Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-L10 was a welcome surprise. It was announced with none of the fanfare that accompanied the Lumix L1, but the Panasonic L10 is the one truly worthy of praise.

It’s built right, works well, looks competent, and has an excellent, more affordable optic. There are some limitations in the sensor or image processor that affect JPEG image performance, but RAW images are quite good. The JPEGs that are unaffected by the odd blue speckles (which we’ve only found in blond hair under incandescent light) print very well, making good quality 13×19-inch prints. If you shoot and print RAW images, 16×20-inch prints are within easy reach.

The Panasonic L10’s light weight and excellent grip make it easy to hold, and the buttons are arrayed nicely for easy access. The promise of Live View mode is fulfilled with the addition of two important features on the Panasonic Lumix L10’s implementation: a swivel screen and contrast detect autofocus. Yes, the shutter lag is still long, but so long as you can plan for it, you’ll learn to appreciate the versatility that the Panasonic L10’s Live View delivers.

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The FZ18 performs typically for its class. From power on to first shot takes only 1.8 seconds, pretty quick for a long-lenser. Time to focus and shoot runs only 0.7 second in good light, rising to 1.1 seconds in dimmer situations - good for a non-dSLR, but still slower than you want.

The interval for two consecutive shots is a brisk 1.3 seconds, which rises to an uncommonly fast 1.8 seconds with flash. Raw capture runs a bit slower - 2.3 seconds for two sequential shots, which makes raw shooting a suboptimal workaround for the JPEG issues discussed earlier. In burst mode, it snaps at a clip of about 3.7 frames per second, but the camera’s continuous shooting is limited to 7 frames at standard quality and 4 frames at fine quality.

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The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 is a bit of a jack of all trades - you can get crisp close ups with the minimum of fuss whether shooting from safe distance away, and also get cracking macro shots with the camera’s lens practically resting on your subject matter. Plus, that 28mm wide angle lets you capture the whole scene before you without having to step back too far.

The only things putting me off an unequivocal recommendation is that the zoom functionality is disabled when shooting video clips, the joystick that affords quick access to the most important settings in one go is too short, too small and thus tricky to operate, plus - that old argument again - you can now pick up a starter DSLR for round about the same price. That said, you won’t have the same focal range, and will need a large and expensive optic to achieve anything near it.

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The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ18 is light enough to bring along just about anywhere, and the lens stays in closer than competing 18x designs, a design feature that will likely minimize damage over the life of this fine digital camera. If the lens is the big story with the Panasonic FZ18, the rest is just gravy. Face detect autofocus, multiple aspect ratios, optical image stabilization, white balance fine-tuning, adjustable flash intensity, and live histogram are all good to have with this excellent optic.

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Trying to decide what award the Panasonic Lumix DMC-L10 should receive has proven to be a difficult task, principally because the overall package that’s currently available doesn’t make too much sense. Panasonic have gone to great lengths to make the L10 the perfect beginner’s DSLR, suitable for all those people who are considering stepping-up from a compact camera.

Highly-recommended if you can make the significant financial jump from £200 / $350 compact to £900 / $1300 DSLR, with the bonus of that quality lens, but only Recommended for the rest of us less well-off mortals.

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