"The Lumix DMC- LC5 has an excellent Leica zoom lens, its design is unique for a digital camera and we very much like the larger sized body. Tiny cameras are "handy" but they're difficult to hold steady and often yield less than optimal images. The LC5's control layout and overall ergonomics are very good, the lithium rechargeable battery pack is top notch, but the competitiveness of this camera seems to wain from there.

One of our major concerns is the LC5's auto focus system. The wide area AF mode is less than reliable and often focuses on high-contrast background objects. Image processing is another area of concern, it takes approx. 6 seconds between shots in single frame mode, this is slow compared to its peers. Hair detail and skin tone reproduction in a head and shoulders flash portrait is less than satisfactory. We saw more than the usual amount of "noise" in clear blue sky areas and there was noticeable shadow noise in the low contrast areas of the image. We also noticed that people's skin often appeared "blotchy" or even semi-solarized, something that is normally attributed to a lack of dynamic tonal range. After seeing the LC5 sample images posted at DC Resource I feel confident that our camera was not defective, it seems that they all operate similarly."