Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5

Manual Control Options
The LZ5 and LZ3 do not offer direct manual control of exposure. There is an exposure compensation control, but it's not possible to bias for higher or lower shutter speed, or larger or smaller aperture. The user can set ISO throughout the normal range of 80, 100, 200, and 400. Though there are only a few white balance presets, the LZ5 and LZ3 offer custom white balance, which is the most useful option in difficult lighting.

Focus
Auto
The autofocus system on the LZ5 and LZ3 operates continuously. It's quick, and it finds focus pretty easily in low light and low contrast settings. The cameras are less able to track focus, particularly in low light. They offer several focusing area patterns. There is a 5-point mode that looks for focus in the central half of the view, checking in 5 areas. There is also a 3-point mode, a high-speed 1-point mode, a regular 1-point mode, and a spot mode, which measures a narrow area at the center of the frame. We don't have good information from Panasonic about exactly what the patterns are supposed to do. We also didn't notice much faster performance with the high speed mode. Further testing in a variety of settings might show more differences between the modes. Be sure to check back when we publish our full review for a more elaborate evaluation.

Manual Focus
The LZ5 and LZ3 do not appear to offer manual focus.

Metering
Panasonic calls the LZ5 and LZ3's metering "Intelligent Multiple," which seems to mean that it's an evaluative system that takes several separate readings across the field of view, and compares them to establish the optimum overall exposure. Such systems are the best option for highly automated cameras like the LZ5 and LZ3. We found that the system got fooled in difficult situations, like backlighting, very dark, and very bright backgrounds. Its performance in backlighting yielded usable results, though not ideal ones.

Exposure
The LZ5 and LZ3 offer exposure compensation in 1/3-EV steps from 2 EV below the metered exposure to 2 EV above. The cameras do not offer manual exposure, aperture priority, or shutter priority. They do offer exposure bracketing, with the same range of adjustment as the exposure compensation control.

White Balance
The LZ5 and LZ3 have only three white balance presets: Daylight, Cloudy, and Halogen. Many compact cameras offer as many as seven presets. Most users will rely on the auto setting, which we found did better than the presets. The best results require creating a custom white balance, which is a simple thing to do, though the user will have to readjust with changes in lighting.

ISO
The LZ5 and LZ3 offer manual ISO settings of 80, 100, 200, and 400. In the high-sensitivity scene mode the camera turns ISO up to 800 and 1600, but the user can't directly set those. Most users will probably leave the ISO setting in Automatic. The auto mode keeps the ISO as low as possible, which is the best option for the seemingly noise-plagued LZ5 and LZ3.

ISO is set through the shooting menu, and the ISO is shown on the LCD in shooting mode.

Shutter Speed
The LZ5 and LZ3 set shutter speeds from 1 second through 1/2000 in regular modes. Fireworks scene mode sets a fixed exposure that seems to be about 3 seconds, and Starry Sky scene mode offers 15-, 30- and 60-second exposures. The cameras can also be set to lock out speeds under 1/8 second, 1/4, or 1/2 second. It looks as though the LZ5 and LZ3 set shutter speeds in 1/3 stop increments.

Aperture
The lens on the LZ5 and LZ3 has a maximum aperture of f/2.8 at wide angle, shrinking to f/4.5 at telephoto. The minimum aperture seems to run proportionally, at two stops smaller than the maximum, so at the wide setting, the lens can shut down to f/5.6, and at telephoto the smallest setting is f/9. Since there is no option to set the aperture, it's not clear what increments the LZ5 and LZ3 use, but it looks to be about 1/3 of a stop.