New Toy

Finally, I was able to find a serious compact to fill-in those days I'd like to shoot but I don't want to bring a full-size DSLR. I'm not aware of any digital point and shoot that a real photographer would like to use. One thing is picture quality. Full control is another thing. Shutter lag is the worse.

Enter the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, which is basically a carbon copy of the Leica D-Lux 4 but at about 50% less in price. It still has the Leica lens and operates at the same focal range. It was introduced sometime in August but I was not in the market for a compact thus I was not really aware of it's existence. There is the Canon G10 but I was not convinced that it's the right compact for me. What I had my eyes open is for a small videocam that would shoot HD videos and it should have optical image stabilization  but it shouldn't break my wallet. I was not successful in finding one with the right specs. at the right price. I'm glad I waited and not just took the plunge or else I'd miss this wonderful little gem, the LX3 which also makes wonderful HD videos. 

In reality, it has controls much similar to a full pledged DSLR, full manual control capability including manual focusing,  almost no shutter lag if prefocused, can shoot RAW, has continuous autofocus, dynamic tracking and multi-area focusing capability, can do 6 frames per second and so on. I'm a sucker for fast lenses and this small compact has a max. aperture of f/2.0 at 24mm super wide focal length and f/2.8 at it's max. focal length of 60mm. I know, it's only 24-60mm range (35mm equivalent)  but for day to day snapshot kind of thing shooting, this will cover probably 95% of what I'd like to use it for. Of course, I don't see sports photographers using this on the field but for parents with kids who would like to capture the precise moment (not when the subject is already 10 feet away), this will suffice.

First impressions... picture quality is quite good, not SLR quality but for prints up to 8x10, I believe it can manage. With software, it can be pushed for sure. I don't want to do a full review. There are tons on the net right now and all I can say is that I'm pretty amazed with this one. The only drawback I see is that the video format is MOV. Not that versatile in terms of the capabilty to edit unless you are a MAC user. With Windows, Apple's Quicktime Pro can do a quick edit but there's no bell and whistle here. Forget converting it to AVI or other formats, the quality will suffer. Anyway, still there's no buyer remorse here.