Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ5 Review

The playback screen with information display enabled. The key icon indicates that the image has been protected, and the musical note icon indicates that audio has been recorded. Upper right corner has the image size 2560x1920, image quality Fine, battery fully charged, folder name (100) and image number. The current image # / total # of images. Time and date is on the bottom status line.

Pressing the DISPLAY button will put the extended exposure information over the image and includes a histogram, the exposure mode, aperture, shutter speed, ISO speed and flash mode.

Toggling the zoom lever to the Wide angle position brings up the thumbnail index mode with nine images displayed per page. You can bring up 16 or even 25 images per page, allowing you to quickly sort though saved images.

Toggling the zoom lever to Telephoto allows you to enlarge the current image up to 16X in four steps. At any point you can use the 4-way selector to scroll around inside of the enlarged image.

Playback Menu options:

Slide Show - Auto playback of all images or just those selected for DPOF printing
Favorite - Add the image to favorite list
Rotate Display - Automatically rotate vertical images
Rotate - Manually rotates images
DPOF Print - Select one or all images for later printing
Protect - Protect/Unprotect one or all images
Audio Dub - Add up to a 10-second audio note to a still image
Resize - Make a smaller image
Trimming - Create a new smaller image from a zoom-cropped larger image.
Copy - Copy image data between SD memory card and internal memory.
Format - Format the internal memory or SD card

The Rotate option lets you easily rotate portrait mode images for proper display on the camera LCD and/or TV set. Rotation is in 90° increments, either CW or CCW direction.

The Resize option lets you "down size" larger images.

The Trim option lets you crop an image and save it as a smaller image.

Ten-second audio memos can be recorded and replayed.

Movies are played back fullscreen on the LCD or a television set when using the supplied audio/video cables. Because there is not a built-in speaker, the audio portion of a clip cannot be heard when played back in camera. Audio is however recorded and can be heard when played on a TV or on your computer.

You get VCR like controls to pause, stop, fast forward and rewind.

Setup Menu (same in record or play mode):

Battery Type - Select Alkaline/NiMH or Oxyride for battery level indicator
Monitor - Adjust monitor brightness in 7 steps
Auto Review - Auto review after capture (off, 1s, 3s, Zoom)
Power Save - Auto power off delay, 1m, 2m, 5m, 10m
Economy - Save battery power by turning LCD off automatically after 15 or 5 secs.
Beep - Camera beep sounds, Off, Soft or Loud
Clock Set - Set the time and date
No. Reset - Reset file numbering counter
Reset - Reset all settings to factory default
USB Mode - PC Mass Storage / PictBridge
Video Out - Video output signal format, NTSC or PAL
Scene Menu - Display scene menu Automatically when selected or never
Language - Menu language; English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese