Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMC-LC40K 4MP Digital Camera w/ Leica Lens and 3x Optical Zoom, Black

I am an experienced photographer, having used my professional Canon SLR for years. The Lumix is my first foray into digital photography, its purchase a result of extensive research into the field. After several months of living with it, I can attest I hardly use my SLR anymore...

I consider its main advantages to be:
1. An excellent lens (depth of field, however, is a bit limited by the camera's top aperture value of 8; this limit is common to virtually all digital cameras which are not ultra expensive).
2. Excellent photo quality.
3. Available photo modes enable almost SLR like usage. For example, the camera has aperture/shutter priority modes, and manual exposure adjustments.
4. While not as compact as other digital cameras, it is quite ergonomic, enabling a stable grip at long exposures. It is still feather light when compared to my SLR...
5. Flash operation is not automatic. Unlike cheaper cameras, this one lets you be the judge on whether you want to use the flash or not. As someone who, under most circumstances, would prefer to use a flash only as a last resort, I value this a lot. Even if you're paranoid about forgetting it, you can always look at the screen and see whether the result is too dark; and besides, the camera does make its own recommendation.
6. Like all digital cameras, the cost of taking photos is virtually zero, the results are available immediately, and editing the photos is extremely easy.

Taking the camera everywhere I go has taught me of some of its disadvantages, too:
1. It requires a large memory card in order to store a decent amount of high quality photos, which is an extra cost.
2. The lack of a fully manual mode is something I miss from my SLR, especially for night time photography.
3. When compared to my Canon, the camera takes too long to focus (although that's mostly an advantage of Canon SLRs rather than a disadvantage of the Lumix).
4. When turned on, it takes a few seconds for the camera to "wakeup" before you can take photos. However, this "feature" is common to all digital cameras.
5. Battery life can be a limit on long days of photography.
6. The LCD screen is not perfect: It can often be quite useless in bright Australia; and given its size, it's quite hard to pass judgement on whether the photo is focused or whether it's blurry. Interestingly, the screen crops a bit off the edges of photos (you do get the cropped sections back when you download the photos).

All in all, this camera will cost you significantly less than a professional digital camera, yet it would offer you 80% of the functionality a professional camera will give you, and much more than that in quality. And even if professional photography is the last thing on your mind, it is still very easy to take high quality photos with it - simply point and shoot...

Highly recommended.

I recently purchased a LC40 while on business in Singapore. Since getting home I've been taking all sorts of macro closeups, landscapes and portraiture photos with the camera. The blurbs described the Leica lens as a nice soft-focus type- though what this meant escaped me until I started looking at the photos I'd been taking of all sorts of subjects. The Lens or Camera, i can't work out which, do in fact take 'soft' focused photos. This is how I describe its ability to have very lifelike photos almost leap off the page and screen, without any sort of jarring colour distortion - they literally come out as good as your memory recalls. The screen at the back of the camera also has accurate colour matching - meaning that apart from size, there are no nasty surprises once you go to your LCD display on the desktop to see what the photos really looked like.

All up, I am extremely happy with this camera, and am settling down with Photoshop, a good close up macro lens and my teleconversion lens for a good several years of serious digital photography. I cannot recommend the camera enough! I'll be kissing my SLRs goodbye alot sooner that I'd expected

I have been through a few SLR bodies and a couple of point and shoots. My lense kit ranges from 28mm to 400mm for the 35mm cam, a Pentax ZX-M. I was skeptical about the digital breed, and the Fuji2600 I bought 18 months ago was ok, but developed into a battery hog. The 4 MegaPixel LC40 has retired them all though! I couldn't believe that I finally had a Leica lens at a bargain price, and the optics make a huge difference. I have compared my pics to some others taken with a 5MP Sony, and the Panasonic/Leica LC40 has better colors, slightly better resolution, and far more natural contrast. The Sony made a waterfall appear, as if the water had been pasted onto the rock formmations in a qick and dirty PhotoShop! It took me a little while to get used to it, but an important lesson was to keep this camera locked at 100 ASA sensitivity whenever possible. Otherwise the automatic override can at times switch to a higher sensitivity, resulting in some minor rainbowing color noise effects around solid dark objects. This is only visible in larger printouts though (8x10 and bigger). I also use it fairly exclusively in the Aperture priority mode, which allows me to quickly check and adjust my shutter speed, while always having a good idea what the depth of field will be. While the 100ASA fix makes for great colors, I have also found this camera to make pictures superior to other models in low light conditions, with less noise ("grain"). The battery life is simply outstanding! I haven't charged my LC40 for about 3 or 4 days now, have taken around 50 shots, and still a better than 75% charge in the battery! I have to mention here, that I use this camera like an SLR, in that I keep the LCD monitor turned on for framing purposes and setting checks and also instantly review my pictures with the zooming feature. This a big no-no with many digicams if you want more than just a few shots, but not this camera. It keeps on going like the Energizer Bunny!
My pictures are sharper and actually have better resolution (yes, I do mean better than 35mm film!) than ever, I can print whatever, whenever, and in what size I want, buying and getting film processed is a thing of the past, and thanks to my home computer I am even getting into the kind of special effects photography I always dreamed of, but never had a darkroom for.
Like I said, it took me while to get the settings right, but now this is a better camera for me, than my SLR ever was or could be!
Kudos to the Leica and Panasonic engineers for getting together and creating this new line. I wouldn't trade back to film anymore!
As a final note: I am still trying to figure out the difference between this camera and the Leica Digilux1/Panasonic-LC5 (they are nearly identical) model. The LC40 is more compact, but that seems to be it, aside from being half the price, which makes it a far superior deal to the other (usually only 2 or 3 MegaPixel) cameras in this price range!
Get it while you can - it's sold out in a lot of places!

I purchased this camera in June and have hundreds of excelent quality photos already. The SD memory is smooth and fast and reproduction is without a doudt as good as I ever received from my old SLR's. Even the kids took good photo's. The battery lasted an entire week on vacation without a recharge and took over 100 photo's including flash. This is a nice camera for both amature and hobbiest. Thanks Panasonic

This camera is amazing. I am getting more deeply interested in photography, and have had a great Minolta 35mm SLR for years and love it. I've been waiting for digital's quality to come up, and prices to come down for a few years. I felt that time had arrived, so I began seriously researching which camera to buy.

After spending much time learning about what the pros love, I basically decided to get the Leica Digilux 1 (www.leica-camera.com/digitalekameras/digilux1/index_e.html). Unfortunately, at 900 bucks, I was also planning to have to continue my wait.

Then I stumbled upon the Panasonic LC40 w/ a Leica lens. I read all I could about the camera, and noticed some serious similarities b/t it and the Digilux. In fact, I learned that Panasonic was sub-contracted to put their digital works in the Leica cam, while Leica puts their SAME EXACT lens (the Leica DC Vario-Summicron) in the LC40.

Got the LC40 for 1/3 the price of a Digilux, and got basically the same exact camera (minus manual focus and with a smaller lcd). If you look at the specs of both cams you'll see what I mean.

Most of the reviews here and elsewhere have highlighted much of what I want to say about this fantastic camera. But I have come across rare review-complaints about its darkening of pictures and bad low-light performance, color-shifting etc. These comments I have found to be completely untrue, and probably the unfortunate result of a lack of a basic understanding of photography. This cam is simply AMAZING in low light, without a flash. It focuses very well in extremely dim situations (we're talking DARK situations) and yields amazing results. The colors are crisp and neutral. Even in low light. I did not find a hint of even minor color shift.

Other nice features:
Clean neutral flash. Good redeye reduction. Multiple flash modes.
"Burst" mode a-la Girls On Film by Duran Duran ;)
SD cards (more $$, but smaller)
Fast USB xfer.
Ergonomically comfortable. Big enough to offer stability, yet quite compact.
Great price.

Minuses (almost a joke to bring up considering the price)
No manual focus
No focus tracking light
Minimal digital zoom.
No acc or flash sync (for external flash systems).
No remote.

In a world flooded with mediocre 4mp cameras and lenses, this one borders on pro for an extreme fraction of the cost. Go get one, because you'll easily have to go to the $1k range to compete with the LC40's results.