2 Comments

• 

  larsr

  on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 07:53:50 PM says:
  Not bad - but could be better.

  For what it's worth, this is a great P&S for traveling light so you don't have to worry about carrying a ton of DSLR stuff. It's compact, has a good feel to its build and is fairly easy to operate. Features aspect ratio control (which is cool for those w-i-d-e shots in 16:9), three-inch LCD with live view (but, disappointingly, no viewfinder) and a fast AND wide lens (at 24mm f/2!). Also a pretty good, clear user interface. The bad news is that IQ at higher ISO levels is not good. Noise begins to creep in and disturb already at ISO400. Add that to the tiny optical 2.5x zoom range and you have a whole lot of muddy pixel porridge. You are also bound to a limited range of add-ons from Panasonic, which are expensive as hell. Third-party add-ons are available but they come with a cutback in quality. Also, smaller third party flashes don't work and don't talk TTL with the LX3. The tag-along SilkyPix software is crap, and you will do much better in getting Lightroom from the get-go. All in all I still recommend the camera, but with a grain of salt. It's not junk, but I would maybe wait for the next reiteration to follow.

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• 

  ayhcheung

  on Tuesday, December 09, 2008 at 02:45:43 PM says:
  A flawed gem...

  Pros: Build quality, retro aesthetic, compact size, vastly improved image quality over the LX1 at ISO levels above ISO100, usable up to ISO800 (just), intuitive UI, hotshoe (but see below). Cons: Incompatible with certain third-party sync-only hotshoes, Silkypix as bundled RAW converter (Rawtherapee 2.4 beta is a viable alternative), surreptitious barrel distortion in Silkypix and in-camera (more a marketing issue than anything else), ludicrously priced first-party accessories (the Voigtlander 25mm finder is half the price of Panasonic's own 24mm finder).

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