Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7 sample pictures

For its price, the 14-megapixel SZ7 and its 10x zoom lens are capable of turning out some nice pictures.

Joshua Goldman

Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.

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Joshua Goldman

Aug. 13, 2012 10:06 a.m. PT

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ISO comparison

Depending on what your plans are for its photos, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7's shots are either very good to excellent or unusable. If you're looking to use its 14-megapixel resolution to enlarge pictures to full size and heavily crop in, don't buy this camera (or most other point-and-shoots). Things just don't look great when viewed at 100 percent.

However, those viewing on screen at less than 100 percent or making prints up to 8.5x11, which is probably the majority of buyers, will be really happy with the results. These are 100 percent crops from our test scene. Looking at them more closely you'll see subjects are somewhat soft and noisy even at the camera's lowest ISO sensitivities where things should be their sharpest.

As you go up in ISO, such as when you're shooting in low light, you'll pick up more noise, particularly yellow blotches. Panasonic's JPEG processing has gotten much better at these higher ISOs, though, making them usable. Things definitely get worse at ISO 1600 and above, however, so you'll want to avoid using them whenever possible. Also, subjects generally look soft above ISO 200; if it's something you're sensitive to, you can always sharpen somewhat with editing software.

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Macro

Most compacts produce their best fine details in macro mode, but again, you can see that the SZ7's results aren't great at 100 percent. (This is a 100 percent crop from the inset image.) However, scaled back to 50 percent, which is still plenty large, things look much better. And considering the camera can focus as close as 2 inches from a subject, you can still get in pretty close.

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Color

The SZ7 produces very nice colors: pleasingly vivid and bright. Highlights, however, tend to blow out, costing you some details.

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Zoom range

The zoom range of the lens goes from 25 (top) to 250mm (bottom). For the most part, the image stabilization did fine when fully extended. You're always going to be better off with the camera supported, though, especially indoors.

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HDR mode

The camera does have an HDR mode, but it's only available in Intelligent Auto mode. You have to go into the main menu system to turn it on and the camera will decide when it's appropriate to use it. It's off in the left photo and on in the right, where it corrects for the bright sun bringing our more detail in the sky as well as bringing up shadows on the buildings and in foreground tree.

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Color modes

The SZ7 isn't overflowing with filters and effects like some competing models, but you do get some color modes to work with. The top picture is Standard, and the bottom from left to right is Happy (only in iA Mode), Sepia, and Black & White. There is also a Vivid mode available for Normal mode and movies.

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Miniature Effect mode

The camera does have a miniature effect mode that is decent, but very slow to process.

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Panorama Shot

Panorama Shot makes it easy to capture 360-degree horizontal or vertical panoramic pictures by simply panning the camera. It doesn't handle motion well, but for still landscapes, it's pretty good. View at full size.

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Sample photos at 250mm (f5.9, 1/250th, ISO 250)

The following slides are all shot at full telephoto at various ISO sensitivities. A link is provided below each slide to view photos at full size. These are large files, though, so it may take a few seconds for each to load.

View full size image.