A perfect travel and all-purpose camera
Pros:
Good battery life, AAs, long zoom, image stabilization, size, weight, controls
Cons:
Somewhat noisy images at high ISOs in low light.
The Bottom Line:
One hellova camera for the money. Long optical zoom and optical image stabilization set it apart from all others in its class. Great ergonomics, excellent well-saturated photos.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I bought this camera (the black version of the LZ5) for an extended trip to Europe to supplement my larger Lumix super-zoom. The size and weight make it ideal for travel. Easy to hold, no lens cap to lose, sharp pix, even in very low light, thanks to the accurate optical image stabilization. It is important to experiment and read the manual to make the best use of this camera in differing situations- it comes with many interesting options (the "normal" mode is great for 80% of shots). Also, experiment with flash on/off. The camera has built in handy 14MB of flash memory, and I know it works with a 2 GB high-speed SD card. Movie mode is also fun, easy and good. Turns on quickly, time between shots negligible. Well made, rugged; large hi-res 2.5" LCD. The 6X optical (much more in digital range) is more than adequate for in-camera-before-taking-the-shot cropping, so your editing time later is greatly reduced, and results much better, even if you step down to 3 MP mode to save storage space. Very sharp, well saturated pix. As reviews will show you, high ISO settings in low light will result in some noise and artifacts, which may or may not bother you. There is software, such as NoiseNinja that can remove it. That said, I used to have a digicam without image stabilization, and my low light pix were usually blurry- not so with this camera, noise or not - I've taken some amazing hand-held night and cathedral photos without flash. This is my second Lumix camera, and I'll never buy any other camera that doesn't have this type of image stabilization- they're definitely on the right track here. Battery life is excellent, and standard AA rechargables work great- bring a few sets and leave the charger at home. Comparing the pictures made with this camera and my much larger, more expensive 12X zoom FZ20, they are virtually identical for all practical purposes. Manual controls, etc. are nice, but having a camera of the quality and size of the LZ5 is not much of a compromise, and in fact is much simpler and faster to use- you don't miss the shots you would getting out a larger camera (and don't attract unwanted attention). Some cameras are too small and unwieldy; this one is a perfect size for superior pictures with the minimum of fuss. Highly recommended.
