Lumix TZ7 ZS3 replacement battery
Last week I managed to get a second hand Panasonic Lumix TZ7 off eBay for a fantastic price. As I want to use it on my holiday as both a still camera and a camcorder I decided to get a couple of spare batteries but the Genuine replacements from Panasonic are such a high price I decided to get a couple of after-market jobbies.
After reading about how Panasonic decided to hard code into the camera the ability to detect an after-market battery and not allow the camera to function I was a bit dubious as to wether I was wasting my money.
The good news is that I have purchased two batteries off eBay and they both work fine in the camera with no issues at all. The firmware is v1.2 (which is supposed to contain the battery checking ability) but it still works OK. Happy days!
By the way - I have taken some shots with this camera and it is absolutely fantastic. However, indoors shots in iA mode with the flash enabled leaves a lot to be desired as far as exposure is concerned (the flash does not have a lot of reach). The image stabilisation is the best I have seen. Plus it has very low noise at ISO400 so I guess with a bit of practice I can get some good indoor shots.
Its overall a great piece of tech.