Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS5 – A Great Camera But Use The Manual Mode

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 is a weird breed. On one end of the spectrum, it’s chock full of shooting features, manual controls, and brings a fierce artillery of hardware to the front lines, including a 25mm wide-angle lens and 12x optical zoom. At the other end, the Lumix DMC-ZS5 is designed to suit the beginner, offering Panasonic’s  tried and true Intelligent Auto and multiple Scene shooting modes. However, if we were to part the seas and pick a side to surf on, we’d go for the more challenging waves—the advanced shooters.

Why? Well, the Panasonic DMC ZS5 is capable of producing highly impressive image quality, but most of it has to be achieved in Manual mode. Sure, you can select a good scene mode and throw the flash on, but the camera will never deliver to its full potential, and with a 60-second shutter speed capability, you’re going to want to take advantage of every manual control this machine has to offer. Plus, there were the classic Lumix firmware bugs and plain, unchanged menu system. Check out our hands-on video and image samples below for more on the Panasonic ZS5.

Now, if you’re a beginner and are looking for a camera that you can simply pick up and the thing will solve world hunger, then the Panasonic Lumix DMC ZS5 is probably not the answer. Yes, it’s packed to the brim with Scene modes, but most of them are just shortcuts that bypass using the Manual controls. We’ve got the artistic shooting filters, like “Pin Hole,” “Film Grain,” and “High Dynamic,” but they are nothing a seasoned shooter can’t achive in Photoshop. Basically, in Auto and Scene modes, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 will pump up the ISO and use the flash whenever necessary, and the results were reasonable. It wasn’t until we shot in full manual mode or Program AE that things started looking very good.