilt/twist any more
- High sensitivity mode works, but not the best quality image

All the featurs it adds and at a price MUCH lower then any other FZ has been introduced at, how can you go wrong!!

Updated 9/28/06
Still love this camera. Noise is not as big of an issue as some people make it out to be. I now have the after market lens adapter that is from Pemaraal, it is a great addition.

Fantastic pictures, lives up to all of the good reviews
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!

Very Satisfied
This camera replaces 35 year old Nikons with all the lenses etc that were available at that time. I have been reluctant to join the digital camera set. This Panasonic is simply an outstanding product. In one small package you replace many heavy lenses and two Nikons I have been carrying. Prior to my purchase I tried to research hard and read mostly positive reviews on this camera. They were absolutely correct and many of the negative comments have turned out to be either very very picky or simply not reading the manual. The strong suits to this Panasonic FZ7 for me are the portrait and macro quality. The Leica lens is excellent and the results are excellent. I have now taken over 400 pictures with this camera and had one portrait printed by a custom lab. They were impressed also. Portraits are just outstanding and so are close-ups such as mountain wild flowers. The ease of use is outstanding. Yes you have to read the manual and yes you have to do some practicing but you get out of this camera what you put into it. Battery life is outstanding. I love the provided battery and don't want to be carrying AA batteries. Charging for 2 hours from completely dead is impressive and being able to take several hundred photos on one charge sold me. For the most part the software that comes with it is good although I am not sure why you would need 4 different photo programs and it seems they could have put their effort into just one great photo program.

For the amateur photographer I consider this camera to be outstanding as long as you will study the manual and try the different settings. There are many settings and they do produce the desired results. There is, of course, a "simple" setting which frankly I haven't tried yet because this camera is so easy to use the more advanced settings. For an old film camera guy its a joy to take as many pictures as I want and delete the bad ones. Seeing your results instantly is impressive and its so easy to watch on your TV that was actually the first place we did watch.

I also find the view finder to be an absolute joy. The LCD screen is more than adequate for most conditions but I find that in bright sunlight(sun behind you) the view finder is such a joy that I find myself using it more and more. The detailed information available within the view finder is in such sharp detail its amazing. Didn't know that was possible.

The arguments against this camera might be that it doesn't fit into your pocket but its so lightweight and the 12X zoom is so impressive I love to carry it. I bought a small case for it that fits it nice and tight and at Sam's Club I bought a 1GB Toshiba high proformance SD card for under $50. The 1GB card matches the battery capacity at best quality for about 329 pictures at 6M megapixels. Absolutely no regrets about purchasing this camera. I was into my third day with it before I even tried the audio. Who knew? Good idea! Another really unreal idea is stabilization in a still camera. When you are out on the 12X zoom its very impressive. Haven't used a tripod yet and for wildflowers the Nikon just about had to be on a tripod when using the Micro Nikkor lens in wind etc.

All of my Nikons will soon be featured on E-Bay. First though there is this 12 day vacation through 3 Natl Parks. Hmmm taking my laptop so I can download the SD card because I am thinking at least 1,000 pictures! It all came down to either this Panasonic or the Canon S3IS with comparable bells and whistles but the Cannon was over a $100 more and I couldn't justify it.

This camera will basically take your picture for you if you use all of its capability.