Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 review

The more you get into photography, the more you appreciate hands-on control, image quality and build quality, and the LX3 has all of them

The LX3 is a pretty specialised compact aimed at the keenest and most discerning photographers. It’s not the most versatile camera you can get and it doesn’t have the highest resolution. It’s not the cheapest, it’s not the smallest, but it is one of the most interesting.

There’s the lens, for a start. Its 2.5x zoom range is very short, and makes it the equivalent of a 24-60mm in 35mm camera terms. It’s no good at all for sports, wildlife or any other kind of long-range photography, then, but that’s not what this camera is designed for.

Instead, it’s more like today’s digital equivalent of an old-fashioned rangefinder camera – indeed Leica does work with Panasonic on lens design. It’s the sort of camera you’d use for candid street photography, travel or certain types of landscape, where portability, speed of operation, compactness and a wider-than-usual angle of view are all more important than all the bells and whistles of a DSLR.

The LX3 is aimed at photographers who already know how to work a camera and know exactly the sort of shot they want to get. Its PASM exposure modes offer independent adjustment of the shutter speed and aperture for maximum creative control, although you can also leave it on full auto if you don’t have time to make adjustments or if you need to hand the camera over to a less experienced user. And if you are a relative novice, the LX3 breaks you in gently with a selection of no fewer than 23 different Scene modes.

The autofocus system is pretty snappy, but Panasonic has also allowed for photographers who prefer to focus manually. You don’t have to dig through the menu system to find the Manual Focus mode because there’s a clearly marked switch on the side of the lens. (This also activates the Macro mode, which goes right down to an amazing 1cm.) You can focus manually using a distance scale on the LCD, though there’s an even quicker way – you just press the ‘Focus’ button on the top plate. The camera focuses on your chosen point and then that’s where the focus stays until you change it. The LCDs of digital cameras just aren’t sharp enough for fast, visual focusing, but the Panasonic’s system is surely the next best thing.

There’s another switch on the lens, this time on the top. It switches aspect ratios, offering a choice of 4:3 (the ‘native’ ratio of this camera and other digital compacts), 3:2 (the aspect ratio of DSLRs) and 16:9 (the aspect ratio of widescreen TVs).

There’s an interesting difference here between the LX3 and its predecessor, the LX2. Both cameras have ten-megapixel sensors, but the LX3’s has the conventional 4:3 ratio, while the LX2 had a 16:9 sensor. This means that the 3:2 and 16:9 ratios on the LX3 are slightly ‘cropped’, whereas on the LX2 it was the 3:2 and 4:3 ratios that were cropped.

It’s interesting, too, that Panasonic hasn’t increased the resolution compared to the LX2. The press release makes no bones about the fact that higher resolutions create additional noise and image degradation, a point we’ve been making for some time. The LX3’s resolution has been left at ten megapixels in order to maximise its overall performance, particularly at high ISOs.

And the picture quality is very good. It’s not quite the same as a DSLR’s, but that’s inevitable because the sensor is so much smaller. But compared to other compacts, it’s excellent. The in-built noise reduction does start to soften images rather objectionably by ISO 1600, but it’s still much better at high ISOs than most other compacts. Besides, you might be able to improve on the results by shooting RAW files and processing them using the bundled SilkyPix RAW converter – or waiting for third-party software publishers like Adobe to update their software. The LX3, incidentally, saves RAW files pretty quickly, in around two seconds – some other compacts with RAW modes take an absolute age.

The camera’s build quality and finish matches the picture quality. The only flaw is a ‘rattle’ in the lens, which may be related to the Mega OIS image stabilisation system. It’s also faintly annoying that you have to mess around with a clip-on lenscap. It’s not so easy to get a grip on and you can easily end up dropping either it or the camera if you rush it.

Otherwise, the LX3’s ergonomics are excellent. Where other makers content themselves with cheaply manufactured buttons, Panasonic puts its faith in good old-fashioned switches. We’ve already mentioned the Focus switch and Aspect Ratio switch on the lens barrel, but there’s a Power switch on the top of the camera and you swap between Shooting and Playback mode with another switch on the back. What buttons there are have a good solid ‘click’ and are clearly marked.

The small ‘thumbstick’ on the back is less successful, though. With mechanisms like these there’s too subtle a difference between pushing ‘in’ to activate an option and pushing left/right/up/down to navigate through them. The Panasonic’s is all right, and it does what you want more often than not, but it’s not ideal.

Really, though, that’s quite a minor quibble, and the LX3’s size has to be taken into account here, together with the cameras it’s up against. Canon’s PowerShot G10 shares the Panasonic’s level of control, its design philosophy and its intended audience, but it’s a big, fat brick of a thing compared to the LX3. Nikon’s P6000 is an interesting contender, but its image quality, handling and responsiveness leave something to be desired. And then there’s Ricoh’s GX200. This is a closer-run thing. It’s aimed at the same audience as the LX3 – discerning photographers looking for a highly specified wide-angle compact – but has a slightly longer zoom range and is slightly smaller too, although it doesn’t have quite such a classy feel.

To properly appreciate the LX3 and what it can do, you have to stop imagining that a single camera can and should be able to do everything and accept the fact that you may need to use different cameras for different jobs. The LX3 fits in your pocket where a superzoom or a DSLR won’t, it offers great image quality, proper manual controls and excellent ergonomics, too. It’s no good for long-range photography, but as a candid everyday, travel and landscape camera, it’s perfect.