If there was one camera in the Labs that could most be mistaken for a standard film SLR camera the Panasonic DMC-LC5 is it. Part of the new Panasonic Lumix range, the DMC-LC5 we received in the Labs is solid black, though it is also available in a funky silver colour. The first thing that stood out with this camera is the absolutely massive 2in LCD display by far the largest we have seen on a consumer digital still camera. The display sits behind the DMC-LC5s 4-megapixel CCD, and is complemented with an optical viewfinder and a Leica 3x optical lens with a variable focal length of 33-100mm for an overall combined optical-digital zoom of 6x.

The menu is clearly laid out and simple to use given the large size of the LCD display, and provides a high level of tweakability for manual photography. The DMC-LC5 is supplied with a 32MB SD memory card offering plenty of storage for images up to 236 at the lowest resolution of 640 x 480. Image quality in the test was reasonable for its specification of 4-megapixels, though not quite up to its potential, the image let down by a slight lack of brightness. This is easily fixed with a little manual tweaking, the result indicative of its ability in automatic adjustment to the lighting environment.