Let me be up front about this... I have never handled a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 (MSRP $499.95, street price $429.95 at B&H Photo and Video), so these impressions are based on information I've gathered from elsewhere. For those of you thinking "How can you review a camera you've never seen in the flesh," here's how: I'm NOT reviewing the camera. I'm summarizing what I know about it, and telling you why I didn't pick it as my "take everywhere" camera. In the interest of full disclosure, I also own several Nikon cameras; two film SLRs, two DSLRs and a point-and-shoot. (I also have two Sony digital point-and-shoots and a Kodak Easy Share digital point-and-shoot that my kids use, and an old manual focus Minolta X-370 film SLR with several lenses. Some people I know might call me a Nikon fanboy...)
First up, the positive... I've heard good things about the LX3's lens, and since it's a Leica, I'm inclined to believe them. The focal length ranges from 5.1mm-12.8mm (35mm equivalent 24mm-60mm), which is nicely wide at the short end. The maximum aperture is f/2.0 at the wide end and f/2.8 at the telephoto end for exceptional depth of field control. Panasonic also shows they haven't been seduced by megapixel madness: the LX3 sports a sensor with a modest 11.3 total (10.1 effective) megapixels, the lowest megapixel count of the cameras I'll be discussing. It also appears to have the lowest "pixel density" (pixels per square inch) of the three, which can have a positive effect on noise. Like all three high-end point-and-shoots I'll talk about, it offers custom white balancing; full-auto, aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual shooting modes; and RAW image recording. Sounds nice...
The negative: The controls look a little obtuse and fiddly to me. It also has an external lens cap that I've heard can become an annoyance; it comes with a lanyard, but it can certainly be a pain to have a lens cap flopping around on the end of string when you're trying to create art, and if I didn't put it on the lanyard, I'd be GUARANTEED to lose it. And now, the big one.
Like all digital cameras that offer RAW file capability, the LX3 has a RAW format that is unique to this camera model. (ALL cameras' RAW formats are unique; since they all have different sensors/electronics/recorded metadata, no two are alike.) The problem is that the LX3's RAW format is not supported by Apple's Aperture imaging program, which happens to be my RAW workflow solution of choice. (This information is current as of the time of writing; Apple may offer LX3 RAW support in the future, but that ship has already sailed as far as I'm concerned.) Why? I don't really know, although I've heard it may have to do with the fact that Panasonic's own RAW conversion software (SilkyPix) allegedly applies distortion correction to RAW files without any user input, a "feature" of which I'm not a big fan. RAW data is supposed to be just that: unprocessed, uncorrected information directly from the sensor. Adobe Camera RAW and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom both support RAW files from the LX3, but I'm just not willing to include a different RAW workflow to accommodate my point-and-shoot.
Despite the good things I've heard about the LX3, the RAW format issue was a deal-breaker for me. It may be a great camera, but the LX3 was just not the camera for me.
Next up: Thoughts on the Canon Powershot G10.
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