Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic DMCLX3 Digital Camera - Black (10MP, 2.5x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I've been debating over the LX3 and Canon's G10 for a little while, as I wanted something more portable than my DSLR to keep with me at all times for those unnexpected photography moments! Both the LX3 and G10 are very similar (a few terrible reviews on the Nikon Coolpix P6000 put that out of the running for me) and I had trouble trying to decide which to go for. Once I decided on the LX3, the LX3 was quite a hard camera to get hold of (I avoided Amazon marketplace sellers based on past experience with the cheaper of those sellers sending non-UK models in unsealed boxes). Jessops was no help as they only had display models left in my local shops, and at £50 more than most prices I found online.

I finally got my hands on the LX3 today, going through an independent camera shop online (who were brilliant!).

I haven't had chance to get used to all the features yet, but I can see myself using this more than my SLR. It's compact (which was a selling point over the G10) and my images have been crisp and clear! The picture quality is amazing and some of the picture options I prefer over my DSLR! There's a live histogram which is really useful and the white balance options are also 'live'...so that you can see on the screen the effect of each on your photo before you take it. The display is also very nice!

The only slight downside is that the menu is a little awkward, but I think that may be as I'm used to my Nikon DSLR, and I'm sure I'll get used to it soon!

I make my own handmade jewellery as a hobby, and I've often struggled to get good photos of the things I make. The macro feature on the LX3 is breathtaking! It produces sharp, crisp, bright images when focusing up close.

I read online than when chosing between the Panasonic LX3 and the Canon G10, "you can't really go wrong with either", but I am thrilled I chose to go with the LX3! No wonder it has such good reviews! The LX3 was this month's issue of 'Practical Photography' magazine, where they gave the LX3 a main feature in their Christmas Compact Camera feature, awarding it their 'Gear of the Year' title.

I am very satisfied with this camera! It's brilliant and I cannot say enough good things about it! It has all the manual options to allow you to be creative with your photography, plus the compact size makes it easy to take anywhere!

Purchased about 3 days ago and haved taken a couple hundred pics in different situations to decide if i would be happy with it,I,m very fussys and use Nikon Dslr s.
First the camera is very very attractive with very good build and def something to show off ,the screen LCD is nothing short of amazing when composing and viewing ,Im fairly dated that i like a Viewfinder but this makes me enjoy liveviewing far more then i thought.
Buttons and controls are very good would prefer the joystick to be a bit bigger tho,weight and size seem almost perfect esp compared to the Canon G9/G10.
The lens is amazing and so fast at the wide and even the tele end @ 2.8, indoor shots whithout flash are no problem , Zoom is smooth and quite and you can tele X 4.5 if you drop the res to 3 meg, personally i leave it at 5 meg and 3.6 zoom for everyday stuff, more then enough megs for most things, Flash is small but very bright and is well away from the lens so reducing redeye, there is a hot shoe but i have not yet seen a flashgun available maybe someone has and can let me know.
lasty image quality ! i can say that 80/100 iso the camera is stunning and colours are fantastic with exposure and white balance spot on, 200 iso is a bit grainy at 100% crop but i have set the noise reduction to the lowest setting ie -2 for detail, put the noise reduction back on and 400 iso is easily acceptable and 800 ok when your desperate, above that and don,t bother but plse bear in mind i,m a Dslr user so again being VERY fussy, also the colours remain nicely staurated at higher iso.
Dynamic range has really surprised me esp with the setting for shadow detail and highlight control set which comes in 3 settings ,very impressive and camera deals with highlights great without any flare or CA.
Wide angle in 16.9 mode is awesome and really opens up a different type of photography for people compared to most lens which tend to start at 35mm altho Nikon and Canon are catching on with there new released high end compacts at 28mm still not as good tho !
Camera has a clever focus tracking for moving objects and really works well and normal focusing is quite quick and copes with lowlight with no problems at all.
To conclude i highy recommend this camera and most people will love it,s build ,rangefinder looks , features and image quality .
Only slight reservation i had was the short zoom range but i guess that would be very hard to have as well as the very fast lens which is great at keeping the iso at 80 for almost everthing.
For that kind of thing i use the Nikon and most far away things tend to need a Dslr for speed anyway.
This LX3 is def a stayer at least untill Olympus release there Micro 4/3 s Compact in about a yr or so !?
Added 04/10/08
Have taken more pics to experiment with the ISO settings and have compared it to pics i still have on my PC when i had the FUJI F31FD.
having played around a bit more i can say the 100iso and 200 iso look identical and 400 iso is very good far better then any compact i,ve ever seen , compared the 800 iso between the Fuji and LX3 and they look about the same (very good 4 compact) BUT zoom in 100% and i can see that the Fuji has smeared all the detail away and looks pretty horrible but the LX3 has kept amazing detail and colour, It looks like the LX3 has broken all the rules for a compact which is amazing as Panasonic never had a great reputation for this but they were obviously on a mission when they came up with the new processer ,couple this iso performance with the fast lens and you def have the best compact for low light to date bar none and i think rivals a budget DSLR with a slow lens and no Stabalization.

I decided to treat myself to this camera as a Christmas present after using a Canon Powershot G7 and G9 and I am seriously impressed! I was tempted by the G10 but in the end I felt the extra 4MP of the G10 were not worth it for the price when you see how Panasonic have improved quality over quantity. More megapixels does NOT make a better camera.

What I DON'T like about the LX3

The door for the battery/SD card is a bit flimsy and I have a feeling that it could get broken easily.

Zoom range -- I knew it was v.short before I bought it and yes it IS very short at just 60mm and only 2.5x from the 24mm wide end. But...if you are willing to drop the MP you can get up to 4.5x optical zoom from it. Granted you will not be making poster size prints from the resulting 3MP images. There is a digital zoom but even looking at them on the playback screen you know it isn't even worth taking them off the card. For emergency use only.

The shutter speed is not showing up in the EXIF information in PhotoShop. I hope Adobe/Panasonic will correct this. I have been using the SilkyPIX software which came with the camera to look up the info after the fact. The info does show up in the camera replay but not in CS3.

um...that's it!

What I DO like about it:

Size --- it IS important and this camera fits easily into my jacket pocket. Much lighter than the G7/G9's I have been using and much less bulky.

Handling -- complaints on the web about the fiddly joystick are exaggerated IMHO, it is easy to use and I am a big lad with big hands. The controls are well laid out, the menus are easy to navigate and it only took me about 15 minutes to get used to everything having come from a Nikon/Canon background.

Zoom -- that 24mm wide angle is great! And the 16:9 aspect ratio has become my favourite way of shooting almost immediately. It's bloody briliant! Totally, totally, totally love it to pieces!!!

Image Stabilization -- the Canon IS is very good, this appears to me to be far superior. Really impressive.

Lens -- it's a little belter - I'm shooting everything at f2/0 haha!!! I love it!

Image Quality -- what can I say? I'm shooting handheld at ISO80 and have shot a few at ISO400 and the 80s are outstanding and the 400's were acceptable. I've not been over 400 with it yet. I've only been shooting JPEGs with it as I haven't done any serious landscapes yet or snowscapes.

Flash -- I was expecting the flash to be very weak but I was very surprised when I used it and it lit up my living room which is 10 metres long! Perfect for parties! Red eye is not as much of a problem as with the G7/G9 because of where the Flash is located (popped up on the left) and also because there is some very clever software manipulation going on which combined with the double -flash for RE reduction, also processes the image and removes it for you. Clever.

LCD -- 3" big and crystal clear (excuse the pun). Really sharp and bright.

SD performance -- well, I've not been shooting rally cars with it but it performs very well, quick and efficient. I'm using a Lexar 4GB 133x SDHC in it and haven't had any problems firing off bursts of 3,4 and 5 pics.

White Balance. I've left it on Auto and it has coped really well. I have no complaints with it. There is a noted problem with shooting under flourescent lights but I've not tried that yet -- do I REALLY want to take pictures of my co-workers? Nah! A firmware upgrade is due for release by Panasonic tomorrow to improve AWB even more.

I'd give it a 96% rating overall. Very highly recommended.

Like a previous reviewer I did not buy this camera through the Amazon marketplace simply because I was lucky enough to benefit from a huge discount from Panasonic, so bought it direct from them. This did mean that the price comparator made it very attractive and for me placed it in the same bracket as top of the range point and shooters. I was looking for a camera that had manual features but could also accompany us on a night out, or on holiday, and allow my non-techie partner to easily use.
It is beautifully made and has a hefty quality 'German' feel in the hand. There being no black models in stock, I opted for the silver finish which now I have it I think has the edge on the black. (Having seen a one year old LX2 with the black finish badly chipped I think it was the right choice).
One thing though - my partner really dislikes the lens cap. I do agree that tethering the cap with a piece of twine is pretty low tech, and having it dangling from the side of the camera whilst shooting is not very satisfactory, but is something that most of the 'serious' compacts seem to share (Loose half a star). I love the retro pop-up flash, very Konica circa 1970! I find the little joystick slightly fiddly and not always positive to select the quick menu.
Picture quality is incredibly good with super low light performance without flash. It is the 24mm wide angle that sold the camera to me, and suits the landscape and street photography that I favour. I do not find the 2.5 zoom limiting, but many point and shooters would, particularly for holiday shots, and I did think hard about this factor - it does however give the picture taker plenty of leeway to frame the shot to their satisfaction. There are great in camera features such as interpretations of different film types such as B&W, Contrasty B&W and Vintage (giving a pleasing Kodachrome washed out look), and even 'Pinhole'.Colour rendition is staggering compared to my previous Nikon 5600 (which was frankly in a different price bracket and older technology) and beats my Zeiss Ikon Contaflex (I am pretty retro myself)except with higher ISO film. Higher ISO grain is something I like to use creatively in black and white, and it is well managed by such a small sensor. I have not gone SLR digital yet and see no immediate need to given the top end film kit I own, so I am not comparing the output to a DSLR as some magazine reviews tend to, the comparison is not fair.
My memory card of choice was the Sandisk Extreme III 4GB SDHC card at £12.49 from Amazon - works a treat and fab value.
I did a lot of online research before making my choice and read every review I could find. They do not tell you some of the more practical aspects however such as how difficult it is to get hold of a simple case to protect your precious purchase - a retro custom leather case for example is an eye watering £80, and it seems cheaper alternatives are not from the company have not yet been made widely available, so a padded samsonite/lowepro type case may have to do for now. Also having made the choice of a silver finish it seems that the aftermarket accessories such as tele/macro/filter adaptors, and the hugely expensive viewfinder are available only in black. Loose another half a star Panasonic!
I based my choice on manual features - which immediately limits the field, compact dimensions, screen clarity, and ease and speed of use for point and shoot situations. It delivers for me on these fronts. It is expensive, but it is superb quality and is loaded with features that this old film dinosaur looks forward to experimenting with further. The best all round camera on the market at the moment? For me - yes.

I was deciding between this, the Sigma DP1 and the Canon G10 cameras. I prompted for the LX3 on the basis of:

1. I believe that Canon have made an error by increasing the pixels on their camera and keeping the same size sensor chip. I also believe that the G10 was probably slightly too big (more on that later). I was also phased by its pricing as I felt it did not offer anything significantly better than the LX3, while being around 30% more expensive.

2. While I loved the idea of the DP1 and was not phased by its pricing because of the huge sensor chip and the awesome colour and photo quality this is supposed to have, I was scared off by constant references to this being a very difficult camera to take a good photo with. Also the comments that this does not perform in low light warned me off too as I wanted to be able to take good photos indoors and at night.

Was this the right move? Yes absolutely. I am so very happy with the picture quality I get from the camera. Its not an SLR, but I have had friends with SLRs say how this would be their next compact, everyone seems to be uniformly impressed by the photo quality. It has some great customiseable settings, and different virtual film stock, so you can whip it out and in one dial move have it go from being a colour shutter based setting to a dynamic black and white setting for some very impressive black and white photos.

The camera give me a feel of the old Leicas, it feels great in my hand and love snapping picture with it as much as making some lovely compositions. The choice of the large(r - slightly) sensor with the lower pixel count (10mp) makes the pictures razor sharp (no undersensitivity), and great for low light and night time. The flash is also great.

Raw files produced are good too. Although I would prefer to be able to use raw in Photoshop - I understand that Adobe is making an update available for ACR.

I also got the leather cover (from Japan) - although this makes it bulkier and harder to put in the pocket - its still smaller than the g10 in my opinion...

All in all - a great luxury compact camera, with lovely picture quality. I am very satisfied and have recommended it to all my friends.