I have this camera for more than a year and I made more than 6000 shoots. I would say the colors are real. I have drop it several times and still works perfectly. The LCD screen is quite scratch resistant. The night shoots are good only with tripod witch is normal for this class camera. There is not manual settings compares to some other trade mark cameras from the same class but this is at the expense of the price.
Panasonic - 6.0MP Digital Camera, Lumix, Gray is recommended by TheodoreBahchevanov
The Panasonic DMC-LZ5SD combines a compact, easy-to-carry size with a powerful 6x [HE_opticalzoom] lens - equivalent to a 37 to 222mm lens on a 35mm camera - for dynamic closeups or great shots from a distance. The Extended Optical Zoom function, which magnifies the image with minimal deterioration by using the center part of the high-resolution CCD, boosts the zoom power to 8.3x 1in 3-megapixel images.