Roundup: Compact Digital Cameras : Panasonic DMC-LZ10
By
Digital Versus,
published on June 16, 2009
Powered by
Contents
34. Panasonic DMC-LZ10
The end of the AA format for panasonic
With its new collection of compact cameras, Panasonic has changed over from AAs, rechargeable or not. From the bottom of the range up to the most expensive, its cameras will now be powered exclusively by its branded batteries.
Whats more, they will come with an identification chip. This will prevent you using any other battery, officially for security reasons. Obviously its also a way of making sure Panasonic keeps battery profits to itself, but theres also the question of whether theyll keep supplying them in years to come
While some Panasonic compacts (the TZ range and to a lesser extent, the FX range) are sorely lacking in priority and functionality, the LZ range has all the advanced funtions. This LZ10 is the most recent in the line. What is it worth?
Handling
- Lumix DMC-LZ10K Silver...
The Lumix LZ10 handles rather nicely and is is well built, but doesn't have the quality of the FX range however. The metal outside seems resistant and only the plastic catch seems a little fragile. There’s a nice bulge on the front of the camera that, along with the grippy covering, means you really have something to grab.
On the top of the camera, the buttons are easy to handle and manipulate: the zoom and the shoot, a pullback for start-up and a button for the automatic zoom. Note the scroll to select shoot mode. The LZ10 is indeed one of the rare Panasonic compacts with both automatic iA and A and S priority modes, and the manual M mode.
This scroll also serves to activate scene and video modes. At the back there’s quite a small, 2.5-inch LCD screen, but with good definition (230,000 pixels).
On the top of the camera, the buttons are easy to handle and manipulate: the zoom and the shoot, a pullback for start-up and a button for the automatic zoom. Note the scroll to select shoot mode. The LZ10 is indeed one of the rare Panasonic compacts with both automatic iA and A and S priority modes, and the manual M mode.
It has a classic interface--a selective gamepad and the famous touch Q-Menu--that allows you access to the main settings on the camera. Note however the new Exposure button that allows you to go from aperture to speed settings when the camera is in mode M. A scroll would have been useful, however to make these priority modes more fluid. As it is, you have to use the gamepad which isn’t the most practical of solutions.
Is the LZ10 fast? The camera has a good rhythm when it comes to set up: 0.70 seconds in full daylight, and 0.85 seconds for zoomx3. Saving and moving on to the next photo is also ok: 1.8 seconds when other compacts are over 2 seconds. The start-up is rather long however, a little over 2 seconds, and the burst mode reasonable at 2.5 images per second.
Is the LZ10 fast? The camera has a good rhythm when it comes to set up: 0.70 seconds in full daylight, and 0.85 seconds for zoomx3. Saving and moving on to the next photo is also ok: 1.8 seconds when other compacts are over 2 seconds. The start-up is rather long however, a little over 2 seconds, and the burst mode reasonable at 2.5 images per second.
Image quality
The 10 million pixel sensor attached to the lens provides a good-quality, even image. The zoom is almost wide-angle (30-mm) and 5x making, it relatively capable across the board. It’s a shame that the macro mode doesn’t give better performance. The processor rectifies any chromatic aberrations, and very few adjustments are needed for lens deformation.
Optical stabilization gives clear images at low aperture speeds: in our test on the Barbie, we acquired a shot at 1/5 of a second. There is noise as of the lowest settings: 100 ISO. This doesn’t matter on a 4 x 6 inch or even an A4 though. Beyond that, you start to see blurriness of details. The detail is pretty much okay up to 400 ISO, but beyond that, the chromatic aberration is clearly visible in dark areas. Without competing with the models at the top of the game, the noise management on the Lumix LZ10 is really pretty good.
Optical stabilization gives clear images at low aperture speeds: in our test on the Barbie, we acquired a shot at 1/5 of a second. There is noise as of the lowest settings: 100 ISO. This doesn’t matter on a 4 x 6 inch or even an A4 though. Beyond that, you start to see blurriness of details. The detail is pretty much okay up to 400 ISO, but beyond that, the chromatic aberration is clearly visible in dark areas. Without competing with the models at the top of the game, the noise management on the Lumix LZ10 is really pretty good.
The video mode is not confined to 640 x 480 pixels, and can go up to 848 x 640 pixels for 30 images per second. This gives a good clear fluid image that will be better on a large screen.
| Panasonic DMC-LZ10 | |
|---|---|
| Pluses | Minuses |
|
|
| The Lumix LZ10 is a compact all-purpose with the advantages of all automatics (iA) and priority modes. The absence of a true wide-angle is compensated by the 5x zoom and effective stabilization. Only the start-up, which is slow,is a drawback. |  |
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
should have classified the cameras to at least price and/or final rating. i got discouraged to read.
When you say classified, what do you mean? Do you mean the pages should go in order of price, or in order of rating? Such as the cheap ones at the beginning and the expensive ones at the end OR the best cameras at the top and the worst cameras at the bottom?
i meant group them by chosen price ranges/brackets or any feature you think is relevant since comparison between cameras is just difficult with the present format wherein it is only possible to compare models of a certain brand.
It would have been nice if all the cameras were given scores (yes I know this is very subjective, but so are all the comments and pro/con sections). Idealy they would be given su scores as well (i.e. a still picture score, a video score, a asthetics score, a usablity score, maybe some others) and then the cameras could be sorted by those scores with links, maybey a short blurb at each camera in the sorted list. Another thing that would be very usefull to myself and I assume other readers is a features table that allows us to compare all the cameras.