Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 (DMC-ZS7)

Disclaimer: don't expect some serious review on this camera.

I got this camera for Christmas as mine Samsung NV11 got stolen before the end of semester (the worst time it could happen) and well this camera makes me go crazy each time I use it.

The specs of this camera are great (for the price). It has good optics and really good zoom even though I have to say that from my experience Olympus C740UZ is what I would prefer for taking good photos. Anyway I tried to make few photos with the camera and the results were catastrophic.

With my preview cameras I was capable of setting "correct" settings and take a sharp photo with good colors (no blurring on the edges). I'm no photographer and I don't understand a thing...anyway I was able to take photos of fast moving objects and take photos under whatever light condition and of no matter what.

The camera set on automatic was capable of two different settings on a very same shot under the same circumstances. One picture being shot at ISO 80 and one at ISO 800? The shot was taken in a room with not so bright light. One shot ended up so dark you could not even distinguish what's on it and the other one was darker than it should be and it wasn't sharp enough...but well my problem I guess.

In most photos I took the blues are too blue (yellows being more greenish kinda) and I did not manage to make a sharp photo (corners always a bit more blurry). The highlights usually ended up being to bright. I tried setting the camera myself so I would get the results I wanted but in the end it was never what I expected (what a different camera I have experience with would do)

I was used to be taking photos without flash and without any stabilization and I still could get a sharp photo. This camera has one setting of a flash and usually it's too strong (at least it was and highlights were ....um well too bright again).

With this camera I can't take a sharp photo no matter how still I am. I can't spend 5 minutes setting the camera and taking a shot. Ok maybe in half a year I will find the setting suiting me best for the kind of photos I take...

The videos are recorded in HD. The result is really nice, but I did not manage to convert the videos. I wrote a script that makes 848x400 xvid from it. I tried using different software to convert the video and most of the programs crashed. I never managed to get what I wanted. The script works...the problem is with sound though. Anyway I wrote a second script that takes care of the sound as well and makes it 640x480, 25 fps. Anyway my computer can render the video in real time with sound no problem but when I export the video I just get some rubbish. I don't know what's wrong. Anyway THIS makes me crazy.

The camera has a battery but it does not last for long compared to what I was used to (if you are making just photos the battery lasts actually quite long). The LCD display and taking videos probably drains the battery a lot. The display is really nice with high resolution but who needs it? I don't.

The camera saves and loads data pretty fast and also starts fast as well (roughly 2sec).

Well...whatever there's some info you can use. Anyway it seems that this SHOULD be a pretty good camera as the specs are really good and it is capable of doing a really good photo. But it does not seem to be user friendly at all and even if you know what you want from the camera it just won't do it. So how should I approach this goddamn camera? (As it should be a good one for sure...)