Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7 is a compact camera that manages to squeeze a 10x zoom lens into its svelte form factor.

The 14-megapixel camera is light on bells and whistles—it records 1080p video and has a good number of scene modes, but lacks GPS, Wi-Fi, and other extras to set it apart from the crowd.

The 3-inch LCD occupies the bulk of the rear of the camera, but there's room for physical controls to its right. The display is sharp at 460k dots, but its viewing angle is rather poor.

At just 2.4 by 3.9 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and 4.8 ounces, the SZ7 is slim and light, especially when you remember that it squeezes a 10x (25-250mm) zoom lens into its body.

The SZ7 delivers very respectable performance in terms of speed. It starts and shoots in 2 seconds, records a 0.2-second shutter lag, and can shoot a 4-shot burst of photos with 0.1 second between shots.

I used Imatest to measure the sharpness of the SZ7's lens. It fell short of the 1,800 lines per picture height required for sharp images, notching only 1,563 lines using a center-weighted testing method.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-SZ7 is not a bad camera—it does a good job at ISO 800 and below, is fairly slim, and delivers a good 10x zoom range. It's hampered by a lens that isn't nearly as sharp as others in its class and a LCD that suffers from poor viewing angles.

We shot the standard PCMag Labs studio test scene using the Lumix SZ7.

This crop displays the level of detail that the SZ7's lens is capable of recording.