I bought the camera as a carry along for business trips and for hiking with when I didn't want to carry all the weight of my DSLR cameras and lenses.
After 5 or six months I began to notice spots on some of the images. After sending the camera back to Panasonic for repair, they said there was some evidence on the body that the camera had been dropped and therefore the warranty was void.
After I got the camera back I googled the DMC ZS7 and "dust" and found a litany of complaints which was then verified by a local camera shop that said that the long telephoto seemed to be a dust magnet. It's a single, supposedly sealed unit but there are tons of complaints on the web about dust on the lens.
While the telephoto feature is very good, I can say that this is not a camera that you should ever consider. It's my 5th small digital camera and the only one that ever developed dust issues on the images.
Stay away.
After 5 or six months I began to notice spots on some of the images. After sending the camera back to Panasonic for repair, they said there was some evidence on the body that the camera had been dropped and therefore the warranty was void.
After I got the camera back I googled the DMC ZS7 and "dust" and found a litany of complaints which was then verified by a local camera shop that said that the long telephoto seemed to be a dust magnet. It's a single, supposedly sealed unit but there are tons of complaints on the web about dust on the lens.
While the telephoto feature is very good, I can say that this is not a camera that you should ever consider. It's my 5th small digital camera and the only one that ever developed dust issues on the images.
Stay away.
