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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 6 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Optical image stabilization; long-range, relatively fast lens; lots of handy features.
The bad: Mediocre performance; cheap build quality; some problems with image quality.
The bottom line: Poor low-light performance hinders the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5's useful features.
Specifications: Digital camera type: Compact ; Resolution: 6 megapixels ; Optical zoom: 6 x ; See full specs
Price range: $319.90 check prices
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 03/27/2006
- Released on: 02/24/2006
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 has the typical array of controls.
Panasonic loads the 6-megapixel Lumix DMC-LZ5 with useful but sometimes quirky features designed with real-world shooting situations in mind. It pairs a relatively fast (f/2.8 to f/4.5), long lens (the equivalent of 37mm to 222mm) with Panasonic's signature Mega Optical Image Stabilization to keep telephoto shots from blurring too much. The camera has 15 scene modes, including a unique Starry Sky option that lets you choose exposure times of 15, 30, or 60 seconds for astrophotography. Oddly, that last mode forces the camera to start a self-timer with a countdown equal to the exposure time.
You can adjust the camera's white-balance settings manually or even fine-tune them, as on a digital SLR. The camera also has standard preset settings such as Automatic and Halogen, usually referred to as Incandescent or Tungsten on other cameras. Unfortunately, the camera lacks a fluorescent white-balance preset.
The DMC-LZ5's five autofocus settings include a wide five-point array and a narrow spot mode. A live histogram helps you see what an exposure will look like, though the camera's low-resolution LCD renders it relatively useless.
Panasonic incorporates other small conveniences as well, such as grid lines that it displays on the screen to aid composition and a High Angle LCD mode that brightens the screen for easier viewing in above-your-head shots. The camera also has 14MB of built-in memory, although you'll want a decent-size Secure Digital card if you want to take more than a handful of shots at a time or capture movies in 30fps VGA. The camera uses two AA batteries for easy battery swapping.The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 disappoints when it comes to performance. It takes 3 seconds to wake up and has a long shutter lag of about a second. Shooting feels even more sluggish at telephoto distances, where the autofocus takes a long time to lock on to simple targets. Panasonic claims the technology will add three stops of handheld shooting latitude, but in our tests, it delivered only about one stop. The DMC-LZ5's mediocre 2.6-second shot-to-shot time doubles to an even worse 5.2 seconds when you use the camera's built-in flash. For some odd reason, the LCD blacks out while the flash recycles.
Continuous-shooting performance fares better. The DMC-LZ5 has two burst modes: a high-speed mode that achieved 3fps in our CNET Labs tests, and a low-speed burst that tested at 1.6fps. A slower but unlimited continuous mode shoots until your memory card runs out of space.
Unfortunately, the LCD has a low resolution of 85,000 pixels, and we experienced noticeable motion trails when framing our shots.
Shooting speed in seconds (Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Time to first shot | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
Typical continuous-shooting speed in frames per second (Longer bars indicate better performance)
The DMC-LZ5 has pretty typical lens geometry for a compact model. There's a bit of vignetting, the darkening and softening of the corners of the image frame at the wide end of the lens's range, but it's negligible at the telephoto end. There's some barrel distortion at the wide end but little pincushioning when zoomed out. However, focus falls off sharply on the left side, which aggravates the otherwise modest amount of chromatic aberration, the colored fringing often seen around heavily backlit objects, such as bare branches against a sky. However, photos look relatively sharp overall, especially in macro shots.
Note the combination of image noise and compression artifacts, even at the lowest setting of ISO 80, resulting in the yellow splotches in the book.
Flash performance is disappointing, with indoor pictures often coming out flat and unattractive. The sensor is extremely noisy at high sensitivities, making low-light shots all but impossible. Shots at ISO 80 and 100 are tolerable, but at ISO 200, images start to show noticeable noise and softness. ISO 400 shots have excessive noise as well as image problems such as softness, lower contrast, and color shift. Extended ISO settings of 800 and 1,600 are available, but noise above ISO 400 makes them all but unusable.
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- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 6 reviews
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Where to buy
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5K:
$319.90
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