Nice and Compact but not for the Serious Amateur

Author's Rating:

Pros: stylish, compact, good photo quality

Cons: shutter lag, difficult to delete photos

The Bottom Line: 
Good for someone who need a compact point-and-shoot camera and isn't looking for a lot of creative control.

Author's Review
I purchased this camera when it was on sale at Costco. I needed a very compact camera to throw in the diaper bag when I didn't feel like lugging around my Canon Rebel XTi.

I really like the look of the Panasonic. The matte black finish is very stylish. It took great pictures and had many built-in settings. It seemed like a good purchase as the resolution was much higher than most anything else at that price point. The photo quality was very good for an inexpensive point and shoot. The pictures were crisp and the colors were true. I also really liked that the camera took good video clips and it was easy to use. It takes an SD card which is my preferred memory card format as they are readily available and usually on sale.

What I didn't like was that the shutter lag, although not terrible, was not quick enough to capture my very active toddler. This was especially true when using the flash as it took awhile for it to recycle. The flash also had a tendency to be too bright and the subjects sometimes seemed overexposed.

Additionally it was not easy to delete photos. It limited the number of photos that could be deleted at a certain time and you had to go to a special menu. It was not a very user-friendly interface.

I ended up returning this camera for something that suited my needs better. However, I did recommend it to my mother-in-law and she really likes it. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have an active subject to photograph.