Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5 Black Digital Camera (5.0MP, 2560x1920, 12x Opt, 16MB SD Memory Card)

• Reviewed by: lboucher59

  Strengths: Well worth the money great lens 350 + pic on one bat charge WOW

  Weaknesses: flash and bright sun light with out hood

  Overall: this unit replaced my fz-2 lumix big upgrade and it is my camera of choice and i use it more than my canon a great buy for the money and you get what some $1000 + cameras have for under $300 Wow now that is a deal.

• Reviewed by: touristguy87

  Strengths: lens. The lens. Did I say, the lens?light, good imaging, great metering, fast burst mode

  Weaknesses: a few minor things

  Overall: I've had one for 4 months now and I can say this is my main camera. I take it on trips instead of my sp-500 because, even though the sp500 creates slightly better looking images in the best conditons, the fz5 has a solidly-mounted lens and I can shoot it from my car with no problems and it shoots very fast in burst mode whereas I'm afraid I'm going to break the sp-500 plus it focuses and shoots slow. I take it instead of my s2-is because the lens cap is well-designed and it is about a third less weight, and I trust the metering better on the fz5 than I trust the s2. I had to change one thing you will have to do this too, set it to use vivid mode, there is no independent brightness/sharpness/contrast/saturation setting, the only way to do it is by changing the color mode from natural or standard to vivid. A second thing I would recommend would be to use the 9-point metering. Makes it a whole lot easier to get good focus. Those two changes turned this camera from a tepid performer to a torrid one :)Third just shoot program (since it is a pain to manually reconfigure the camera for different F# and shutter speed settings) and shoot it in a high enough ISO to give you a good shot under various zoom conditions. Don't worry. It's a very clean camera.Last suggestion is to shoot it in burst mode when shooting hand-held, the camera is so light that it will shake easily when you hit or squeeze the shutter. Most of the time the 1st shot of a burst has noticable shake, but the 2nd and third shots are great. Play the odds. The key is to learn how to hold the shutter down and the camera still, relaxed, calm, for 2 seconds, and let the camera reel off 4 or 5 shots. You'll get at least two good ones from a burst with this camera, even at 10x zoom 1/200 or 1-3x 1/20. It does shoot well with a good steady hold and it will not be steady while you are squeezing and releasing the trigger.It is still a bit bigger than I'd like, I have to use a sizable fannypack to carry it. But. It's reasonably small, light, very fast burst (not so fast zoom, that could be faster but it's fast enough) and uses SD high-speed 2gig cards I can shoot all day on a battery charge, easy. It's a good deal. It's not an SLR. It's not a Nikon Coolpix 8400. But it's pretty damm good. In terms of noise, you can shoot at ISO400 and not complain about the noise. I really don't see any noise at any slower ISO. And it is soooo fast, you can shoot ISO100/F2.8 at dusk. Then turn the IS on and keep shooting. It is a little awkward to shoot at night and get the proper exposure (you kind of have to shoot manual or fiddle with the auto-exposure to get the lighting o.k.), but, with practice you'll get used to it. I would recommend this camera over any of the others that I have, for all-around use. As my "one camera". It's been there with me, I've done that with it...I trust it.

• Reviewed by: bushwhacker09

  Strengths: 12X optical zoom, manual controls, image stabilization, good battery life, well designed body.

  Weaknesses: High noise @ higher ISO, auto-focus hunts in low-light.

  Overall: I've owned this camera for approximately nine months, and it has been a blast to use. Great zoom that vastly increases the utility & enjoyment of the camera. The image stabilizer is fantastic. Battery life is good, considering everything. Buy an extra battery, and this will not be an issue. It is a bit noisy at higher ISO settings, and the auto-focus can be irritating in low light. I've taken pictures at football games & used them as wallpaper; people have mistakenly assumed I pulled these images from the Web--that's high praise for a non-SLR type camera.

• Reviewed by: Jack51

  Strengths: Way lighter and smaller than my Nikon D-100. Great for trips. Auto shut down mode relights pretty fast for the next exposure. Photos load fast into iPhoto and sharp

  Weaknesses: Doesn't quite fit into your pocket light my canon digital did, but the lumix is way better

  Overall: This is a definite upscale camera for those not willing to carry around a full sized digital SLR. I have found macro, shutter exposure, aperture exposure and full auto very worthy of their name. The photos taken are great and in the uncertain lighting of an Alaska cruise found the auto bracket a good feature too.I have owned many cameras and found this a truely great one-especially for the price.You get a lot of camera!

• Reviewed by: dummyperson

  Strengths: Shorter delay between each picture,Better battery in one load (charge-up battery)

  Weaknesses: Waiting for someone to tell me

  Overall: I ended up bought this Panasonic DMC-FZ5 (instead of Sony DSCH1). Previous I was using Sony DSC-P72 which has a long delay between picture (approx 3 to 4 second wait).