Feeling the love for the DMC-LS75

Executive Summary: I seriously doubt that you'll find any digital camera that can take any better, clearer outdoor pictures with a camera costing under one hundred dollars. I believe that this camera has basic point and shoot picture quality as good or better than many cameras selling for two or three times the price.

First Impression. Local office store had the camera for $99.99. I had a $10 off Wednesday only coupon that the cashier allowed me to use so my price was $89.99 plus tax. First the technical stuff. The DMC-LS75S has a 3X optical zoom plus 15 X digital zoom for a total of 18X. 3X optical zoom works for me. If not I'll just step closer. This camera will accept an SD memory card up to 2 GB (max) or an SDHC memory card 4 GB (min). A 4 GB without an SDHC logo will not work. The camera uses two AA batteries (supplied). The shooting modes are normal picture mode, simple mode, intelligent ISO mode, macro mode, scene mode, and motion picture mode. It has a playback mode and a PictBridge print mode. Using a 2 GB memory San Disk SD card (less than $20 locally) with default camera compression as a benchmark 7 MP = 550 pictures (slightly more in my camera), 5 MP = 790 pictures, 3 MP = 1220 pictures and so forth. The camera appears to have the same electronic insides, other than zoom, and likely the same menu options that are probably contained in the more expensive Panasonics. There's nothing much left out of all the menu options and some nice surprise options as well. The camera was built in China and the operating instructions are clearly written.

The only thing I didn't like about this camera is the flash. It is way too strong for taking a photo an arms length away. The only way around this I guess is to experiment with one of the many scene mode settings.

How does the camera shoot outdoors? I have uploaded some snapshots to http://princessonly.com/DMC-LS75/ with everything set in out of the box default mode. The outdoor picture quality IMO is outstanding. PQ on the DMC-LS75 is significantly better than my wife's Casio ultra slim 8 mp digital camera.

Panasonic Dirty Little Secret: Even though Panasonic's web site shows the DMC-LS75S is a feature reduced sister of the DMC-LS70S it's simply not true. The DMC-LS75S I bought at a local office big box store has exactly the same features and menu options, including all scene modes, as the DMC-LS70S. Because of this you can can pay less and get more than Panasonic claims on their web site. Unbelievable.

Update:

The camera does exactly what it is designed to do and more. I will use it to take cruise ship vacation pictures at 3 MP. I print pictures on shutterfly.com because it's cheaper and the ink they use is archival. The lens tends to be more wide angle than telephoto. I find no objectionable shutter lag. I have my autofocus setting on 2 and hold the shutter button down half way before shooting so the focus has sufficient time to do its thing. The camera ergonomics are fine as it fits in my fat hands perfectly. The camera build quality is excellent. I will change the battery setting and use two AA 2500 mAh NiMH rechargeable Energizers once the Panasonic batteries are used up. The LCD is bright indoors but can be hard to see if bright sunlight is reflecting off of it. I'm not going to use the included software as my all in one card reader and other photo editing software works fine for me.