Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ10 Review
Review Date: April 7th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Conclusion
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Ratings
(out of 5) |
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| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 5 |
| Ease-of-Use | 4.5 |
| Image Quality | 4 |
| Value for Money | 4.5 |
The new Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ10 could easily go completely unnoticed in a sea of look-a-like compact digital cameras, but is actually one of the more interesting models currently available on the market. The rather conservative styling, fairly compact size and weight, and lack of any stand-out headline features all conspire to make the DMC-LZ10 a little bit bland at first glance. Take a closer look though and you quickly realise that it's one of the most versatile compacts in its class. Want to just point and shoot? Panasonic's innovative Intelligent Auto mode is perfect for you. It achieves great results in most situations with very little input required from the user. Want to take full control? Simply set the shooting mode dial to A/S/M and away you go. Want something in between? There are a wealth of scene modes on offer. Add that impressive 5x, 30mm wide-angle zoom lens, complete with true optical image stabilisation, into the mix and the DMC-LZ10 ticks all the important boxes. The 150mm focal length at the other end of the zoom range, although hampered somewhat by the slow f/5.9 maximum aperture, is still a welcome addition. It's also quite a responsive camera, with quick focusing even in low-light conditions, although the burst shooting mode of 2.5 fps for 3 images seems a little pedestrian these days.
Image quality has once again been slightly improved since the last generation of Lumix models. Panasonic have maintained noise performance, so that ISO 400 on theDMC-LZ10 is equal to ISO 400 on the older models, despite the increase in megapixels from 8 to 10. I would have preferred to see the DMC-LZ10 use an 8 megapixel sensor with better ISO performance, though, as the 2 megapixel increase doesn't make an awful lot of difference to your photos. ISO 100-400 still isn't a particularly versatile range, but the usual excellent optical image stabilisation system means that the DMC-LZ10 is still an adaptable camera, as you can take a photo at a faster ISO speed and therefore a slower shutter speed, and still get sharp results, without adversely affecting the battery life too much. The High Sensitivity mode provides a fastest ISO speed of 6400, but the image resolution is automatically reduced to 3 megapixels and there's far too much noise and blurring of detail at that speed. The extension of the ISO range up to 1600 at full image resolution is more of a marketing strategy than providing any real benefits - you won't want to use the noisy ISO 800 and 1600 settings unless there is no other alternative. Thankfully you can increase the sharpness level in the camera, as the images are quite soft by default.
The addition of full manual controls to the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ10 makes it something of a unique proposition in Panasonic's digital compact lineup - only the ageing (but still appealing) LX2 model offers similar functionality. Despite the slightly awkward control system and slow maximum apertures, having aperture-priority, shutter-priority and fully manual modes is a tangible selling point, and something that will really make a difference to your photography. The move up to 10 megapixels provides slightly larger pictures without adversely affecting image quality (although it hasn't really been improved either), performance is responsive enough, and the use of easily available Ni-Mh AA batteries considerably extends battery life. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ10 is one of those rare beasts, a pocket camera that is well-suited to both complete beginner and more experienced photographer alike. Highly recommended.
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