Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 19 Jan 2007

Price when reviewed: £209

Supplier: http://www.amazon.co.uk

Reviewed By: Ben Pitt

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

User Rating

When the DMC-FZ7 was first announced in January 2006, £299 was a remarkable price for such a well-specified camera.

Today, only the relatively modest 80-400 ISO range and 114,000-pixel resolution of the 21/2in screen give any hint of a dated design. In fact, ISO 800 and 1,600 are available via a High Sensitivity scene preset.

Image quality at high ISO settings isn't great, however. As we've seen so many times with Panasonic cameras, noise-reduction processing obliterates detail and gives photos a swirly, painted appearance. ISO 200 is passable but we wouldn't touch the ISO 400 setting. As a result, and despite the highly effective optical image stabilisation, this camera isn't ideal for low-light photography. Otherwise, though, image quality is well above average, with problem-free colour reproduction and sharper detail than many higher-specified cameras.

Performance is the best of all the cameras on test, capturing a picture every second at maximum quality and two per second in continuous mode. A joystick control provides efficient access to the most important controls, including an effective manual focus. However, the lack of a macro button is a mistake. Instead, the macro mode is situated on the mode dial, which means it can't be accessed at the same time as the priority or manual exposure modes.

Despite its quirks, the FZ7 still holds its own against the younger competition. At just £209 including a li-ion battery, it's excellent value.

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