i was finally able to recover the account that i made here circa March 2009. i would be post-posting (you know, posting an article long after you made them? haha) things butt i think my first actual and legal posting would be a review of Panasonic's ZS7.
pictures are next. haha.
here it is:
My 7 months of trying to find the camera that would best suit me has finally come to an end. It was not really an easy task. It took me a long time because of two things… first, I wanted to get my money’s worth. And second, I was too lazy. Hahaha. I would browse the net for camera reviews, but would discard the camera once I get to know it. I would do the same thing for about a week or so until im tired and would totally forget that I was searching for a camera. Then after a few weeks, I would then remember. And the cycle would go for weeks and weeks and weeks. Im as clueless as you are as to why I keep on forgetting.
I have stumbled upon tons and tons of camera. My point then is, I wanted something cheap since I know I would replace that after a year or so. My first budget was around Five Thousand Pesos. Reduced to Four. Reduced to Three, until one day, I finally decided I’m not going to buy a camera.
I had no idea.
My cousin, my 8 year old female cousin, got a ZS3 from her father, which is obviously my uncle, when he bought a better cam. The day before our trip to Batangas and Tagaytay, I asked if I could borrow her ZS3 and without hesitation, she said yes. So I used it. Then used the camera for my own sake after the trip.
The camera was a thing of beauty. And not only that, it had Leica lenses, and great reviews.
I decided to buy myself a zs3.
Then I found out about ZS7, and I was in love, ever since. Okay, what really entranced me to buy was it’s manual controls which I would be talking about that later.
And you might want to read my post why I didn’t bother buying a DSLR with all that money.(which is now gone, im telling you, haha)
So while I still got the most bad-ass of the ZS series, and just a few days before ZS8 and 10(they said they would release it by March 2011), here’s my review.
One of the major marketing strategy of camera makers today is the rage about megapixels. People would actually think that the larger the megapixel is, the greater the camera. Actually, no. it’s so easy to fall for the Greater Megapixel Greater Camera mantra if you’re just starting digital photography. But let me tell you now that a higher megapixel will not actually make your picture nicer. There are many factors, like what you are shooting, the light, the make of the lenses, and of course, the camera sensor. I repeat, a higher megapixel does not mean and does not guarantee (it never did) great quality.
Hence I am stuck with my ZS7 with a 12 megapixel and 14megapixel sensor.
However, even with a mere 1 /2.33” (quoting internet friends on this, haha) the camera performed well. Incredibly well.
I don’t really know if you can trust me with explaining if the colors it capture is true to life. If you need any reminding, im not the kind of guy who should be buying a decent camera but a Lomocam. I like my pictures blurry, over and underexposed (overexposed, more often than not, haha), over saturated and something that a normal photographer would usually discard. (I still don’t know what made me buy this. haha)
But to soothe your raging hormones, yes. The zs7 does capture great pictures with its wonderful Leica lens. I remember reading Boys Be manga from a friend of mine. There was this story in which a guy found out a girl who was using a Leica lens (or was that a camera? Shees, am I getting old!)…. Well, anyway, enough with that.
Back to the camera. Yes, it does capture fine pictures. And I’ll show you the pictures later if you would be a good reader. Hahahaha.
The zs7 is blessed with a 3 inch monitor and has a lovely resolution of 4,000x3,000 pixels/460k dots so high it’s not even funny. i mean, no other camera would come close to this! Even a bad picture would come out great when viewed through it’s screen.
You’d really have a fancy time reviewing what you took. And would later be surprised that it’s not that great when you get to see it on a PC, haha.
It has 29 presets, which is more than enough for a shooter. What else would you be needing anyway? Though I admit Canon’s color swap is fairly cool. Haha.
I would really not explain each one of those presets since im usually on Starry Night. You can go to a different website for a decent review written with someone who actually has a sane mind.
To utilize the ultra cool zoom that it has, I advise you to go somewhere bright. Or daylight. Or whatever. Just don’t expect the same quality if it’s night time. More on that later. So back to the zoom. It has an optical and a digital zoom. But it’s process is much more complicated. Panasonic did something with it and it’s just to technical and cool that I could feel my already full brain about to explode. Okay, so what did we learn? If you want to fully experience what Panasonic is claiming, that 16x zoom of theirs, I really suggest you do that when the sun is up, because…
Like the 90% of cameras littering the world, the zs7 performed poorly on low’light shooting. There’s automatic ISO shooting, and an upgraded iA. But still, its night time pictures are not too stellar. Someone said that you can rely in it’s iA because it can be trusted. I suppose… but do that during normal business hours if you get my drift. Haha.
Also, the Image Stabilizer, as they call it, sometimes, doesn’t work. I mean, yeah, it just means it would clear out the flaws that you took not entirely freeze an object with your pic, but usually, it doesn’t work. I mean, it ddnt work for me, anyway. More so at night.
Okay, the thing that really got me into buying it is it’s manual controls. There’s aperture priority, shutter priority, and a full manual control. It doesn’t have much aperture options as a micro four-thirds or a DSLR, and I don’t think those marginal intervals really does anything, but if you don’t give a damn about the aperture controls, you can just play with the shutter priority button. I had fun with it more than I did with the aperture settings. Haha
I don’t really give a damn about the GPS thingy. I mean, why would I want to inform you guys where the shot was taken? And I don’t think im not senile p forget where I shoot it. Not yet, anyway. Oh yeah, I think I forget where I put the camera, damn it.
So wile im looking for that camera, I want to tell you that unlike other cameras, you can actually use its optical zoom while shooting a video… or recording one. To do that, all you have to do is press this button and you’d immediately be shooting pictures. However, there’s no pause button. So if you press that again, you’d end your recording even if you don’t want to. And be careful, don’t shoot directly to that thing called Sun if you’re on video mode. It has some problems with light flaring, and it would look like as if there as portal there when you shoot the sun.
It’s a great camera but not without flaws. Minor ones. I think.
Okay, it may appear as im killing the zs7 with my review, but nooooooo way. Im actually pretty happy with my camera. In fact, I want to kiss it… in fact, I just did! Yeah, I found it and kissed it, hahahaha. It has wonderful lenses, great image quality, and really great zoom. Plus manual controls, and Starry Night (one of the presets) which I use almost every time not only during the evenings.
It’s black and it has a sturdy feel. At this point, I don’t care if it was made out of metal, or plastic, or even grilled cheese. I love it, like very part of it. Haha
Also this was my first time of getting a cream-of-the-crop camera, and l laabbbbbbeeettttt!! Hahaha
Oh Panasonic, why do you have to ruin my Happy Dance by releasing ZS10? Come one, take that back, ZS7 is pretty cool, pleeeaaseeee?
