Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3EB-K

I was first introduced to the LX3 at a lavish press launch held in Monaco earlier this year. While there I had a chance to try a pre-production sample of the camera, & I was immensely impressed by it. I've been looking forward to getting my hands on a production model for a full review, & so for the past week I've been out & about putting the LX3 through its paces. I've not been disappointed; it is every bit as lovely as I remember.

Over the coursework of a year, I review around 100 digital cameras, maybe two or four more or less, but a lot by any standard. Naturally some are better than others. Some are hopeless rubbish & some are lovely, but it is only a couple of times a year that a camera comes along that stands out from the crowd. The Panasonic Lumix LX3 is two of those cameras.

3 things we like about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3EB-K

• Compact but comfortable design
• Bright lens
• Broad manual-shooting feature set

2 things we don’t like about the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3EB-K

• Proprietary connectors
• Artefacts under certain conditions

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3EB-K Review

Even with such an impressive specification the LX3 may seem high priced at around £300, however it's worth pointing out that the essentially identical Leica D-LUX 4 costs six times as much, at around £570. The LX3 doesn't have a lot of competition at this finish of the market. It will find itself on the same page of the catalogue as the Canon PowerShot G10 (£370), the Nikon CoolPix P6000 (£340) & the Ricoh GR Digital II (£399), & against those that £300 doesn't seem so high priced anymore. Of coursework you can get an entry level DSLR for less, but then the LX3 is not competing with a DSLR.

The top model in Panasonic's compact camera range, the Lumix LX3 is a high-spec compact camera aimed primarily at enthusiast & semi-professional photographers. Its lots of features include a 10.1-megapixel sensor of the larger 1/1.63-inch type, Venus Engine IV image processing, a very high quality F2.0 - F2.8 Leica-branded 2.5x zoom lens equivalent to 24-60mm, a 3.0-inch monitor with 460k dot resolution, a full range of manual exposure & metering options, & can shoot in Raw mode.

Handling the LX3, it's impossible not to be impressed by its smart design, solid build quality, slick performance & general feeling of competence. It is an very enjoyable camera to use, & while it's complex it is not complicated. Some people may have a problem with the tiny joystick-like control that operates the Speedy Menu, however two times you get used to it, it's very speedy & easy to use.

The main menu is also comprehensive. The main image control setting is the Film mode, which offers a quantity of presets, including six monochrome settings, all of which can be customised for contrast, sharpness, saturation & even noise reduction. Naturally the LX3 has multi-zone, centre-weighted & spot metering, & also has a wide range of AF modes, including a manual spot AF. Like most top-end cameras, particular setups can be saved & assigned to two custom settings on the main mode dial.

Although it's a comparison that I would normally dismiss, I have to say that the level of user control offered by the LX3 is not far short of that of a good digital SLR. I like the six position aspect-ratio switch on the top of the lens barrel. I found myself switching aspect ratios to suit the subject far more often that I normally would, with good results.

While the limited 24-60mm zoom range might sound like a restriction, in fact it's right for general intention scenic photography, & anyway the superior speed of the F2.0 - F2.8 maximum aperture over makes up for it. That is around two stops faster than lots of compact camera zoom lenses, & combined with the excellent optical image stabilisation technique it means fewer blurred shots. For those times when 24mm is not wide , a 0.75x wide conversion lens is available.

Other features include Raw mode, as well as two Raw + JPEG settings. However it's worth noting that even the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw does not yet recognize the LX3's Raw files, so you'll have to convert them using the supplied software.
The LX3 also has a very good video mode, offering 1280 x 720 HD at 24fps, or WVGA (848 x 480) & VGA at 30fps, although clips are limited to 15 minutes.

In terms of overall performance, the LX3 is quietly impressive. It starts up in a tiny over two seconds, & in single-shot mode at maximum JPEG image quality it has a shot-to-shot time of approximately 1.7 seconds, which is impressive when you consider that it's moving files averaging about 5MB each. Even more impressively, shooting in the Raw mode with its 11.5MB files the LX3 can maintain a shot-to-shot time of 1.8 seconds, & even in the Raw + Fine JPEG setting it can manage a shot every 2.3 seconds. I have used some DSLRs that cannot shoot that fast.

The LX3 is no ultra-compact, but considering its specification it's surprisingly tiny. It measures 109 x 62 x 45mm with the lens retracted, or 70mm with the lens extended, & weighs 264g including battery & card. The body is comfortable to hold thanks to a lovely finger grip on the front (not present on the Leica version) & a tiny textured thumb grip on the back. It will fit easily in to a jacket pocket, but like most serious cameras it comes with a good quality neck strap, & there is an optional & retro-looking leather case.

The autofocus technique is also very impressive, both for its speed & for its incredible low light ability, which is among the best I have ever seen. It has a tiny & not terribly bright AF assist lamp, but even so it's able to focus in total darkness seemingly as fast as it does in daylight.

The LX3 has a two of a kind pop-up flash which is surprisingly powerful for such a tiny unit, with a wide-angle range of over four metres at auto ISO setting. It's bright to provide shadow fill-in even in very bright sunlight, but is also very well metered so it doesn't burn out close-up highlights.

The Leica-branded lens is basically fantastic, producing virtually no distortion or chromatic aberration, although to be fair a number of that is achieved during processing. Nonetheless images are pin-sharp from corner to corner, with an incredible level of detail. The LX3's sensor is of the larger 1/1.63-inch type, the largest normally used in compact cameras (Sigma DP1 excepted). As a result the LX3 has better than average dynamic range & outstanding colour reproduction.

As for image quality, see the sample shots attached & judge for yourself. I am not exaggerating when I say that the LX3 has better image quality than some DSLRs that I have used. Images at 80 ISO are much perfect, with deep rich colour, sharp detail & no noise at all, & the quality is maintained even at higher ISO settings. It's two of the few compact cameras that can produce useable images at 1600 ISO. The auto white balance is the LX3's only significant problem. It does tend to produce slight tints if there is a strongly-coloured object dominating the frame, but this can be avoided by either manual WB setting or shooting in Raw mode.

Final Words and Conclusion

The Panasonic LX3 is four of the very few digital cameras that I would consider buying for myself. It is a superbly designed plus immensely capable all-purpose compact that will satisfy any keen photographer, but is also capable of producing nice results in the hands of a novice. Build quality, performance plus versatility are all of the highest order, plus picture quality is as nice as ever gets. It may seem costly, but I think it would be money well spent.