The Panasonic DMC LZ5 is a six megapixel digital camera with a six times optical zoom lens. There are very few digital cameras around offering a six times optical zoom so the DMC LZ5 offers something different. It is also one of the few digital cameras in its price bracket with optical image stabilisation.

In terms of features I would describe the camera as a simple, point and shoot model. Therefore this camera is suited to anyone who is not too serious about their photography, but likes the idea of the extra zoom power.

Having reviewed a number of Panasonic digital cameras now I am beginning to know what to expect from them. Picture quality is consistently of a high quality, especially when considering the average price of their cameras.

The DMC LZ5 upholds the reputation of the Panasonic brand. Once again I found the photos it produced to be crisp and with strong colours.

Running through the test photos these attributes are immediately apparent when looking at the outdoor scenic type shots. One way I have of gauging how sharp the images are is by checking the bricks and roof tiles of the building in the first shot. In both instances the levels of clarity are some way above average and the DMC LZ5 outperforms many more expensive digital cameras when it comes to the sharpness of the images it produces. Another important factor when determining focusing is whether or not the pictures look softer towards the edges. Again the DMC LZ5 does well with no noticeable loss of focus as you move out towards the edges of each photo.

Next on my check list is colour. The camera produces strong, vivid colours. The skies are bluer than other cameras managed to produce despite the fact I tested them at the same time as the DMC LZ5. This observation is also backed up by my dedicated test for colour. This shows the colours to be strong without any one colour being over dominant.

The third outdoor scenic shot does show a small amount of purple fringing. This is where a thin purple line is added to the outside of light coloured objects. This tends to occur when the zoom lens is fully extended and you are outside in the sunshine. Purple fringing is something that seems to affect all super zoom digital cameras to varying degrees. It is more of a minor problem with this camera. This could be because the length of the zoom lens falls at the lower end of the super zoom range.

Other key points worth mentioning are that the camera handles glare from the sun well and also manages to bring out a fair amount of detail in darker areas of each photo.

Taking a look at the outdoor portrait shot it has a pleasant warm glow to it. This helps to accentuate the skin tones. I used a white balance setting of cloudy for this picture as it was taken in overcast conditions. I would class the photo as being above average.

For the indoor portrait the DMC LZ5 has no problem in focusing despite the less than perfect lighting. This helps to produce another sharply focused picture. The level of detail is good and the flash adds a lot of brightness to the picture.

The strong flash is also evident in the indoor shot of some beer bottles. This photo is taken in more or less complete darkness and underlines the strength of the flash. You do need to be careful with the flash unit though as from time to time you may find it over exposes (makes too bright) photos.

Another example of sharp focusing can be found in the macro shot. This is another clear and bright photo. I would say that this camera should be good enough if you are looking for a relatively inexpensive camera for Ebay auction shots.

The final test is for photos at ISO 400. As with other Panasonic models the DMC LZ5 is not one of the best at this setting. There is a clear deterioration in picture quality.

I was able to take a single shot in 0.51 seconds and five shots in 11.75 seconds. These are both fairly slow times and many digital cameras are able to better them.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

The camera offers three types of zoom. The first is 6x optical zoom. The focal length of the lens is equivalent to 37-222mm in 35mm format. The lens aperture works in the range Wide: F2.8/F5.6 (2 steps) Tele: F4.5 - F9 (2 steps). The second type of zoom is extended optical zoom. This offers the same quality as standard optical zoom, but is only available at lower resolutions. The maximum extended optical zoom available is 8.3x. The extended optical zoom figure includes the 6x standard optical zoom and is not in addition to it. There is also 4x digital zoom.

The LCD screen is 2.5". It is made up of around 85,000 pixels. One additional feature of the LCD screen is something called high angle. This is a special setting that helps you to see the screen clearly when it is held above your head. This could be helpful when you are trying to take a shot over a crowd.

The built in flash unit has a maximum range of 4.2m. This falls to around 2.6m when the zoom lens is in use. In high sensitivity mode only the flash range can increase to 5.7m. The flash modes available to use are Auto, Auto/Red-eye Reduction, Slow Sync./Red-eye Reduction, Forced On and Forced Off.

The auto focus system offers a number of different metering methods. These are 1 point 1 point high speed, 3 points high speed, 5 points and Spot. For close up work the camera can focus from 5cm away from the subject.

To provide a bit of extra help with picture taking there are a range of scene modes available to you. When a scene mode is selected the camera becomes aware of the type of picture you are about to take. It will then use what it considers to be the optimum settings. The scene modes are Portrait, Sports, Food, Scenery, Night Scenery, Night Portrait, Fireworks, Party, Snow, Baby, Soft Skin, Starry Sky, Candle, Soft Skin, Baby1, Baby2 and High Sensitivity.

When you are taking a photo you can opt to record five seconds of sound when the picture is taken. You can appear in photos yourself by activating the self timer. A delay of either two or ten seconds is available. To help get the exposure right a histogram can be displayed on the LCD screen.

Once a picture has been taken you may wish to display it on a computer, widescreen television or make a print of it. The problem is that all of these are different shapes. To help you get around this there are three different aspect ratios you can select from when taking a photo. The first is 4:3 this matches the dimensions of a computer screen. The next is 16:9. This is ideal for a widescreen television. The next is 3:2. This allows you to make 6x4" prints without the need for the image to be trimmed before printing.

After a picture has been taken it can be trimmed. A smaller copy can be made as well. This could be suitable for sending by email or displaying on the Internet. You can also add up to 10 seconds of commentary to an image.

A number of more advanced features are available. These include ISO sensitivity (Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400 (High Sensitivity Mode: 800 - 1600)), white balance (auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Halogen, Flash, White Set White Balance Adjustment (except for Auto Set)), exposure compensation (1/3 EV Step, ± 2 EV) and auto bracketing (+1/3EV-1EV Step, 3 Frames). Backlight compensation is also available in simple mode.

Shutter speeds normally work in a range between 8 and 1/2000 seconds. In starry sky mode 15, 30 and 60 second delay periods are available.

To add something different to a photo you can add picture adjustments (Natural, Standard, Vivid) and colour effects (Cool, Warm, Black & White, Sepia).

For taking a number of consecutive photos there is a burst mode and a continuous shooting mode. The burst mode allows you to capture up to eight images in standard mode and six images in fine mode. Continuous shooting lets you keep taking shots until the memory card is full, but at a slower rate to burst mode.

Movies length is only limited by the capacity of the memory card. Sound can be recorded with the movie, but there is no speaker to play back the sound on the camera itself. Zoom can be used before the movie is recorded, but not while recording is in progress. The maximum resolution for a movie is 640 x 480 pixels. The top recording speed is thirty frames per second.

Panasonic supplies all the necessary cables and software to connect the DMC LZ5 to a computer, television set and PictBridge compatible printer.

Ease of use is another area where the DMC LZ5 scores highly. In fact this is an area where Panasonic are especially strong. The simplicity of their cameras is mainly down to one of the most simple menu systems available. If this is still too complicated for you there is a simple mode available. This cuts down the options to an absolute minimum. There is also text help available to help you get the most out of the many scene modes.

Buttons and dials place most key controls at your fingertips. These cover shooting mode, flash, self timer, accessing the menu, macro and deleting images. Zoom is controlled through a ring on the top of the camera.

You can pick up a Panasonic DMC LZ5 for around £165. This compares to around £210 for a Canon Powershot A700, £175 for a Nikon Coolpix L1 and £185 for a Fuji Finepix S5600.

There are very few 6x optical zoom cameras around. Perhaps the most interesting comparison is with the Fuji Finepix S5600. This is a 10x optical zoom digital camera with manual exposure features. It is also a lot larger than the DMC LZ5. Therefore the choice could come down to paying less for a smaller, simpler camera or more for the extra zoom and features.

Style is not one of the strong points of the camera. There is not really anything wrong with it, but at the same time it is not going to stand out from a crowd. It is made of plastic, has a fairly typical rectangular shape and has a grip on the front to help hold the camera steady. You can choose between a silver or black version. It weighs 186g and has dimensions of 100 x 62 x 45mm.

Two AA batteries are used to provide power to the camera. Panasonic estimate that you should be able to take around 235 shots with the supplied batteries. The camera also has an economy mode helping you to control battery consumption.

Panasonic have built 14mb of storage into the DMC LZ5. No memory card is supplied with the camera as standard. I was only able to take four photos before the memory card was full. Therefore I would advise you to consider picking up a high capacity memory card to go with the camera. It is compatible with SD cards.

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Image stabilisation
Aspect ratios
Picture quality
Longer zoom
Ease of use

Shutter lag
Small internal memory

I enjoyed reviewing the Panasonic DMC LZ5. It seems to me to be a well thought out digital camera. It takes good pictures, is easy to use, offers extra zoom and also has image stabilisation. It is well priced and is worthy of close consideration.

Panasonic DMC LZ5 Front View

Panasonic DMC LZ5 Back View

Panasonic DMC LZ5 Top View

Sample Menus

Description:	6 megapixels with a 6x optical zoom lens
Ease of Use:	9
Features:	7
Colour:	8
Macro:	9
Indoors:	8
Value for Money:	9
Style:	7
Movie Mode:	8
Image Quality:	8
Build Quality:	8
Total:	81
Verdict:	"The Panasonic DMC LZ5 offers something different to many digital cameras. It is an easy to use, point and shoot camera, but with a longer (6x) than standard optical zoom lens. Picture quality is good and the camera has optical image stabilisation. Well worth checking out."
Review Date:	June 2006
Click for:	Specification Sample Images Features

Camera	Rating
Panasonic DMC FZ28	86
Panasonic DMC FZ8	85
Canon Powershot SX100 IS	85
Olympus SP-570 UZ	84
Canon Powershot S5 IS	83
Panasonic DMC FZ18	83
Panasonic DMC TZ5	83
Panasonic DMC TZ4	83

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, please make sure you double check the feature set and specification at the point of purchase.

Panasonic DMC LZ5