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Panasonic has always had a stronghold in the digital camera market, since they have been somewhat cheaper alternatives to Leica cameras but use the same Leica lenses. Today we're taking a look at the 10.1 megapixel compact DMC-LZ10.

The LZ10 has a 30mm wide-angle Leica lens and a 5x optical zoom which allows you to fit more in a photo than with a 35mm lens for landscape shots and more. The 5x zoom also can be boosted to 8.9x thanks to the Extra Optical Zoom function. The camera also has a large 2.5-inch LCD, which is highly visible in outdoor sunlight. When we first got the LZ10 in our labs, we were disappointed after finding out the camera doesn't use a rechargeable battery, but rather two AA batteries. Great for frequent travelers who can always find batteries at the local electronics or small retailer though.

The LZ10 supports SD, SDHC, and MultiMedia Card formats as well as saving to the built-in 27MB of memory (which won't fit many photos). We used a SanDisk 4GB Ultra II SDHC card in our testing of the DMC-LZ10.

In our various tests of image quality and image stabilization, the LZ10 was a very good performer - colors were vivid and accurate. The image stabilization feature worked fairly well and we were impressed with the results. We weren't impressed with the amount of noise that was visible in most of our test shots however, and although you'll be fine if you resize the photos or are printing small 4x6 prints - the noise issue is visible when viewing them at full size on your computer screen.

On the flip side though, we were impressed with the slew of manual controls that are available from Program AE to Shutter Priority AE and Aperture Priority AE. The boatloads of scene modes were also impressive, including one called "Pet" that allows you to set your pet's birthday and name into the camera, in which the camera will place the name and birthday on top of the photo but this also shrinks them down to 3 megapixels. Interesting feature though.

Overall, if you're looking for a compact point-and-shoot camera for quick shots around town and at birthday parties, the DMC-LZ10 from Panasonic seems to be a great choice. If you like to do large prints though, noise will be an issue and can be fixed somewhat in post-production. Buy the Panasonic DMC-LZ10 in black or silver at Amazon.com today.

Pros

• Decent image quality.
• Wide-angle 30mm Leica lens.
• Slew of manual controls and scene modes.

Cons

• Only takes AA batteries.
• No optical viewfinder.
• Image noise a huge issue.
• Small grip.

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