Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS1

Reviewed May 2005

Characteristics

The DMC-LS1 uses a 4.23 million pixel, 1/2.5 inch CCD of which 4.0 million pixels are effective to produce an image size of 2304 x 1728 pixels. The CCD's sensitivity covers a range of 64 to 400 ISO (64, 100, 200, and 400 ISO), and also has an Auto setting that lets the camera adjust sensitivity from 64 to 200 ISO when the flash is not used, and from 64 to 400 ISO when the flash is used.

The lens, a 3X Lumix DC Vario, is produced by Panasonic and has a focal length of 5.8 to 17.4 mm, equivalent to a 35 to 105mm.

With this zoom, apertures begin at f2.8 through to f5.6 when the zoom is at the wide angle end, and f5 through f10 at the telephoto end. This aperture range is combined with shutter speeds that cover from 1/2000 second to 8 seconds when the camera is set to the Night Scenery scene mode; while with most other modes the maximum exposure time can be selected with a menu option to be either 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or 1 second, and all exposures 1 second or longer are automatically processed for noise reduction.

A 4X digital zoom can also be enabled in the menu, but it crops the central portion of the image and interpolates it to the currently selected image size and generally lowers the image quality.

As with most other Panasonic Lumix cameras, the DMC-LS1 offers a limited choice of JPEG compression levels, and no uncompressed format:

	Fine which provides the highest image quality and has the least compression, with a compression ratio averaging around 8:1.
	Standard which provides lower image quality but allows more images to be stored, and which has a compression ratio averaging 16:1.

And images can be recorded at any one of 5 sizes:

• 2304 x 1728 pixels,
• 1600 x 1200 pixels,
• 1280 x 960 pixels,
• 640 x 480 pixels and
• and HDTV, an image of 1920 x 1080 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

As explained in the Ergonomics section, all capture modes, with the exception of the Simple mode, provide additional photo settings through the menu:

• White Balance provides settings for: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Halogen (incandescent), User Set (to use a preset white balance), and White Set (to set the white balance under ambient conditions). In addition, when the white balance is set to any setting except Auto, it can be fine tuned towards red or blue using the UP arrow of the 4-direction controller.
• Motion Rate (Motion Image mode only): determines how many frames per second will be captured, either 10 or 30 frames per second.
• Sensitivity: Auto (64 to 200 ISO without flash, and 64 to 400 when the flash is used) or 64, 100, 200, 400 ISO.
• Picture Size (still image modes only): serves to set the picture size (see above).
• Quality (still image modes only): serves to select the compression level, either Fine or Standard.

• AF Mode:
  • 5-area focusing: the camera automatically chooses the focus from one or more of 5 focus points clustered in a cross pattern.
  • 3-area focusing: the camera automatically selects one or more focus points from 3 horizontal points.
  • 1-area focusing: the camera automatically focuses on a subject using wide centre focus point.
  • Spot-focusing: the camera focuses on a small area at the exact centre of the frame.

• Slow Shutter (still image modes only): allows setting the slowest shutter speed available to the camera (1/8, 1/4, 1/2 or 1 second) in all modes with the exception of the Night Scenery mode and the Fireworks mode.
• Digital Zoom: On or Off. Controls the 4X digital zoom. Worth noting, the use of the digital zoom can lessen the effectiveness of the image stabilizer.
• Colour Effect. offers 4 settings: Cool (accentuates blue tones), Warm (accentuates red tones), Black and White (records a grey scale image), or Sepia.
• Picture Adjustment (still image modes only): allows modifying the image sharpness. Choices are Natural (softer), Standard (default) and Vivid (increased sharpness).

A second tab at the top of the display is the access to the Setup options (see the Interface and Software section of the review for an overview of the Setup menu).

Set to the Simple () mode, only 4 choices are presented when the menu button is pressed, and aside from the first option, the three others are Setup options:

• Pict. Mode: serves to select the image size and quality:
  • Enlarge: captures a 2304 x 1728 pixel image.
  • 4" x 6" (10 x 15cm): captures a 1600 x 1200 pixel image, designed for standard prints.
  • E-mail: captures a 640 x 480 pixel image.
• Battery Type: provides 2 choices: Alkaline (LR6) and Ni-MH; or Oxyride (ZR6), a Panasonic product which offers greater life than standard alkaline batteries.

• Beep: adjusts the volume of the sound produced by the LS1 (Off, Low, High).
• Clock Set: to set the time and date.

Set to the Playback mode, the DMC-LS1 presents a menu that is similar to the one used for most modes, with a first part that contains Playback-specific options, and the second which contains set-up options (see the Interface and Software section of the review for the contents of the Setup menu):

• Rotate Display: On or Off. Serves to automatically rotate images that were captured vertically in playback.
• Rotate: serves to rotate an image in 90° increments.
• Protect: serves to select images and protect them so that they cannot be accidentally deleted.
• DPOF Print: DPOF (digital Print order format) allows the user to select which pictures are to be printed, how many copies of each picture will be printed or whether the recording date is to be printed on compatible photo printers or commercial photo printing services.
  
  In addition, the DMC-LS1 is compatible with PictBridge and can be connected to any similarly compliant printer to print images directly, by-passing the need for a computer to print photos.

• Slide Show: starts a slide show with an on-screen time for photos that can be selected from 1, 2, 3 or 5 seconds.
• Resize: allows making a smaller size copy of an image, by either overwriting the original, or saving the smaller size copy as a new image. Photos captured using the HDTV format, or at a resolution of 640 x 480 cannot be re-sized.
• Trimming: allows cropping an image and re-saving the cropped image either as a new image or overwriting the original. Photos captured using the HDTV format, or at a resolution of 640 x 480 cannot be re-sized.

• Copy: allows copying one or more images or video clips to the internal memory of the camera (14 MB) to a memory card or vice versa.
• Format: serves to format either the memory card or the internal memory of the camera.

As a guide, the chart below provides approximate image storage capacities for both the 14MB internal memory and a 1 GB SD card that can be purchased separately:

The first, at the top, is both for USB — to connect to a computer — and for video so the camera can be connected to a television, depending on the cable used.

The USB connection is USB 2.0 Full Speed, which while being compatible with the USB 2.0 standard has the transfer speed of USB 1.0.

The video connection can be set to operate with NTSC or PAL, a selection made in the Setup menu when the camera is in Playback mode.

The second external connection is to power the LS1 using the optional AC/DC adapter (DMW-AC2B).