Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just returned from a two week trip to England with my family where I was able to put the camera through its paces shooting around 300 pictures and 5 hours of video. While most of the pics and video looked great with its big sensor, there is more to a camera than the quality of the pics/video....there is its functionality and build quality. These issues were great enough for me that I am returning the camera in the morning and waiting for the next version that I'm sure will fix many of these issues. Body Issues. I have the Lumix ZS7 that I really appreciate now that I have used the ZS50. why? Because of the following: - The ZS50 has its flash right above where you grip the camera so your fingers more often then not will be blocking the flash. Its fine if you always use two hands to grip this small camera so you can drop your right hand out of the way of the flash, but there are many situations where I hold it with one hand and those are the ones where your fingers will keep blocking the flash (see first 3 photos). And whenever I handed the camera to a stranger to take our picture, they always blocked the flash, even when I warned them about it. The ZS7 has the flash skewed toward the center of the body, away from where you are gripping the camera, where this is never an issue. - Bigger screen? Its not all used for some strange reason. Actually has a bigger screen but small image than the PS7 (see last photo) - The control knob that rotates between all the shooting functions is printed with a dull ink against a flat background providing very low contrast which makes it very difficult to read in low light situations. The ZS7 had black lettering against a shiny silver background making it easy to read in low light. (see 4th photo...looks ok here in bright light but cant read in dim light) - When the camera is first turned on, the lens extends out 3 times as far from the body as the ZS7 (see 4th & 5th photos for min and max extensions). And this is in the wide angle position!! (ie it extends out even farther when zooming in on a subject). This 4th image is as far in as it will contract when turned on for pics or video -The body has a textured plastic surface which I personally dont like as it feels cheap compared to the solid, smooth gloss surface of the PS7. Functionality: - One of the most annoying things was its inability to focus on subjects when shooting video in what equated to bright dusk lighting (ie 1/2 hour after sunset). I would repeatedly try to zoom in on a subject maybe 50 away but the camera kept searching for its focus point. It focused if I zoomed all the way out but when I zoomed in, it lost its focus again. Isnt this supposed to be great in low light?!? This happened about 5-6 times on various days/situations. Never had this issue with the ZS7. There is no excuse for this. - Another deal killer for me is that when shooting video, its nearly impossible to zoom in or out at a slow rate, no matter how light one feathered the control. It flies in out out with the slightest touch. When shooting video, in most situations you want to pan slowly, which is controlled by your body, but also to zoom in and out slowly, which was impossible. When played back on a big screen, the excessively fast zooming is very annoying. Summary deal killers for me were - fingers constantly in front of the flash. - difficulty in reading control knob in low light - problem focusing - inability to zoom and out slowly Annoying: - Smaller image on screen - Cheap feel of the body - Excessive extension of lens from body While these may not bother a novice photographer, I'm looking for a pocket size camera with better design and functionality to back up my professional SLRs...like my PS7 with a bigger sensor!