15 May 2012
By Sark Lover
My trusty old Canon Ixus 70 (my third Canon) finally packed up. I researched in Which?, read all the reviews, and decided to go for the Panasonic Lumix on the personal recommendation of two different people, who had one themselves. I paid a bit more for the DMCSZ1, fairly new on the market, because it offered the Leica lens and the 10x Super Zoom. I like its very simple design, its easy-to-use instructions and its intelligent auto mode which gives good clear shots and excellent colour. It also does well in evening half light, which is nice. You can also photograph quite a large object in a small room without having to stand too far away from it, which is very handy. The Lumix has a brilliant small, light and simple charger, and the memory card from my Canon camera fitted it, which was useful. In fact you don't need to use a memory card. Having got used to the new camera in grey, rainy London, I then took it to Paris in the Springtime, which was bathed in brilliant sunshine, and there one big drawback revealed itself. Unless one could find a patch of shade to stand in, it was almost impossible to take pictures in bright sunshine; all you got was a reflection of yourself in the big viewfinder. You couldn't see your subject at all and had to aim and shoot and hope for the best.
This is such a pity, as the big viewfinder itself is excellent (out of the sun), and the zoom is fantastic - I took a brilliant picture of Sacre Coeur from literally miles away. Why oh why have all the manufacturers of compact cameras got rid of the small extra viewfinder that you used to be able to look through if you needed to. As a non-techie, I have not yet tried to use the advanced features, but I am sure they will all work well. My only other tiny complaint is that the little metal cover for inserting the USB connection cable to recharge or download photos looks as if it won't survive intact very long.
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