Panasonic DMC-FZ7

Reviewed June 2006

Introduction

The Panasonic DMC-FZ7, available in silver or black, squeezes a stabilized 12X optical zoom by Leica, a 6-megapixel resolution, and an electronic viewfinder into a body that fits easily into a compact camera pouch.

The grip is topped by the 2-stage chromed Shutter Release, itself ringed by the zoom control. As is standard, when the camera is in Playback mode, the zoom control also provides a means to review photos as thumbnails when pushed towards the W side, displaying first 9 images on the screen, then 25, then presenting photos in a calendar view. Or a part of an image currently on screen can be magnified up to 16X when the control is pulled towards the T side.

The first button behind the shutter release, controls the FZ7's Optical Stabilizer, and when pressed displays a 3-option menu on the screen, or the viewfinder:

The next button, behind the Stabilizer button, is the AF/MF button. It toggles the focus between Auto Focus and Manual Mode. Set to the Manual Focus mode the camera shows a distance scale on the right side of monitor, while magnifying the centre portion of the frame to assist in focusing the camera with greater accuracy.

The Mode dial, off to the left, serves to select the shooting modes, or the playback mode. It has 9 positions:

	Simple Mode is the point-and-shoot mode of the FZ7. The Simple mode lets the camera control all photographic settings. (See the Characteristics section of the review for more information about the Simple mode, and its menu.)
	Playback Mode plays back images or movies captured with the FZ7.

	Aperture Priority provides control over the aperture from f2.8 at the wide end and F3.3 at the maximum telephoto end, through to f8 while the FZ7 selects the shutter speed.
	Shutter Priority: provides shutter speeds ranging from 1/2000 to 8 seconds while the camera matches an aperture to the selected shutter speed.
	Manual Mode offers control over the aperture — f2.8 to f8 — and a shutter speed range that covers from 1/2000 sec to 60 seconds.
	Macro Mode allows the FZ7 to focus on a subject that is 5 cm (2 in.) from the front element of the lens when the zoom is set to the wide angle end and 1 m (3.3 ft) when the zoom is at the maximum telephoto setting.

The Movie mode is next on the Mode Dial:

Motion Picture Mode captures video with sound that can be recorded using either of two aspect ratios, 16:9, which has similar proportions to HDTV, or 4:3 aspect, the proportions of standard TV: 16:9 capturing a 848 x 480 pixel image at either 30 or 10 frames per second. 4:3 VGA capturing a 640 x 480 pixel image at 10 or 30 frames per second. 4:3 QVGA capturing a 320 x 240 pixel image at 10 or 30 frames per second. The length of the recording is limited only by the capacity of the memory card in use and the zoom is locked at the first frame, as are focus and aperture. Movie recording is not supported when using Multimedia memory cards.

The last position on the Mode Dial is to access any of the 16 Scene modes:

	Portrait Mode is intended for daylight use. It uses Auto ISO and a wide aperture to soften the background. As always, the use of the zoom is recommended to increase the effect of the wide aperture, and the background should be as distant as possible behind the subject.		Soft Skin Mode forces sensitivity to 80 ISO and is intended to take a portrait of a subject. The camera detects a skin colour area, such as the face and processes the image to make the skin appear smooth.
	Scenery Mode also has a focus range of 5m (16.5 ft) to infinity. ISO sensitivity is set to Auto, the flash is forced to Off, and the AF assist light is also forced Off.		Sports Mode is intended for outdoor use and uses Auto ISO. This mode gives preference to a fast shutter speed to capture movement, and requires that the subject be at least 5m (16.5 ft) from the camera.
	Night Portrait Mode uses a slow shutter speed and flash to capture both foreground and background at night. The flash is forced to Slow Sync with red-eye reduction and the sensitivity is set to Auto.		Night Scenery Mode forces sensitivity to 80 ISO to minimize noise, forces the flash to Off and uses infinity focus which requires that the subject be more than 5 m (16.5 ft) away. The shutter speed is slow (max. 8 seconds) and a tripod is necessary.

The FZ7's Power Switch is located directly below the Mode Dial and to the right of the viewfinder. The switch is a slider type, and if left on for a length of time without the camera being used, the camera will go to sleep, requiring the switch to be moved back to the Off position and then to On again.

To its left, a button serves to toggle back and forth between the 114,000 pixel electronic viewfinder (EVF) or the 114,000 pixel, 2.5-inch LCD monitor.

The EVF provides a comparatively clear image, although not very detailed, and remains visible outdoors under sunlight, which is not always the case with the monitor. Moreover, the viewfinder is equipped with a diopter correction dial on the left side of the exit pupil, allowing the image to be adjusted to most anyone's eyesight.

A small button, to the left of the viewfinder, releases the FZ7's pop-up flash mechanically, and whatever the shooting mode, it must be manually opened to be useable.

All the other external controls of the DMC-FZ7 are clustered on the right side of the monitor. Uppermost is the Joystick control which shares a number of navigation functions similar to those of the Cursor buttons below (see further), but which also offers control over specific functions. When the camera is set to A, or S, the joystick serves to select apertures when pushed up or down. With the FZ7 set to the Manual mode, apertures or shutter speeds are selected with the same way, while switching between aperture and shutter speed so either can be set is accomplished by pressing the joystick to the left or right.

• White Balance: Auto, Sun, Cloud, Halogen (incandescent), Flash, White set 1, White set 2 (both of which are memories for user-set white balance settings), and White Set, for setting a white balance to take into account a specific light environment, and then saving it to either White set 1 or White set 2.
• Sensitivity: to set the CCD's ISO equivalent, the choices offered depending on the capture mode, but covering a range of 80 to 400 ISO in all modes with one exception, the High Sens. Scene mode which has settings of Auto, 800 or 1600 ISO.

• Picture Size: to set the image size (see the Characteristics section of the review for more details on the available image sizes for the FZ7).
• Picture Quality: to choose the compression level, or the uncompressed TIFF format available with the FZ7. (See the Characteristics section of the review.)

• Normal Display: shooting mode, stabilizer mode, flash mode, image size, image quality, battery state, number of shots remaining, metering mode.
• Display with Histogram: simply adds a histogram showing the real-time distribution of brightness in the frame.
• Out-of-frame Display: reduces the size of the image coming from the lens, but moves the information display to the right and below the image.

• Recording Guides: adds a composition grid to the monitor while removing all other elements with the exception of the AF area.
• No Display: shows only the AF area.

Set to the Playback mode, only three display modes are available:

• Normal Display shows the image size and quality, the battery state, the folder and image file number, the image's position within the folder, and the shooting time and date.
• Histogram adds the shooting data, and the image's histogram.
• No Display simply presents the image without any superimposed information.

As noted above, the Display/LCD Mode button also controls the brightness of the monitor, displaying a 3-option menu if held pressed for more than 2 seconds. Three LCD modes are available:

• Off: the default, leaves the brightness level at the normal level, providing the lowest power consumption.
• Power LCD: increases the brightness of the LCD, making it much more legible outdoors.
• High Angle LCD increases the brightness even further, making it possible to see a clear image on the monitor when the camera is held overhead, as it would be when shooting over a crowd at an outdoor event.

	The right arrow selects Flash Modes: Auto, Auto with Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Forced On with Red-eye Reduction, and Slow Sync with Red-eye Reduction. Forced off is assumed when the flash is closed.
	The down arrow starts the Instant Review mode, which displays the last captured photo for up to 10 seconds and which can be set to make potentially overexposed areas of the image blink from white to black, if so selected in the Setup menu (see the Interface and Software section of the review for an overview of the Setup menu). Moreover, the image can be magnified up to 4X or 8X, or even deleted if it is unsatisfactory. Worth noting, the Review mode cannot access the Playback menu.
	Finally the left arrow button serves to activate the Self Timer, which can be set to either 2 or 10 seconds with all modes except the Simple mode which only allows a 10-second timer.

The last external control of the DMC-FZ7 is the Single or Burst mode button, which does serves as the Delete button when the camera is set to the Playback or Review modes:

	High Speed captures 3 frames per second or up to 7 frames at the best image quality, and up to 13 frames with the most compressed image quality.
	Low Speed captures 2 frames per second for up to 7 frames at the best image quality, and up to 13 frames with the most compressed image quality.
	Unlimited: captures 2 frames per second with no limit on the number of frames.

As noted above, the DMC-FZ7 is equipped with a mechanically released flash that is opened by pressing a button on the back of the camera.

The lighting power of the flash has a range that covers from 30 cm to 6 m (1 ft to 19.7 ft) depending on the sensitivity used and the position of the zoom. At 80 ISO, however, the sensitivity setting that is the least prone to noise, the flash is able to provide light up to 2.7 m (8.86 ft) when the zoom is at the widest angle, and 2.4 m (7,87 ft) at the maximum telephoto.

While the DMC-FZ7 is clearly a descendant of the FZ5, it brings a number of refinements to the original design. The layout of controls is better designed than previous versions, and the controls themselves are more responsive when it comes to the operation of the camera, or the navigation of the menus. In one important respect however, the FZ7 could sustain further improvement: getting rid of the freeze effect that occurs in the viewfinder when the shutter release is pressed.