The DMC-L10 follows and in some
ways leads the trend of digital SLR cameras offering a Live
View system. The difference with the L10 is that its monitor
is fully hinged — it can even be rotated to face front
— which offers a great deal of flexibility when framing
shots. Moreover, the image is visible at all times, and the
information superimposed on the monitor is crisp and never
obstructs the shot. Another advantage of the Live View system
is that it shows 100% of the frame being captured, versus
95% for the TTL viewfinder, a valuable feature when using
the camera for photographic reproduction of documents or art.
One regret, however: the resolution of the monitor, only 207,000
pixels, could have been greater.
The TTL viewfinder of the L10 is bright, but a bit narrow,
which makes it less practical when wearing glasses, as the
information on the right can be hard to see.
The menu system is text based, items appearing on relatively
uniform colour backgrounds that create a good contrast. The
options of each menu section are easily understood, and once
the last option is reached, the system automatically returns
to the beginning of the section. In addition, an option in
the Custom menu makes it possible to have the menu open on
the last used option, which can be quite practical.
The options for the basic configuration of the camera are
contained in the Setup section of the menu:
Clock Set: serves to set the time and date on the
camera, as well as select the date format.
World Time: allows specifying a time for a home
time and one for a destination.
Monitor: allows adjusting the brightness of the
monitor (± 3 increments).
LCD Auto: On or Off. If set to On and
pictures are captured with the TTL viewfinder, the LCD monitor
turns Off when the shutter button is pressed halfway.
Auto Review serves to select the length of time
and how an image is shown on the monitor after capture:
Review: Off, 1, 2 or 3 seconds.
Zoom: magnifies the image to 4X (Off, 1, 2
or 3 seconds) so that its sharpness can be ascertained.
Power Save: controls when the camera turns off
automatically to conserve power (Off, 1, 2, 5 or 10 minutes).
Beep: controls the sounds produced by the camera
while it is operated: self-timer, alarm, auto focus.
No. Reset: decides if the camera starts renumbering
image files starting at 1 if the memory card is formatted,
or a new card is used.
Reset: returns all menu options (with the exception
of the date and time and the folder name) to their original
settings.
USB Mode provides three options:
Select on Connection allows selecting the protocol
to use each time the camera is connected.
PC (Mass Storage) serves to connect the camera
to a computer.
PictBridge serves to connect the camera to
a PictBridge compatible printer.
Highlight: decides if potentially overexposed areas
of an image are shown as blinking during image review.
Video Out: serves to select the video signal NTSC
or PAL.
TV Aspect: allows selecting the screen format
of the TV on which images will be viewed (4:3 or 16:9).
Language: serves to select the interface language
(English, German, French, Spanish, Italian or Japanese).
Version Disp.: displays the firmware
version for both the camera and the lens currently mounted
on it (1.0 and F.2 respectively for the camera and lens
reviewed here).
Scene Menu: to decide if the recording
screen for the currently selected mode is shown on the monitor,
or if the scene mode selection screen is shown.
Format: serves to format the memory card.
The Lumix DMC-L10 is supplied with a printed manual that
is easy to read and understand. It details all the parts of
the camera, and links these to pages within the manual, making
it very convenient to obtain information about controls and
functions.
Software
In North America the DMC-L10 is supplied with a single CD
that contains the following programs:
Lumix Simple Viewer 1.3E.
Photo fun Studio Viewer 1.4E.
SilkyPix for Mac and Windows.
USB Drivers for Windows versions that need it.
Acrobat Reader 8.0.
Lumix Simple Viewer is, as
its name indicates, simply an image viewer that can display
photos located on the memory card in the camera, or on the
computer's hard disk and show the shooting data.
The program can be used to print photos or attach a selected
image to an e-mail through an e-mail client already on the
computer. It is unable to show RAW images, or edit an image.
Still, images can be rotated, and the program can show the
shooting data.
Photo Fun Studio Viewer,
another program from Panasonic, can only be run if Lumix Simple
Viewer is not running. It is a slightly more advanced and
easier to use viewer than the Simple Viewer. It can present
images in an index view, and can be used to print photos.
In addition, it can be used to adjust brightness, contrast,
gamma, hue and saturation. Furthermore, some effects (sepia,
black & white, negative, etc.) can be applied to images
and the altered image can be saved as a new image.
SilkyPix is
the software included by Panasonic to process RAW images.
The program makes it possible to convert RAW images, with
or without modifications or adjustments, to non-proprietary
image formats such as TIFF, BMP, or even JPEG.
The program is powerful, comparing favourably with the RAW
import plug-ins of Photoshop CS3, but its operation is not
always intuitive, so users should expect to spend time exploring
its capabilities.
Once an image is opened in the
program, it can be adjusted for exposure, white balance, sharpness,
tone, colour and noise reduction.
Users will appreciate seeing the effect of each option simply
by running the mouse cursor over the drop list options for
the tools. This allows seeing the effect of white balance
changes, or exposure compensation, without applying them right
away and then cancelling, and is helpful to understand how
the program works.
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Interface & Software
