I inherited this camera from my husband over two years ago when he got a more advanced Nikon. At that time I had a simple 5Mpix Samsung, so was just in raptures to receive this one, a proper camera. Now, of course I would love to upgrade it to something more Nikony or Canony and with more megapixels. What I love about the more professional cameras is that they give a proper depth to photos, even in the auto mode. Now that you know my main quality requirement, let's talk about the camera itself.

What's good:

1. A vast number of modes and settings. Not knowing much (= not knowing anything) about photography, I guess I am using no more than 10% of the modes and settings on this camera. I've got my favourite modes, naturally, and really appreciate the ability to shoot in black-and-white (and sometimes sepia). Some more advanced modern cameras don't have this setting.

2. Nice and compact design. The camera is convenient to hold and use the main controls. Having the pictures displayed on a decent size LCD screen is also a good idea. And at the same time, it is not bulky.

3. A good zoom. The 12x optical zoom is further assisted by a bit of digital zoom (which is disastrous for quality, so I wouldn't recommend using it).

4. Quality. This criterion depends on the purpose you use this camera for. It is quite capable of producing decent images at ISO80 and with good light, so if you are just shooting for yourself, not for an art gallery or a stock photography site, ths camera is pretty good. I use it to take pictures for my blog and under certain conditions it almost works magic, even though I do keep on sending envious glances at my husband's Nikon D60.

5. Pretty good battery life.

6. Add-on lenses (that you have to get separately) giving you an opportunity to adjust the camera for your requirements.

7. The lens cap attached to the camera on a thin lace. The devil's in the detail. At least you can be sure you are not going to lose the cap. Believe me, it's important. :)


What's not so good:

1. Quality. I did complain above about the depth of field which I (with my "deep" knowledge of photography) find rather hard to achieve without switching to manual focus of using lots of zoom. Quite often in normal English light images come out a bit grainy at 100%. And, of course, there is a difference between 6Mpix and, say, 12Mpix. After all, the camera is not that new now. Technology goes out of date quickly.

2. Multiple modes and settings. Yes, it is good, but it's also bad. As a non-professional user, all I want it to do is produce good quality images with as little effort on my side as possible. The camera instead gives me all the controls I know nothing about. So while I find certain modes vital, I keep on living in almost total ignorance of this Lumix's full power: am I getting the best of it or just the basics?

3. This is not a disadvantage, just a tip: get a decent size SD card for it. Mine is only 512Mb and I easily run out of space within a day when visiting some interesting places.


Conclusion:
I guess my main problem with this camera is that it has only 6Mpix and isn't as quality-advanced as I would like it to be now, in 2011. And guess what? This problem has very little to do with the camera. It's just telling me I want to upgrade. Giving this Lumix 4 stars out of 5 only because it is rather dated now. Other than this, it is a very decent camera for everyday and even semi-professional use (I managed to sell a few photos taken with it).