Labs

Some camera manufacturers shoehorn gimmicky features into their models, but the DMC-LZ2's image-stabilizing technology is genuinely useful.

More commonly found on camcorders, this feature compensates for blurring caused by the photographer's hand shaking. This allows you to shoot long exposures by hand without having to resort to using a tripod, as well as shoot at maximum zoom in gloomy conditions without getting blurry pictures.

Sadly, the only control the camera offers over the shutter speed is via a special slow mode buried in its menu system and there's no control at all

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over the aperture to vary depth of focus.

Otherwise, the DMC-LZ2 is rammed with features. The 6x zoom is excellent (only the Kodak Z740 Zoom's 10x lens is better), and there is auto-bracketing, where sequential shots are taken at varying exposure levels.

The camera also offers useful scene preset modes for taking pictures at night, action photography and so on. Apart from these, the DMC-LZ2 does without superfluous extras, concentrating on getting the basics right, and this is obvious from the picture quality. The image stabilizer works really well at slow shutter speeds to ensure sharp focus at all times - something that no other camera in this test can achieve. Its range of photographs looked consistently sharp, very crisp and well-contrasted.

On the downside, colour objects shot against bright backgrounds showed blue and purple fringing, while darker areas looked grainy.

It all boils down to a rather dissatisfying mix. On the one hand, the DMC-LZ2 has some genuinely useful and innovative features, good picture quality and a long 6x zoom lens. But the lack of full control over shutter speeds and aperture is, in the end, a handicap too far.