It is a panasonic LZ5. It has a lecia lens in it. I bought this camera a little while ago because i have a DSLR and i firgued i could use both and instead of using my 20d, i could use this. Well that didnt work, and i only used my 20d. I paid 250 for the camera. I used it for about a week. I took about 30 pictures with it. So im putting it out here and seeing if anyone is interested. It takes great sharp pictures. It has IS so if your shaking are something, that pictures are still sharp. It can take movies, it shoots quicktime at 30fps. Here is a sample video from a website. http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_lz5-review/P1000038.MOV I looking for about 150 or something. There are not marks are anything on it. PM me about any questions. Trades are possible. Thanks.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5
($279) is a midsize point-and-shoot camera with two standout features.
The first is its lens; where most cameras in this class have 3X or 4X
lenses, the LZ5's is 6X. The second feature is one found on all of
Panasonic's cameras, and that's image stabilization. This very handy
feature lets you take sharp photos at shutter speeds that would be
blurry on other cameras.
Other features on the LZ5 include a 6 Megapixel CCD, 2.5" LCD display, VGA movie mode, and a "high sensitivity mode" that seems to be all the rage these days.
The LZ5 has a little brother as well, known as the DMC-LZ3.
This camera shares many of the features of the LZ5, except that it has
a 5.0 Megapixel CCD, 2.0" LCD display, and no microphone.
The DMC-LZ5 has the same F2.8-4.5, 6X optical zoom lens as the LZ1 and LZ2 before it. Unlike most of the cameras in Panasonic's lineup, the lens has Panasonic rather than Leica branding. The focal length of the lens is 6.1 - 36.6 mm, which is equivalent to 37 - 222 mm. The lens is not threaded.
The LZ5 has the same optical image stabilizer as the other cameras in the series. Here are two examples of why you want this feature. Ever taken a indoor photo without flash, only to be disappointed when its blurry? Or what about when you're taking a picture near the telephoto end of the lens and the photo is blurry, despite a fast shutter speed? The OIS system can help.
Sensors
in the camera detect this motion and an element in the lens is shifted
to compensate for the shake. This lets you use shutter speeds 3-4 stops
slower than what you can use on an unstabilized camera. For example, a
1/30 sec shutter speed will result in a blurry photos for most people
(unless you have hands of stone), but with image stabilization you'll
most likely get a nice, sharp photo. In actuality you can shoot even
slower, as this sample illustrates:
As you can see, the OIS system is very effective, but there are two things to remember. One, it won't work miracles: you can't take a night shot like the one seen later in this review without a tripod. Two, the OIS system cannot compensate for blur caused by a moving subject -- it's only for camera shake.
To the immediate upper-right of the lens is the AF-assist lamp, which is also the self-timer lamp. The AF-assist lamp is used by the camera as a focusing aid in low light situations.
Above
that is the built-in flash. Despite being on the small side, the flash
strength was about average, with a working range of 0.3 - 4.2 m at
wide-angle and 0.5 - 2.6 m at telephoto. You cannot attach an external
flash to the LZ5.
One of the major changes on the LZ5 versus the LZ1 and LZ2 is in the LCD size department. The screen is now 2.5 inches, though the resolution is lacking. The screen has just 85,000 pixels, and it shows. Outdoor visibility was average, and the LZ5 lacks the "Power LCD" feature (found on some other Panasonic cameras) which makes it easier to see in those situations. Low light visibility, on the other hand, was very good.
As you can see, there is no optical viewfinder on the LZ5 (nor was there on the LZ1/LZ2). Whether that's a bad thing is sort of up to you. Some people (like me) require them, others could care less.
To the right of the LCD is the four-way controller, which is used for menu navigation, plus:
- Up - Backlight compensation, exposure compensation, white balance fine-tuning, auto bracketing (see below)
- Down - Review (quickly jumps to playback mode)
- Left - Self-timer (2 or 10 seconds)
- Right - Flash setting (Auto, auto w/redeye reduction, flash on, slow sync w/redeye reduction)
I want to talk about those options that appear when you press the "up" button on the four-way controller. Backlight compensation is something you can toggle on and off while in "simple mode" -- use it if your subject has a bright light source behind them. Exposure compensation is the usual -2EV to +2EV in 1/3EV increments like on every camera. Auto bracketing takes three shots in a row with each shot having a different exposure. You can choose from ±0.3EV, ±0.6EV or ±1.0EV increments. White balance fine-tuning lets you adjust the preset or custom WB that you've selected in the red or blue direction, with a total range of ±10 (in 1-step increments).
Below the controller are two more buttons. The Display button toggles what is shown on the LCD, and it also turns on the new "high angle" feature, which improves LCD visibility for when the camera is held above your head. Sounds silly, but the darn thing really works.
The
other button turns on the LZ5's burst mode in record mode, and deletes
photos in playback mode. The burst mode on the LZ5 is very good -- way
better than most of the competition. In the low speed burst mode, you
can take up to 6 photos (at the highest quality setting) at 2.1
frames/second. In high speed mode, you can still take 6 photos, but
this time the frame rate rises to 2.7 frames/second. A third mode,
known as infinity burst, will keep taking pictures at 1.2 frames/second
until the memory card is full. The infinity mode requires a high speed
memory card for best performance. While shooting in any of those modes,
I found that the LCD keeps up with the action.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 is a very good point-and-shoot camera that, with a little work, could be a great one. It offers two things not found on any other cameras in its class: a 6X zoom lens and an optical image stabilizer. Unfortunately, it offers a few annoyances as well, that may or may not bother you.
The LZ5 is a midsize camera made of a mix of metal and plastic. It feels solid for the most part, and it's easy to hold and operate. The camera's 6X optical zoom lens covers a much larger range than on your typical midsize camera (37 - 222 mm). Inside that lens is Panasonic's optical image stabilizer, which helps reduce the effects at camera shake at both the wide-angle and telephoto ends of the focal range. The LZ5 features a large 2.5" LCD display, though its resolution is disappointing. It was viewable in low light, though, and the High Angle feature is neat. There's no optical viewfinder on the camera, which may be an issue for some people.
The DMC-LZ5 is a point-and-shoot camera, with the only manual control being for white balance (which is a handy one to have, for sure). It does have quite a few scene modes, including some useful ones (like night landscape) and some not-so-useful ones (like baby mode). While the normal modes are easy-to-use, if you really don't know what you're doing there's a "simple mode" as well. The LZ5 features a nice movie mode, which can fill up your memory card with VGA quality video.
Camera performance is very good. The LZ5 starts up quickly, focuses very quickly, and can take another shot with a minimal delay. I did notice a tiny bit of shutter lag at slow shutter speeds, but you should really be using a tripod then anyway. The LZ5's burst mode is excellent, especially with a high speed memory card. Battery life was above average.
Photo quality was hit and miss. The hits include good exposure, sharpness, and color, while the misses include noise, vignetting, and occasional blurry corners. The biggest negative was the noise -- there's too much of it at ISO 80, and it goes downhill from there. The high sensitivity modes border on uselessness, as they look more like paintings than photographs. As I said earlier, the noise issue won't really matter if you're only making small prints, but if you like large prints or inspecting the photos on your computer, then you may be disappointed. Redeye was also a problem on the camera, though your results may differ from mine.
The other negatives that I wanted to point out sound more like wishes than complaints. First, the 14MB of built-in memory is just way too little for a 6 Megapixel camera. Even a 16MB SD card would've been better! Second, the camera could really use some more manual controls, since the main competitor (the Canon PowerShot A700) has a full suite. And finally, support for the USB 2.0 High Speed standard would've been very nice.
Although it has some annoying flaws, the 6X zoom lens and image stabilization make the DMC-LZ5 a camera that I can recommend. Those of you who want manual controls, or who make larger-sized prints may want to take a look at some other cameras, but for point-and-shoot users making small prints, the LZ5 is worth a look.