Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10

Bookmark

Feature

For the uninitiated, live-view shooting means that the image you're about to capture can be framed on the camera's LCD screen, as you do with compact cameras. Since SLRs use a mirror to let you see through the lens, that means that the mirror has to be able to flip up and out of the way and the camera's sensor has to be able to continuously send an image to the LCD while you're framing. That's why the L10 uses a variation on a CMOS sensor called a LiveMOS sensor, such as the one found in the E-510, which also has a live-view shooting mode.

In live-view mode, the L10 has two kinds of autofocus: Contrast and phase difference. When you use the 14mm-50mm F3.8-F5.6 D Vario-Elmar Leica-branded kit lens, or the similar (but fancier) kit lens from the L1, the L10 will employ contrast-based AF. However, if you use a different lens, then the camera switches automatically to phase difference AF, which is what the camera uses when out of live-view mode. The same goes for face detection, which is only available in live-view mode, but tied to the contrast AF system, so it can only be used with one of those two lenses. Presumably, there will be more lenses that are fully compatible with the L10's live-view mode in the future, but for now it seems that live-view shooting comes with some restrictions on this Panasonic. Despite those restrictions, live-view mode works just as well as it does in the E-510, though as in that camera this mode is a bit noisy since the mirror has to move around so much.

Following another trend in entry-level SLRs, the L10 doesn't include a status LCD. Instead you can see the status of current camera settings on the LCD screen. However, unlike Olympus' interactive status display, which lets you change camera settings very quickly on the camera's main LCD screen, this Panasonic just shows you the current settings and leaves the tweaking to the buttons and menus.

One feature that is out of the ordinary and is quite nice is its automatic zoom in review mode. When the camera shows you the image you just shot, the L10 can be set to automatically zoom in 4x so you can better check for focus. The bad part about the auto-zoom-review is that it zooms in on the center of the image, which often might not be the best part of the image to use to confirm focus. The zoom feature in the normal playback mode lets you zoom up to 16x and move around the image to zoom in on whatever section of the image you want, so you can always check later instead as you would with any other SLR.

Though the L10 is a Four Thirds format camera, which makes it compatible with all of Olympus' Four Thirds lenses, as well as those of third-party lensmakers such as Sigma and Tamron, Panasonic decided to sell it only as a kit. The included lens has better build quality than a lot of kit lenses, but we would've liked the choice of buying body only.

As you might expect given its target audience, the L10 includes a number of scene modes. Six spots on the mode dial are dedicated to them, and each of those spots offers more than one scene mode; they're basically grouped by the type of mode with various night modes together under one spot on the dial and various portrait modes under another spot, for example. You can also access descriptions of each mode so you can learn what the camera is doing to deal with the given situation. The descriptions also give suggestions for what you can do to best use the modes. For example, the Night Portrait mode suggests you "hold the camera firmly and the subject should keep still for at least 1 second".

In addition to the scene modes, Panasonic includes multiple film modes, which are meant to mimic the looks of different kind of films. Each of the film modes can be customized through contrast, sharpness, saturation, and noise reduction settings. Plus, two fully custom film modes let you create a virtual emulsion of your own. The best part about the film modes is that the camera activates live-view whenever you press the Film Mode button, so you can see the difference each mode makes when selecting the one you want to use.

« Design | Performance and Image Quality »