Review 2 of 3
Price Paid:
$489.00
from b&h Summary: i purchased this little camera with the intent of shooting mountain biking. so, a quality compact, manual, responsive camera with a wide angle lense was required. A DSLR was ruled out because of cost, size, weight and the burdan of such a camera would restrict the frequency of use. The S-80 was a candidate, but the larger, sharper leica lense and 16:9 aspect ratio made the LX-1 more desireable.
when the black LX-1 arrived, i was suprised at how small the body was, yet how large the glass was. with a metal body and a metal lense surround, the build quality is really impressive. the camera is light, but you can feel the majority of weight is in the lense, a good sign.
right away i was loving the 28mm wide angle lense, so sharp! and the shutter response is awesome, both of which were lacking from my old POS P&S.
manual controls are easy and smooth, with quick access to shutter speed, aperture, white balance, ISO, and image quality. two switches on the lense barrel control aspect ratio and focus settings (auto, macro, manual). the LX-1 really encourages creative control.
for mountain biking, i am stoked on the speed of this thing. shutter lag is negligible (it's fast), and the 3 fps burst is dslr like.
the colors recorded by this camera are vivid, but not artificial. the images are really sharp and do not feel processed.
my only reservation when buying, was all the fuss about noise. i was expecting the worst. at ISO 400, it's noisy, but no worse than any other small sensor compact camera. at ISO 80 and 100, the images look fantastic, noise is not a factor. noise kicks in at iso 200. i've concluded that what noise exists, is because of low processing. in other cameras, you can see murky affects of noise reduction. the RAW capable LX-1 leaves noise processing up to the user. with such a sharp image, there's room to process. but, really, i am so satisfied with the images, that i feel no need to process noise at all. if i really need the sensativity of iso 400, i'll just shoot in b&w and embrase the grainy look.
my only complaint about the LX-1 is no external flash potential. the flash on the camera works allright, but no hotshoe is really restricting my night options.
overall though, i am totally satisfied with my purchase of the LX-1. it's a great photo tool that is condusive to creative expression, completely capable of producing a high quality image. Strengths: -sharp 28mm wide angle lense, 112mm zoom.
-very fast shutter response.
-3 fps burst
-excellent colors.
-smooth, easy to use manual controls.
-small, light weight.
-quality build.
-RAW
-understated design.
-great image quality. Weaknesses: -no hotshoe, no auxilary flash potential.
(would've given it a 5 star rating if it had a hotshoe) Similar Products Used: canon S-60
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