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  • Introduction

  • Design & Appearance

  • Tour

  • Menu

  • Ease of Use

  • Size & Handling

  • Modes Overview

  • Auto Mode

  • Movie Mode

  • Drive/Burst Mode

  • Playback Mode

  • Picture Quality & Size Options

  • Other Modes

  • Focus

  • Exposure & Metering

  • ISO

  • White Balance

  • Image Stabilization

  • Picture Effects

  • Lens & Sensor

  • LCD

  • Flash

  • Jacks, Ports & Plugs

  • Battery

  • Memory

  • Conclusion

  • Sample Photos

  • Specs

  • Introduction
  • Design & Appearance
  • Tour
  • Menu
  • Ease of Use
  • Size & Handling
  • Modes Overview
  • Auto Mode
  • Movie Mode
  • Drive/Burst Mode
  • Playback Mode
  • Picture Quality & Size Options
  • Other Modes
  • Focus
  • Exposure & Metering
  • ISO
  • White Balance
  • Image Stabilization
  • Picture Effects
  • Lens & Sensor
  • LCD
  • Flash
  • Jacks, Ports & Plugs
  • Battery
  • Memory
  • Conclusion
  • Sample Photos
  • Specs

Introduction

Design & Appearance

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The {{product.name}} has a simple, clean design. It will be available in a variety of colors that have not yet been announced, except for black, pink and violet.

Tour

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The menu interface on this camera is split into two parts: the mode menu and main menu. The mode menu is selected by pressing the mode button, and allows you to set the camera to iAuto, normal, scene or video mode. All of the other controls are in the main menu, accessed by pressing the menu button.

Ease of Use

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The {{product.name}} is a simple, straightforward camera to use that eschews complexity, and the design and interface reflect this. In our hands-on tests at the CES show, we found the camera to be very simple to use.

Size & Handling

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The {{product.name}} is on the small side, but it fits into the hand well. Our only issues were the lack of a grip on the front: with the zoom control being under the thumb on the back of the camera, the camera tends to slip as you zoom in and out. It is also not as easy to start shooting video as the more sophisticated models in Panasonic's lineup, which offer a dedicated video shutter. On the {{product.model}}, you have to press the mode button, select the video mode and press OK, which takes much longer.

Modes Overview

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The {{product.model}} offers a basic set of modes, but there are enough to cover most shooting situations. There is a single automatic mode and a 16 scene modes.

Auto Mode

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The {{product.model}} includes Panasonic's ubiquitous iA intelligent auto mode, where the camera makes all of the decisions about how to shoot, choosing from the range of scene modes and other features on offer.

Movie Mode

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The {{product.model}} can capture videos at a 1280 by 720 pixel resolution at 30 frames per second (known as 720p video).

Drive/Burst Mode

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The {{product.model}} is not a particularly fast camera, with a claimed speed of 1.5 frames per second. That's on the slow side, but that is not uncommon on low-cost cameras like this.

Playback Mode

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A basic selection of playback features are on offer, with the ability to create slideshows, view up to 30 thumbnail images on screen at once and a few basic editing tools. The latter allow you to crop, trim and resize images.

Picture Quality & Size Options

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The resolution of the images that the {{product.model}} captures ranges from the maximum of 4320 by 3240 pixels down to 640 by 470. Most of the image sizes are at a 4:3 aspect ratio, but options are also available for 16:9 and 1:1 aspect ratio images.

Other Modes

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Panorama

New on the low end of the range this year, the {{product.model}} offers a panorama mode, where you press the shutter and pan the camera, and the Venus Engine image processor captures up to 20 images and combines them together into a single wide or tall image.

Auto Retouch

Panasonic claims that their auto retouch mode will correct for common shooting problems at the touch of a button by adjusting the contrast and brightness of an image after it is shot.

Focus

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Panasonic claims to have improved the focus capabilities of their cameras this year, making the focusing speedier. We were not able to fully evaluate this claim, but it did feel speedier and nippier than previous low-end models in our limited hands-on time at the CES show.

Exposure & Metering

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The S2 has a shutter speed range of 8 seconds down to 1/1600 of a second., and an aperture range of f/1.31 to f/6.5 at the wide zoom range and f/5 to f/20 at the telephoto end of the zoom. That's a decent range, but both the aperture and shutter speed are a little limited: you are not going to be able to capture fast-moving objects or capture photos in very low light.

ISO

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The ISO range is from 100 up to 1600, with an auto ISO option, and Panasonic's intelligent ISO mode, which sets it automatically, but limits it to a range of 100 to 800 to stop the images getting too noisy.

White Balance

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The usual options for white balance are on offer, with a fully automatic mode, 5 presets and a direct mode where you enter the Kelvin value.

Image Stabilization

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The {{product.model}} uses Panasonics Mega O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilization) system, where an element of the lens moves to compensate for camera shake.

Picture Effects

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As well as the scene modes, the {{product.model}} offers a number of color modes that affect the image, such as a monochrome, sepia and vivid

Lens & Sensor

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The {{product.model}} uses a fixed 28-112mm zoom lens, which means a 4x zoom range. That's a decent range, but it is not long enough to get close into the action or wide enough to get a large group shot.

LCD

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The 2.7-inch LCD on the back of the camera has a 230k pixel resolution, and looks acceptably sharp. We were not able to test it in bright light, but previous low-end models like this had screens that got somewhat washed out in low light.

Flash

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The small flash is located on the front of the camera, to the left of the lens. Panasonic didn't have any information avaialble on the power of this flash, but we would not expect it to be overly powerful.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

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A single multi-purpose port is located under a rubber cover on the side of the body. This proprietary port is used for a USB connection to a computer and for analog video output.

Battery

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The small battery of this camera fits into a cavity on the bottom of the camera body. The battery is a lithium-ion model that Panasonic claims can last for about 280 shots.

Memory

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Images are stored on an SD, SDHC, or SDXC card that fits alogside the battery.

Conclusion

The {{product.name}} is a very simple, straightforward camera with a good range of features. It is lacking in some areas, though, with a shorter zoom range and feature set than some. But this is an entry level camera that should cost less than $100, so that is not surprising.

In our limited hands-on time with this camera, we found that it was easy to use and fitted well into the hand, but it has a few issues. The more expensive models in Panasonic lineup have a dedicated video shutter button, which makes it easy to start recording video. The {{product.model}} does not have this, so switching from still images to video is slower, and you are more likely to miss a shot. But that might be an acceptable compromise for a camera that is as low cost as this one is likely to be. No pricing information or availability for this camera had yet been released by Panasonic.

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Sample Photos

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Specs

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Meet the tester

Richard Baguley

Richard Baguley

Contributor

@@rbaguley

Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.

See all of Richard Baguley's reviews

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