I love to shoot wide and the 24mm lens is a plus

The lx5 has a 90mm (Equiv) zoom and that would be nice.

This is the camera I always have with me.

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LX2

- Compact
- RAW
- HD Video
- Lieca Lens
- Fast Lens (f/2 - f/2.8)

- Noise at higher ISO
- Slow Auto-Focus
- Fickle Manual Focus
- Only 60mm for maximum Zoom

When a Professional Photographer gets a Point & Shoot, what do they get.

The LX3 of course.

Think of it more of a Lieca D-Lux inside a Panasonic body. This neat pocket sized camera is the professionals perfect daily carry around camera, sure it's not a Micro 4/3rd with interchangeable lenses, but this little camera packs a mighty punch.

Equipped with a fast, wide angle lens this camera does a decent job in low light situations. At 5.1mm (24mm) you get a full f/2 and at 12.8mm (60mm) you get f/2.8 as fast as most professional grade zoom lenses for SLR cameras. But watch out at higher ISO ratings, like most P&S cameras, it does suffer a bit with noise. However even with a 24mm at the wide angle, most people does like the zoom only going to 60mm. But when compared to the rest of the camera, this is a minor inconvenience.

Another nice thing about this camera is the built in flash is augmented with a full hot shoe for off camera flash applications.

The bottom line is that is camera rocks, it gives you power in a compact form great for family events, vacations, and just anything where you don't want to shell out money for a Micro 4/3rds camera or lug around your dSLR kit. It offers a full range of manual control making it perfect for a professional who just wants something to throw in their pocket.

Customer Service

None Required.

Similar Products Used:

- Canon G9

Low Light shots with fast lens.
Macro shots are outstanding
Takes excellent quality low-noise photos
Wide angle-- 24 mm equivalent.
manual mode
HD movie mode
Nice ergonomic size
Hotshoe
excellent optics
RAW images

Slow focus, metering.
Flash filled images not so exciting.
Large movie file sizes.
Short battery life in movie mode.
Could use more zoom range.
hard to frame image using LCD in bright light.
Awkward RAW format

I got this camera to carry with me on my bike and for an everyday "have on hand" camera. I usually carry a DSLR but carrying around a bulky camera all the time is not so fun. The key features I wanted were image quality and wide angle. When Panasonic released this, I was excited and that it has an f/2.0 lens made it even more exciting.

The camera boots fast but still has the typical lag for focusing and metering when the shutter is pressed. So for action shots, some anticipation is necessary.

The removable lens cap is a mixed bag over a curtain dust cover. There are less mechanical parts to break and less crevasses for dirt to get in the camera, but when riding a bike, it requires two hand operation and someplace to store the cap. It has a lanyard but this results in the cap swinging into the field of view in some instances in how I use it.

The images are amazing in quality being in some cases as good as my DSLR. Some shots with clouds still get that posterized look sometimes that seem to be common in point-and-shoot cameras.

One surprise is the macro quality. It actually might be it's best strength. I didn't have a good macro lens for my DSLR but now with this camera, I don't need one. It takes nearly perfect macros.

I normally take wide angle photos, but after using this for a while, I do realize that I like a little longer focal length sometimes. It could have a little more zoom but the problem really is, most photos require either 24 mm or over a 120 mm. Making a 5x f/2.0 lens would be a difficult task, and probably make the camera too large. However, A little loss on the aperture at longer focal lengths would be ok with me.

One of the weakest features of the camera is the flash. It seems to nearly always produce unsatisfying images. But that is usually expected with point and shoot cameras. I find that putting a tissue in front of the flash does help in some cases.

Customer Service

No experience with CS.

Similar Products Used:

Canon a80
Panasonic DMC tz50

low light
sharp
24mm wide
HD video
metal body
speed of the shutter release , quick respond.

battery strenght

I wont write about the techniqal details of the camera rather than my personal experience with this nice gadget ...i own a D3 , but i cannot take it with me all the time , and i love to walk around with a camera , i thought of getting a D40 but i wont be that far , i read about the camera a lot , then i decieded to get it ...i did not regret what i did , i am posting the photos to my friends and although they are SLR owners , proud owners , they are thinking about the lx3 seriously now , you will be amazed how this camera performs in low light , by its amazing wide angle leica lense , by the way the camera is build ...itwill never be an SLR ...but the SLR will never fits were the LX3 can be either ...it is so fun to deal with , and the video quality is also very very good , all packed into that compact robust body.
i unboxed it in my car at night , put it on manual ,at f2 ,15 shutter speed than i pressed the shutter release , i looked at the photo through the lcd , then i smiled ....
this small point and shoot is different , its really a mile further than all the compact cameras i ve seen.

Customer Service

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Lens (!) (wiiide angle)
size,
battery,
lens (!!) (available light photography)
lcd screen
macro
black and white mode
good movies (including HD)
lens (!!!) (just barely usable boukeh)
looks (silly, but it really does look like a real camera)

noise :)
no viewfinder (only really issue in bright light)
color accuracy
auto-white balance
60 mm max

I recently had to replace my stolen/borrowed canon s80 which was a rock solid camera. What I was looking for was dSLR performance in a small package that I'd actually perhaps maybe carry with me. On paper, 'cept for the obvious and fair sacrifices of viewfinder and long (any) telehphoto, lx3 is it.

And, for the most part it performs well; ergonomics and logistic details (AF, time to capture after trigger, etc) are functional. There is a great deal of available manual control, different aspect ratios, fine tweaking white balance, upper ISO limit, which is all commendable. (little experience with the flash, though, because...)

The large step up from the s80, and probably any other non dslr camera, is the very usable available light capability of this camera. The limit is almost always the photographee, rather than the photographer (especially two year olds ;). The 2.0 lens, 24 mm focal length (effective off course) and image stabilization are a great combination.

However, its not perfect because there is too much noise at 400, despite state of the art (supposedly) sensor and large sensor size. Available light at iso 400 is very useable, just not as much a step up from s80 as i'd hoped. The noise also has very distinct weird fingerprint. (Search the web for examples. )
Panasonic have definitely made strides since their prior cameras, but are still no in the same league as the majors.

The most annoying issue though is color. The manual control over white balance and color modes is nice, but I just cant' get over the feeling that all my photos aren't quite color correct. This may be because i did color printing for a spell, enough to learn when color was off, but not enough to reliably correct it. Or it may because the options (natural mode or nostalgic mode or standard mode, each can then be fine tweaked) serve to remind one how subjective color is.
Except, there are some pretty blatant examples on the web, and I myself witnessed a venus4 brain cramp myself:
3 seconds apart, i shifted the ev down a 1/3, and my wife's face goes from tinge of death (it was cold out) to flushed. This was the most obvious, but i really do not get a strong sense of confidence that color balance is reliable.

Sure, there is Raw, but
a) color balance with the (well reviewed) raw processor software isnt' much different than internal jpeg engine
b) if i had time to do Raw, i'd get a dSLR. ;)

If you are not a color stickler, and can stomach a pricey product, then this camera is for you if you like/need:
wide angle
available light photography
portability
dont' print > 8x10 (my rough guess of where the noise will become a nuisance)


Cheers

Similar Products Used:

Canon s80, s70

The lens. If the previously mentioned "Leica designed 24mm equivalent f2.0 lens" doesn't get you, then this probably isn't the camera for you. It's a 24 to 60mm zoom, so there's not a big range - but it suits me just fine. The out of focus areas have that smooth, creamy Leica look to them. The optical image stabilization works as well as Nikon's VR lenses. This camera feels really well made and a lot of features commonly used by serious photographers can be easily accessed instead of drilling down through layers of menus.

This camera shoots beautiful jpegs, but RAW is really worth the extra effort. Image quality is really narrowing the gap between compacts and DSLR's. The camera ships with SilkyPix 3.0 SE which is a great, albeit strange, RAW converter. The documentation is poor, but it's easy enough to figure out and there is an inexpensive e-book written by an independent photographer who will teach you some tricks about it. This "SE" special edition software only works with images from this camera - even jpegs from another camera won't work. I've asked the software producer if they have an upgrade path but no response as of yet.

I'm giving it a four star value rating since it is expensive for a compact, but has a lot of great and unusual features - you get a lot for your money, but you'll give up a fair amount to get it. I'm also giving it five stars overall and I think it's worth it. This camera isn't for everyone, but it seems like most others are. They tried something different, and it worked!

A 24-60mm lens equivalent isn't what most people would hope for with a camera in this price range, it's fairly limiting. This camera is really geared towards someone looking for a rangefinder-like camera without the flexibility or cost of a Leica system. I haven't even tried the flash yet but I doubt it'll do much. SilkyPix RAW converter software is poorly documented. Fair amount of barrel distortion at the wide end, but that's easily taken care of by SilkyPix if you're shooting RAW.

This is more of an "initial impression" than a full review, as I've only had the camera a short time. In '02 I bought a Nikon Coolpix 5000 which has a lot of really unique features. It wasn't a perfect camera for everyone, nor is the LX3 but it is the first one that really got me interested in replacing that 5000. I didn't need to hear too much more than "Leica designed 24mm equivalent f2.0 lens" to make up my mind, but the fact that it has a live histogram, shoots RAW and also an almost panoramic 16:9 format certainly pushed me over the edge. As did the optical image stabilization which happens to work really well.

A combination of the very wide lens, wide aperture and wide 16:9 ratio (like a widescreen TV, but other ratios are native too) make this a wide angle fan's dream come true. Shallow DOF with a nice smooth background can be possible with a compact camera!

Customer Service

Have not needed or used it.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon Coolpix 5000, Olympus 720SW.