The TZ family has lived in tranquil bliss for the last three years. Now however it is being attacked on all sides with new 10x and 12x zooms and wide angles from Olympus and Canon out at the beginning of 2009. The TZs needed to advance to conserve their market position. This is the aim with the TZ7 that has a 12x zoom with an even wider wide angle (it starts at 25 mm, in comparison to 28 mm with the competition) and above all differentiates itself with its far superior video quality.

Handling

When compared to its predessors the TZ7 is relatively imposing. It is close to double the weight of some of the smaller compacts and it is also 1 cm thicker. It is clearly of high quality construction, as the lack of play on the moving parts shows. The lens is not exempt from play but this is more limited than on a great number of compacts.


The back of the camera looks very much like the back of the TZ5 and those who are familiar with the previous model will be at home with this one. Once again it has an excellent 3 inch 460,000 point screen, on the right of which all the commands are placed. The only notable difference is the red button that allows you to start video capture (see inset).

On the top, note the placement of the scroll mode, now to the right of the shoot catch. This is a bad idea as it is far too supple and turns accidentally each time you put the camera in a bag. This means you have to check the scroll position each time you start it up, something that is much more of a problem because of the independent video function, the scroll needing to stay on “iA” for the vast majority of users.
In use the camera is pretty fast with start-up in under two seconds and a rapid focus in all conditions. The wait between two photos is pretty much the same as on the TZ5, a positive thing in as much as several cameras that have come out recently have been slow betweeen images. The fact that the TZ7 has a modest definition (though ample) explains this.

Image quality

Panasonic, with its most recent Venus Engine image processing, has become a refernce in this area, and has no qualms about producing precise but not perfect lens’ and allowing the least destructive corrections (distortions, abberations) to be handled electronically. The results on the TZ7 are right up there with its predessors: at low sensitivity, images are precise, detailed and faithful, the automatic white balance doing its job very well.


Up to 400 ISO, results are very good, after which you do see a slight smoothing and some sound in the shadowy areas. The degradation is more visible at 800 ISO but the A4 print is still ok, in keeping with what you’d expect from an up to date compact.


As for the video, it is excellent (see inset) without quite giving the results you get from a specialised video camera (in terms of continuous focus in particular). Other compacts, including anything top-end are left far behind.