The photos below dramatically show the extent of the 12x zoom on my new Panasonic Lumix DMZ-TZ10 (aka DMC-ZS7 in America). The shots are of a raft in the Karawau River near Queenstown, that picks up people after they’ve done the famous ‘original’ bungy jump off an old swing bridge.

Zoomed right out (equivalent to 25mm on a 35mm SLR)

Zoomed right in (equivalent to 300mm on a 35mm SLR)