First Light: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7

I spent some time reading the owner's manual for my new Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 GPS-enabled point-and-shoot digital camera, selecting camera settings, and taking some test still- and motion pictures. On a five-point Likert scale from "very dissatisfied" to "very satisfied," I'd rate my satisfaction with the performance of the camera as "satisfied" (4 out of 5). There are some quirks I don't like but can live with (more later in a follow-up post), and there are some things for which I need to do more reading in the operating instructions. Overall, my first impression is mostly positive.

I'm especially pleased by the sensitivity of the built-in GPS receiver. On the third floor of a three-story building, not very close to a window, the camera's GPSr located four satellites in under a couple of minutes (from a "cold" start). After the camera acquired the GPS information, the "Auto Clock" setting adjusted the date and time accordingly. Sure enough, the EXIF data for my test photos includes GPS info (latitude/longitude). And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the best feature of this camera: The ZS7 is a well-conceived, well-designed all-in-one solution to the problem of how to geotag photos.

I bought my Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 from Amazon (shipped from and sold by Buy.com) for $344.99 including free shipping -- that's more than $50 less than the list price of $399.95!