It is a 16x optical zoom and a 24x digital zoom. Either way, I have this camera and absolutely love it. Can zoom in on videos which to ma are awesome! Great camera and a $100 less than the price I paid for it.
Used this during vacation in Europe. Good pics, excellent zoom, GPS is so-so. Takes a long time (~90 to 120 secs) for the GPS to lock, unless you are in a wide open field. CMOS sensor, some folks complain about that, but it was good enough for me.
I have had two of the predecessor models of cameras in this line. They both took awesome pictures. The zoom and image stabilization are unbelievably good for a pocket camera.
I probably won’t buy this one, though, because I had some issues with the second camera: after a few months I started seeing lines of bad pixels in the LCD screen. Because I bought that one new, they replaced it with a refurbished one, and after two months the screen on that one went totally kablooie WHILE I WAS ON VACATION IN ITALY. I mean the screen turned into a colorful test pattern.
I don’t think I’m brave enough to buy Panasonic refurbished. It’s a shame, though, because I need a camera, since my old one went kablooie.