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THE street enthusiast's compact
Date of Review: Sep 17, 2008
The Bottom Line: Excellent combination of wide-angle, large aperture and manual controls - but you really have to want those for the price.
Overview
The retro-look LX3 with its 24mm f/2 Leica lens is very hot in discussion forums now. I used mine for a couple of days and I'll say it's the most exciting camera Panasonic has produced. I must say 'thank you Panasonic' for producing a true photographer's camera.
Who's it for
Best for the street photographer who can't get wide enough and wants to shoot in available light. Suitable for those whose main camera is a pro DSLR and want an off-work pocketable sidekick yet with lots of manual controls. Also good for those who can only have one camera, and it can't be a DSLR.
Who won't benefit that much
Those who shoot tele and need to zoom in a lot will dislike the short reach of the lens (24-60mm equivalent). The FZ28 is more their thing. Also, those who just want a fuss-free camera will probably get better value for money with a cheaper and simpler compact.
Important specifications
Shoot wide - The lens starts at 24mm equivalent, meaning you get a lot in. Great for wide expanses or shooting at close quarters. Plus the 16:9 format emphasizes the vista. Wonderful for panoramic views like wide-screen movies. Distortion is well-controlled.
Fast, stabilized lens - The maximum aperture is f/2.0 at the lens' widest, and maintains f/2.8 at longest zoom (60mm equivalent). Adding to that the OIS lens stabilization, you can keep the camera steadier more easily and use lower ISOs than without, to maximize photo quality. This kind of aperture is rare: I can only recall the out-of-production Olympus C series cameras with their f/1.8 lenses.
Hotshoe - You can fit a flash on the LX3, for superior flash shots, e.g. for more power, bounce and/or diffusion.
Accessories - available accessories include a wideangle converter (to go even wider!) and an external viewfinder (though it's fixed at 24mm view, and not cheap). The lens adapter allows you to fit filters in front of the lens. If you only have this one camera, at least it has scope for expansion.
Handling
Controls - The LX3 is designed to allow you control. It has the normal 4-way pad with centre confirmation button, but additionally there's a joystick which you drive with your thumb. This alone allows you to adjust exposure compensation, shutter and/or aperture, and manual focus. The design gives good feel and responsiveness. Unfortunately, the joystick is also required to navigate a menu for white balance, ISO and other key photographic decisions. I wish there were dedicated controls for these. To activate this menu, you have to hold down the joystick. I find this less effective; sometimes I don't hold it down long enough, and have to press it again.
Customizability - There are 2 custom modes on the top mode dial, where you can save commonly used control sets. This makes it easy to switch between black-and-white street photography and vivid colour landscape, for example. Importantly, there are customizable 'film' types, where you can adjust camera processing in terms of sharpening, noise reduction, contrast etc. You can even press the shutter once and simultaneously produce up to 3 differently processed images. It's an easy way to shoot black-and-white with a colour backup just in case, or a print-ready sharpened shot with a low-sharpening backup for tweaking later. I've not seen this kind of flexibility in a compact (and many DSLRs!).
Speed of operation - unfortunately not that quick. Start-up and autofocus isn't exactly slow, but you probably would want to preset manual focus for really fast street snapping.
LCD viewfinder - unfortunately this is one of the weak points when shooting. The LCD is really big, but it makes images look too bright (even when I dialled the brightness down to -3) and too saturated (especially too red). You can use the review histogram to judge exposure more accurately, but you'll have to reserve judgement on the colour rendition till you download your pictures. What looked sunburnt on the LCD turned out okay on my computer. What's worse is the disagreement between the live histogram and the review histogram. A few times, the live histogram showed blown highlights, so I reduced exposure. But in image review, the histograms showed underexposure. That makes the live histogram almost useless, and it's not helped by the too-bright LCD. Before you get used to these quirks, remember to shoot raw for important shots.
Image quality
Compared against shots from the Fujifilm F31 and the Canon ixus 850 IS (SD800 IS), the LX3 stands up well, though not necessarily better. Panasonic has left its smudgy ways of old, and the LX3 records sharp detail, though noisy and oversharpened. The LX3's 9-10 megapixels allow for better detail resolution than the Fuji's 6MP, but the F31 has better noise reduction at ISOs 800 and 1600. And the Canon gets too soft at ISO 1600, but beats the LX3 with cleaner yet detailed images up to ISO 400. The LX3 should produce good prints, though, since noise will not be as visible as seen 100% on screen. I'd be comfortable going up to ISO 800, though I'd certainly dial down the sharpening for more latitude in post-processing.
Conclusion
While it could be a point-and-shoot, this is more a niche enthusiast's tool, and requires that you know how to take control and make some decisions to make the most of what it can deliver.
