The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80 offers optical image-stabilization at a low price, but are its pictures worth stabilizing?
Review summary of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80:
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 The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80 offers optical image-stabilization and not much else. We weren't thrilled with the design, which struck us as lopsided and off-balance. Exposures were problematic as well, and we got no help from manual controls, which the camera lacks. Color reproduction was also sketchy. Considering these issues, buyers at this price-point would probably be better served looking at a Casio or a Canon. Release: February 2008. Price: $130.
Pros: Optical image-stabilization.
Cons: Unfortunate design, erroneous exposures, color issues.
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Full Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80 Review:
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Design - Poor
No bones about it: the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80 is one ugly camera. Everything concerning its body is either disproportioned or awkwardly oriented. The grip along the right side is too shallow to be of any use, and thus becomes a Quasimodo–like hump that does nothing but add to the camera's bulk. The logo accent on the front has been plastered right on to the vertical middle, making this ostensible tool of visual expression itself decidedly unaesthetic.
All of the buttons seem to have been designed to be as maddeningly small as possible, which is all the more confounding considering how much wasted space blots the camera's body, most especially the good quarter-inch along the rear-top that's literally nothing but dead plastic. The meager 2.5" viewfinder has been inexplicably raised off the body by a millimeter or so, and this only furthers the DMC-LS80's appearance as some sort of unfortunate deformation.
Mild props go to its shutter-bound zoom control, something we always prefer to zoom buttons, and to the fact that it at least feels moderately sturdy and not particularly susceptible to breakage. On the other hand, the DMC-LS80 is notably unbalanced, presumably because it's powered by two double-AA batteries. That's excusable with other low-priced compacts, but, with the otherwise egregiousness of the DMC-LS80, it's more like a final nail.
Features - Mediocre
The DMC-LS80's calling card, so to speak, is a relatively low price coupled with optical image-stabilization. It also expectedly features macro-focus and, slightly less standard, both standard and continuous burst-modes. There's enough built-in memory for 5-10 images at full quality.
Selectable ISO sensitivities modestly range from 100 – 1600. The sensor can in fact be pushed all the way to 6400, but the upper range can only be automatically selected by the camera itself, and even then is available only in certain scene-modes that limit the sensor to 3-megapixels.
That essentially completes the camera's feature-set. Automatic shutter-modes, face detection, and digital red-eye correction are all missing. Even at a comparably low price, this is disappointing.
Interface / Bundle - Very good
Thankfully the DMC-LS80 handles very well, thanks to a standard but well-executed system of menus and shortcuts. Camera and image settings are adjustable via two intuitive menus, the latter of which helpfully recalls the last tweaked parameter. Shooting and playback modes are selectable by a physical switch, and all buttons are clearly labeled.
Bundled software includes Panasonic's own ‘PhotofunStudio' program, which functions nicely as a simple library / viewer, in addition to copies of Arcsoft's Panorama utility and, more curiously, a general media-manager. The DMC-LS80 otherwise comes with USB and A/V connections.
Image quality - Mediocre
Overall image-quality with the DMC-LS80 is passable. Noise is well-managed up to and including ISO-1600, a rare accomplishment at this price range. However, even at ISO-100 the camera has some issues with color-bleeding and general fuzziness, and at ISO-200 and beyond, some banding is evident along narrow gradients in contrasty images.
Scene test
The DMC-LS80's performance in this scene test was acceptable, but it reveals a tendency in the camera to push its reds, resulting in bloomed edges along the signs in the background. This also lends an almost cartoonish saturation to all the oranges in the image, as they're so unnaturally emphasized in comparison to the rest of the photo, itself muted by cloudy weather.
Edge test
On the one hand this edge test demonstrates clean, sharp edge-delineation with little fringing, but on the other hand, it's underexposed to the point of being unusable. We took and retook this shot, but each time the DMC-LS80's processor would select a 1/800-second shutter, an inexplicable decision considering the flat light of a midday overcast and how underlit the foreground is. Unsurprisingly, the resulting image is patently too dark: the buildings in front are almost reduced to a silhouette, and the bright, white clouds in the background are distorted into ominous storm-clouds. Had the camera any sort of manual-mode, this would be less bothersome, but as it stands, users are at the mercy of the DMC-LS80's questionable exposures.
Fringing test
This fringing / blooming test was affected by the same problem. This time the DMC-LS80 elected a reasonable 1/200-second shutter, but for its f-stop it selected f/14. Without going into depth-of-field aesthetics or optical physics, suffice to say that such a small aperture, when shooting one plane of tree branches against a cloudy background, just doesn't make sense. No surprise that, once again, all detail in the branches has been lost to crushed blacks and the white background has become a sickly gray. The DMC-LS80 at least doesn't demonstrate much fringing, but on the other hand, this and the previous test are partially invalidated by the fact that they require bright backgrounds, which in both cases have been nullified by the camera's consistent underexposures.
Macro test
The DMC-LS80 scores its only unequivocal win with this macro test: the focus range is above average, colors are accurate, detail is strong, and, most importantly, it's correctly exposed. There is some focus aberration along the left-hand side, but that's par for the course with compact lenses.
Price and availability
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS80 will start selling for $130 () in February 2008.
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