My first digital camera

After a lot of research, I made the decision to purchase the Lumix DMC-LZ5 camera. My favorite thing about this camera is that it has 6x optical zoom. The other cameras that I looked at in this price range couldn't top that and considering digital zoom capability, of course, affects the quality of the photo taken, the optical zoom was a major selling point for me. I use this camera almost daily, and haven't yet had the opportunity to use all of the multiple photo settings. The picture modes are fairly easy to use and change and it's worth learning their different uses as 'easy mode' doesn't take full advantage of this camera's capability to produce quality photographs. This camera performs wonderfully when taking photos outdoors, and indoors in the right lighting. It takes excellent quality photos in portrait mode. I have actually one a few photo contests with entries I took with this camera. I have now owned the camera for about a year and haven't had any problems with it. I use rechargable batteries with it, and have to charge them about once or twice a month. The camera can be frustrating to use when you want to take multiple shots indoors, as this is when it's shutter lag is at it's worse. It can take up to 5 seconds to auto focus, shoot, and write to the memory card before it's ready to shoot again. I even bought a highspeed memory card for it... this did not improve things one bit. Overall, it's a great camera for the price. I would definitely buy another panasonic camera, but thankfully I won't have to buy another camera for quite some time!