[JohnR]

I picked one of these up at a close-out sale last week at over 60% off original retail. Sure, technology moves along, but this guy was too hard to resist, because it is (AFAIK) the only camera ever made with a 16:9 LCD screen on the back (and sensor to match).

With a 16:9 aspect ratio, a 28mm equiv lens does look pretty wide. Since it's a compact, there are some limitations. But I had some fun with it over the weekend anyway, here are some sample shots.

Statue in Bathurst



Farm at Bathurst



Sunset on the farm



Evans lookout, Blue Mountains

(The next version, the LX3, has a faster and wider lens. But it only goes out to an equiv 60mm instead of 105mm. Just FYI.)

[JohnR]

This shot illustrates "close up" and flash capabilities all in one. "Zarni" is a small parrot.

[Levi]

Nice!  You even captured the rainbow from Evan's lookout

This reminds me of the wide-angle Leica lens.  One of the first 6:9 

[SET Man]

Hey!

  John, Great scenery shots. The Farm and the Sunset are excellent.

Take care,
Buddy

[Tubes 4 Ever]

John I have a TZ5 Panasonic, and other than low light situations, it really is quite good. Great shots, wish my back yard looked like that 

[ipy]

This was taken with a P&S Panasonic DMC-FX7 on a Hotel roof top in Rio.

I agree, with a P&S & a bit of patience/experimentation, you can get a good shot.  Some p/p was used but mainly highlights
EXIF data:
Exposure: 0.625 sec (5/8)
Aperture: f/3.1
Focal Length: 6.8 mm
ISO Speed: 100

[Tubes 4 Ever]

Hey ipy, is that the Rio Othon? I have been to Rio about a dozen times, what a place

[ipy]

Hey ipy, is that the Rio Othon? I have been to Rio about a dozen times, what a place

Wish it was the Rio Othon but I took this shot on the roof of the Excelsior Copacabana & Rio is such a vibrant/colorful city.

[JohnR]

Thanks guys Re-reading the review on dpreview.com, apparently the CD has a pretty good RAW convertor on it, so I will try that this weekend.

It's interesting that the pace slows down with a camera like this. It's more like my Bessa L than a digital SLR to use 

Levi, the lens is labeled "Leica DC Vario Elmarit ... ASPH." All good words for a film shooter I understand that Panasonic and Leica sell (sold) the same camera.

Nice shot ipy

[Levi]

I think Panasonic acquired Leica sometime ago.  Not knowing what the actual lens is in this camera, your pictures shows quality. 

I would definitely put this camera in my short list.  Thanks John.

[giantsteps]

 I just spent a delicious week with my sister in law from Brazil. I recommended the panny TZ5, for the moola.. She did her own research and agreed. Mind you her deceased husband was a professional photographer and she was accostumed to handling Hasselblads, top of the line Nikons and a bazillion lens.
 Sigh..............I lived in Rio between the ages of 18 and 22. Best time of my life................Gee, do you wonder why?


 Frank

[ooheadsoo]

I think those are better landscapes than I have personally ever taken. 

[RooX]

I think Panasonic acquired Leica sometime ago.  Not knowing what the actual lens is in this camera, your pictures shows quality. 

I would definitely put this camera in my short list.  Thanks John.

ack... nope, Leica is a separate entity entirely!

They have partnered up on digi camera though, sharing knowledge and resources

[goldlizsts]

I think Panasonic acquired Leica sometime ago.  Not knowing what the actual lens is in this camera, your pictures shows quality. 

I would definitely put this camera in my short list.  Thanks John.

Did Panasonic acquire Leica?  I thought Panny just got into a partnership with Leica to use the Leica lenses in their cameras?   Here's my contribution of a picture taken by a Leica lens on a Panny P&S 4 MP (couple of years old).

[Levi]

I stand corrected.  Leica and Panasonic colaborated to make digital cameras. 

[JohnR]

I recommended the panny TZ5

Curiously enough, I had a TZ2 to play with today... long story but my friends in the country who own the farm pictured above asked me whether any of the clearance cameras would be a good upgrade to their old Fuji. After some consideration I suggested the TZ2, they didn't want the control you get with the LX2 and the long zoom was a plus for the kids' soccer games and so on. And the price was right as it's a superseded model (you guys in the US probably don't realize how much extra we pay for our stuff Down Unda!!)

Here's a couple of shots from a lunchtime walk today. Personally I miss the extra capabilities of the LX2, the TZ series is not for me. I did set color mode to "Vivid"

[Robert57]

JohnR, very nice landscapes, and I really appreciate your sharing your views on these compact cameras. I'm also in the hunt for a pro-quality compact camera you can carry in a coat pocket, and the Lumix LX2, or the just -announced Lumix LX3, would seem to fit the bill very nicely.

I see the Lumix LX's still have the very small sensor one typically finds in a P&S and wonder where you see the compromise in image quality compared to, say, the Olympus e410 DSLR . Noise at higher speeds would be the obvious weakness, but what about at ISO 200 or below? I also wonder how valuable it would be to have a decent optical viewfinder to save batteries and for ease of framing and composing, esp. in bright light. I'm not used to composing on an LCD with arms extended.

I was curious to see how your Lumix LX2 sensor size (1/1.6 inch, or about 44 mm squared) compares to the Olympus e410 (4/3 format, 225 mm squared) and found the below Wikipedia chart. It's amazing how tiny these P&S sensors are compared to the DSLR's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_sensor_format

btw, more interesting cameras are bound to be announced as we approach the important bi-annual Photokina show in Sept (in Europe). Nikon has announced a new high-end Coolpix P6000 compact that appears to be in the same league as the Lumix LX3, and has an optical viewfinder. It too has a tiny compact sensor, though.

Rob

[JohnR]

I have set my LX2 to ISO100, and will leave it there....!

If an optical viewfinder is a priority, I would look into a DSLR. But overall there are so many factors to take into account that I personally would prefer to avoid giving any specific recommendations and just relate my experiences

The easy solution is to have a DSLR and a compact

[BradJudy]

If you're interested in sensor size (or more specifically pixel density on sensors), check out dpreview.com.  They recently added pixel density stats to their camera database.  I don't know that it matters for most things, other to illustrate the almost ten-fold difference between P&S and SLR and how that can impact noise levels between the two form factors.  Within a particular form-factor, I expect the lens and built-in processing (like noise reduction) make more of a difference than +/- 10-20% pixel density. 

[JohnR]

The LX2 is one of the few compacts (AFAIK) that support RAW output files. In the case of the LX2, RAW mode does slow the camera down considerably... and I guess the onboard processing engine doesn't have enough grunt to compress the RAW files, as they are each 20MB+ in size 

Anyway, I have started to experiment with RAW processing with files from the LX2. I've been using Adobe Camera Raw 4.2 and Photoshop C2, since I have it and it accepts files from the LX2 without complaint. Apart from the usual RAW issues, you also need to add noise reduction even at ISO 100, which is not necessary with an SLR such as (for example) the Nikon D40.

Here's an example shot from today:

Boats near Sandy Beach

Here is a 1-1 crop from this image. It illustrates detail that you will get from a print, that is not visible from the web version of the image:

(If you see a "splotchiness" in the background, that is the trees on West Head in the background.)

Tally ho