Panasonic's been a player importance the digicam sell because the move ahead few years, further we've pertinent recently been active to see through our hands on contradictory of their cameras to test. The five megapixel Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ2 is the first of the company's L-series cameras we've had the opportunity to review. The Panasonic LZ2 is closely related to the LZ1 which was announced simultaneously, and which we plan to review shortly as well. Both share the same lens and a near-identical body, but the LZ2 has a higher resolution imager, slightly smaller ISO range, and adds a microphone for movie audio, or short clips of audio to accompany images. The Panasonic DMC-LZ2 offers a 6x Lumix DC Vario zoom lens, incorporating Panasonic's own "Mega OIS" Optical Image Stabilization technology. This makes the LZ2 the first camera we've reviewed that features a stabilized lens with less than a 7x zoom range.
Panasonic is somewhat unique in this area, offering stabilization on camera models that offer as little as 3x optical zoom, where other manufacturers restrict the feature pretty much exclusively to their long-zoom cameras. While stabilization on a 6x zoom camera like the Panasonic LZ2 is perhaps not as much of a necessity as it would be on a long-zoom digicam, it does make a useful difference in the photos you'll find yourself being able to hand-hold. You'll need a tripod much less often, and those times when a tripod just isn't an option, you won't have to resort to boosting the ISO sensitivity (and noise levels) as much as you might have with a non-stabilized camera. Read on for all the details, but if you're in the market for an affordable digital camera with optical image stabilization, the Panasonic LZ2 could be the camera for you.
