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CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 07/07/2002
- Updated on: 10/30/2002
Surprisingly svelte
The F7 gave us a surprise right out of the box--it's a marked improvement over Panasonic's earlier forays into the category. Outwardly, the 6.5-ounce (with the battery and the media installed) camera follows the aesthetic trail blazed by Canon's line: ultracompact, boxy, and metallic, with no protrusions to snag fabric when you slide the camera into a shirt pocket. The lens retracts completely behind a manually operated sliding cover. You slide the camera's On switch one click to open the lens cover and a second click to power up the camera.
The F7's minimal physical controls are fairly well thought out. Despite the small size of the camera, its buttons and switches are large enough for adult-sized fingers to manipulate comfortably. However, only the most basic settings--flash, macro and landscape modes, and self-timer--can be changed with the touch of a button. All other functions must be accessed through reasonably well-organized menus on the 1.5-inch LCD. That keeps the body uncluttered, but it also makes taking advantage of the camera's feature set a more arduous process than we'd like to go through.
Covering the basics
Those who don't mind doing a little scrolling will be rewarded with a solid basic feature set, as well as a few more advanced controls. Among the notable options are spot metering, manual white balance, slow-sync flash, and adjustable light sensitivity. There's also an unusual Night Scene white-balance preset. Through the playback menu, you can make black-and-white, sepia, or color-negative copies of your images in-camera.
As with many competing models, there's a continuous-shooting mode, and you can record short video clips at a resolution suitable for e-mailing. Unfortunately, though, there's no microphone to capture audio. One feature that's both an asset and a limitation is the F7's 2X Leica DC Vario-Elmarit zoom lens. While its quality contributes to the leap forward in image quality that Panasonic has made with the Lumix cameras, its zoom range makes the F7 less versatile than the many competing models that offer 3X optical zooms. Continue reading
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