I've been living a dual existence: Sometimes I'm a professional photographer, other times I'm an avid amateur videographer. To satisfy these two demands, I have a Canon PowerShot G7 that takes perfectly good photographs but only fair video. Then I also have a Canon Vixia HF11 HD camcorder that takes excellent HD video but only fair stills.

I've been dreaming of a camera that would be able to do both: take both stills and video, and be at least good at both. When I read the early hype on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, it looked like the answer to my dreams. Now that I've had one in my hands for nearly two weeks, I can say that it is close to the ideal camera but not perfect. Not only that, one of its ballyhooed features falls flat for me... more on that in a moment.

I bought my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 for $352 from Amazon.

What it is

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is a compact digital camera that looks more-or-less ordinary. It's about four inches long, about 2.5 inches tall and about 1.25 inches thick, if you measure the bit of protruding that the lens does. With a battery and memory chip loaded and the wrist strap attached, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 weighs about 7.5 ounces. The DMC-ZS7 is rated at 12 megapixels and will take photos that are 4,000 x 3,000 pixels when set to its highest resolution.

One of the most impressive features of the Panasonic DMC-ZS7 is its 12x optical zoom lens. And this lens really pulls its weight at both ends, with a 35mm equivalent focal length of 25-300mm. I've never had a camera that will go as wide as 25mm at the wide end, so I'm really enjoying that capability.

The back of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is dominated with a three-inch LCD screen. Just to the right of this screen are a few controls, organized in a fairly standard circular arrangement. The top of the camera has the on-off switch, the shutter button and a wheel to select the camera's operating mode. The zoom control is around the shutter button, just where you expect it.

One of the controls on the back of the Panasonic DMC-ZS7 is a red button marked with an icon of a film camera. If the camera is turned on, pressing that red button will start shooting video. In other words, you can start shooting video regardless of what mode the camera is in -- all you need to do is turn the camera on and press the red button. (Pressing it a second time stops recording video.) As for video quality, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 records at an impressive 720p HD quality level. The camera can record video in a couple different formats, including AVCHD Lite. Panasonic supplies software called PHOTOfunSTUDIO to edit video and process photos.

Another impressive feature of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is its inclusion of GPS capability. With its built-in GPS on, the DMC-ZS7 knows where it is and will record that information in the metadata for photographs and videos. The camera even has an internal database of locations and attractions, so it really does know where you are. The GPS capability consumes a bit of power, so you can turn it off if you don't need it.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 came with a small battery (about the size of a matchbox), wrist strap, various connection cables, and a DVD with software and a PDF of a full manual. The actual printed manual that came with the camera is very basic.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 uses SD memory. In fact, it is one of the first devices that will accept SDXC memory, which is theoretically capable of holding more than 1 TB (that's one terabyte) of memory. The first SDXC cards are just now coming on the market at very high prices, although the capability is tantalyzing. I have my DMC-ZS7 fitted with a 16 GB SDHC card, and the camera also works perfectly with a 32 GB SDHC card.

Finally, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 has a feature called "Intelligent Auto" that is supposed to do much of the work when it comes time to process exposures. Intelligent Auto is supposed to be so good that it will process pictures to give you another bit of zoom beyond what the lens can perform -- Panasonic claims that Intelligent Auto extends the usefulness of the lens to 16x.

Using it

I love the size and weight of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7. At least once a year, I go to a large trade show where I am a reporter for a couple different magazines. I wear a sportcoat at these events, so I need a camera that will easily drop into the pocket of the sportcoat. My Canon G7 would go and I used it for two years in this fashion. However, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is smaller and lighter than the G7, so it will be more comfortable to carry. That is important to me. In fact, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 fits in my shirt pocket. That's nice.

The Canon PowerShot G7, a three-year-old 10-megapixel camera, takes better still photos than the 12-megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7. The Panasonic camera takes good photos, but they don't have the contrast that the Canon's photos have. Also, the DMC-ZS7 seems to have colors that are slightly washed out compared to the Canon camera. Finally, the DMC-ZS7 has more noise in its photos, especially in low light.

All that said, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 takes good photos. In daylight, photos from the DMC-ZS7 are sharp and clear, and have little noise. The 12x lens is fantastic for getting shots both wide and far, and it's really fun to play with the telephoto end of the lens to get the background out of focus. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 also has a good macro feature that lets me get close to objects and still take clear pictures. In indoor light, the DMC-ZS7 needs its flash or it will show more noise than I like to see.

One of the much-publicized features of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is its "Intelligent Auto" setting, which is supposed to let the camera analyze photos for the best exposure. I shot for a couple days with the Intelligent Auto feature on and intend to avoid it in the future. With Intelligent Auto, shots I made of people had their faces unnaturally lightened and showing lots of grain/noise in the face. When I tried the additional zoom function offered by Intelligent Auto, vertical lines were irregular and distorted. From now on, I intend to use the camera's "Program" mode, identified by a "P" on the mode wheel. In the "Program" setting, I get to choose the ISO speed, the exposure, whether the flash is on, etc.

The GPS feature of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is pretty cool. I was at the US National Arboretum and turned on the GPS. Within a minute, the camera knew that I was at the Arboretum and saved that information with the photographs. Of course, the camera already tagged shots with the date and time, but now it also showed the latitude, longitude and the name of the location.

One other noteworthy thing about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is that it produces much less red-eye than my Canon G7 camera. With both cameras' red-eye reduction feature turned on, there is no red-eye from the Panasonic camera but often significant red-eye from the Canon camera.

Finally, the three-inch LCD screen on the back of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is gorgeous. I wish the screen articulated but it is a beautiful little screen.

Video shooting

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is capable of shooting HD video in the format of 720p. That means it will shoot 60 frames per second with 720 horizontal lines. For a compact digital camera that costs $350, that's pretty darn good. It's especially good combined with the camera's 12x zoom lens, which can be operated when you are shooting video. The DMC-ZS7 has stereo microphones on top, so you get stereo audio with the video. Zooming with the DMC-ZS7 is not as smooth as a dedicated video camera, but it's a little smoother than I expected.

Video from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is saved as an AVCHD Lite file, which burns through 12 megabits of storage per second. If you are going to shoot in HD, you better have a big memory card. Editing AVCHD Lite is possible with the included PHOTOfunSTUDIO software, but you will need a powerful computer to do it. Still, I'm impressed with the quality of the video from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 -- it's not as good as the video from my Canon Vixia HF11 camcorder but the Panasonic's video is quite respectable. Video from the DMC-ZS7 is MUCH better than the video from my Canon G7 still camera.

You can view video directly from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 on a large-screen TV using the correct HDMI cable. (The cable is not included with the camera, by the way.)

June 2, 2010 Update:

I've now shot a lot of video with this camera and have given up trying to use AVCHD Lite. I can't get PHOTOfunSTUDIO to recognize AVCHD Lite video from this camera and could find no online help. I switched the camera to record video as Motion-JPEG and that works perfectly with my existing editing system. M-JPEG files take up a lot more room than AVCHD Lite, but I have 16 GB and 32 GB chips, so I don't worry about the space. Once I switched to M-JPEG files, the video from this camera edits beautifully. It really records audio well, especially if you narrate your videos as you shoot them. Incidentally, the M-JPEG videos have an extension of ".MOV", which is the same extension as QuickTime files.

I see that Panasonic sells a DMC-ZS6 camera, which is similar to the DMC-ZS7, except that the ZS6 does not have AVCHD Lite, GPS and face recognition during video shooting. The ZS6 is less expensive, however. If you plan to use the camera for both video and photography, and want to edit the video on a familiar editing system, the DMC-ZS6 may be just what you need for less money.

Controls

If you are used to manually controlling a digital camera, you will have little trouble operating the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7. The back of the camera has the same controls the Canon G7 has, only in slightly different locations. In two weeks, I've become pretty familiar with the controls on the DMC-ZS7. Some of the controls have little contrast and are therefore hard to read, but I now know what the controls are and this is less of a problem.

Battery Life

I have not yet run the battery down flat. However, I have been out for a couple days of shooting a mix of stills and videos, and have not had the battery drop below its first (of three) markers. From this, I estimate the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7's battery will last for about 300 still shots.

A spare battery for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 costs about $28.50 from Amazon, which I consider a good price.

Oct 3, 2010 Update:

There is a chip in the glass in the middle of my lens and I have no idea how it got there. It doesn't show up in many shots but it is clearly there in some others. I'm now considering replacing my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, but I really do like the camera. From my perspective, it has been just about the best camera to carry around if I wanted both photos and videos. Bummer about the chip!

Summary

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is the best compromise camera I've seen for both video and stills. It takes good stills and it takes good video. Yes, you can get a better still-image compact digital camera and you can get a better consumer HD camcorder. However, each of those will be worse at the other function than the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is. At its price of $350 or so, that's a lot of capability in a small and relatively inexpensive package.

If you take photos and videos, and are looking for one small camera that does both fairly well, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is the best choice I've seen. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 is easy to use and easy to live with, and it has an excellent lens and some great features. Keep in mind that editing (and even viewing) video shot by the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 requires a powerful computer.