Panasonic - Lumix DMC-LZ7 Review

I received this camera as a Christmas present and could not be more pleased with it.  I have dropped it several times in snow, water, on rocks, etc and it still works!  There are chips on the casing, but it works very well still.

It can zoom up to 36x, which is the most I have ever seen out of a $125 camera.  The pictures it takes are excellent.  I am using it for my photography class at university and it is perfect.  The camera has lots of pre-set modes for people who aren't camera-savvy (including some cool ones like candlelight, fireworks, etc that I'd not seen in a camera before).  You can put it in a semi-manual mode to tweak some of the settings yourself and change the exposure, or just leave it on simple automatic mode.

This camera would be best for someone who wants a step up from a basic point-and-shoot but doesn't want to go whole hog with one of the big, hefty digital SLR cameras.  It's a good compromise between automatic and manual, and the zoom and sturdy build make it jsut that much better.