[ Exposure ] Compensation

The first digital camera that I ever owned was a Panasonic Lumix DMC LS2. This was a camera that I purchased for my student activities and for casual picture taking. However, now that I look back, I realize I could have made a better choice. This camera is a decent "point and shoot", as they call them; however, it is not good enough for a professional photographer (this is why I am upgrading soon). However there are some good features to this camera. It has:

• 3x (to a maximum of 3.8x) optical zoom
• 5.0 megapixels (this was decent a few months ago when I acquired this camera but the standards are higher now)
• Many different scene modes (sports, food, portrait and night shooting to name a few)
• Motion Capture capability
• Simple Mode (for beginner camera users)

All of these features were attractive to me when I first was looking at cameras. However, after purchasing the camera, there are some things that I also dislike, and contributed to my decision to buy a new camera. Some of these are:

• Slower than I would prefer shutter speed (when using AUTO mode for taking pictures)
• Blur
• No sound capture for videos
• Some glitches (sometimes it freezes and tells me to turn it off and on)
• Sports mode doesn't increase the shutter speed enough to make it worthwhile
• Maximum ISO setting is 400 whereas it is 800 for most other cameras of the same line and/or quality.
• Picture acquiring program (included with camera) is sometimes difficult to use

This camera is good for the casual photographer, but I would personally recommend using it in daylight where the shutter speed will be higher (AUTO mode, outdoor shooting white balance) and a clearer picture will be produced. However, if you're more serious about capturing memories, then this is not the camera for you. Go for something a bit more expensive (or perhaps in the same price range, now, because as we all know, technology gets cheaper everyday) that will for sure have more features. Hopefully my next camera will have around 10 megapixels and sound capture as well. Hope this information was of help to any prospective camera buyers out there.

If you have further questions or need advice on how to take a good photo, give me a shout or leave a comment.

kamster

*edit*

My profile picture was taken with the Panasonic. I used the starry sky mode (because it enables you to set the exposure time from 15 seconds all the way up to 1 minute). I think it was set for 15 seconds when I took that shot.