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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Ratings and Reviews

December 8th, 2009 • Filed Under•121 views

Designed for easy, creative shooting, and high-performance in low-light conditions, the DMC-LX3 features a F2.0 24mm LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens, 10.1 megapixels and an ultra-sensitive 1/1.63-inch CCD developed specifically for this model. By combining a high-quality lens and sensor ready for a variety of shooting conditions with a wide-range of accessories and manual controls, the DMC-LX3 is ideal for professional photographers and serious amateurs looking for a compact digital camera that furthers their creative photography.

Index of Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Reviews

cameras.co.uk—”The Panasonic DMC LX3 gives you that bit of extra all round quality. It compares well with other cameras in its niche. Panasonic have included some nice touches in the design. If you are looking for a camera with an ultra wide angle lens then this is a very good choice.”
Digital-Lifestyles—“The lens is pleasingly fast too, offering a bright focal ratio of f2.0-2.8, giving it at least a stop advantage over most of its rivals and offering improved performance in low light.”
DPInterface—”The Panasonic Lumix LX3 is a capable prosumer camera that’s got very good image quality traits in almost all respects (Except for some noise and detail issues); thumbs up to Panasonic for tackling the issue of image quality which used to exist a few years back.”
Photography Review—”The most annoying issue though is color. The manual control over white balance and color modes is nice, but I just cant’ get over the feeling that all my photos aren’t quite color correct.”
TrustedReviews—”The Panasonic LX3 is one of the very few digital cameras that I would consider buying for myself. It is a superbly designed and immensely capable all-purpose compact that will satisfy any keen photographer, but is also capable of producing good results in the hands of a novice. Build quality, performance and versatility are all of the highest order, and image quality is as good as ever gets. It may seem expensive, but I think it would be money well spent.”
Imaging Resource—”The big caveat with the Panasonic LX3, though, is the move to a wider angle lens with a shorter telephoto reach. It’s great for shooting rooms, landscapes, and portraits, but it falls short in the telephoto department, making the Panasonic LX3 a difficult choice for an all-around camera, unless you’re used to short to medium focal lengths. But the LX3 might make a great second camera alongside an SLR with a telephoto lens, and would certainly serve the Leica aficionado or street photographer looking for a quality lens in a small package.”
Camera Labs—”The Lumix LX3 fulfils its brief as a high-end enthusiasts compact. It ticks all the required feature boxes including full manual control, RAW recording, a flash hotshoe and wide angle lens with the bonus of a bright focal ratio. On top of this you also get a decent 3in screen with 460k pixels, HD movie recording and a raft of easy modes including Panasonic’s excellent Intelligent Auto. All this packed into a small and light body which actually comes in slightly cheaper than its closest rival from Canon.”
Digital Camera Resource Page—”If you want a fairly compact camera with a host of manual controls, good photo quality, a very wide-angle lens, and a high definition movie mode, then the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is absolutely worth checking out. If you’re a fan of telephoto shooting then it’s not a great choice, but for everyone else, the DMC-LX3 is a camera I can recommend.”
cnet reviews—”The good: Sharp, bright lens; compact but comfortable design; broad manual shooting feature set. The bad: Relatively nonresponsive Quick Menu button; proprietary connectors; artifacts under certain conditions; optical viewfinder is optional. The bottom line: Although the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 has its share of passionate fans, we think the JPEG quality should be more consistent for the price.”

TechRadar—”Overall, in the LX-3 Panasonic has delivered a cracking digital compact camera, and one that will not only satisfy the majority of ‘enthusiast’ point and shoot photographers, but also a lot of DSLR photographers who hanker for a lightweight, compact backup.”

Pocket-lint—”The camera is great to use and handle, it looks nice and it seems to do exactly what it says on the tin: produce superb images with great detail, fine colour and white balance control, rich detail in shadows and with around a stop and half of headroom in the RAW files, even more detail that can be brought out using image editing software. “
PhotographyBLOG—”In summary, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is an unusual, well-made, feature-rich yet easy-to-use camera that caters for both beginner and more experienced photographers alike.”
GoodGearGuide—”If you’re a fan of a slightly retro look then the LX3 should satisfy. It has a boxy black look with a tiny hand grip. It isn’t exactly petite but it’ll fit into a large pocket or small bag. We found it relatively comfortable to hold and quite sturdy, although depending on your grip the flash may get in the way. It has a lot of controls, which will be intimidating for some users. “
PhotoReview—”The dynamic range recorded in outdoor shots was substantially wider than average for a small-sensor digicam. Colors appeared natural and saturation was well-controlled in JPEG images.”
DigitalCameraInfo—”The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is a camera that frustrates us. It’s made by a company that usually crafts excellent cameras, it has a quality Leica lens, and its design is a wondrous nod to its past. The LX3 has excellent manual controls, expandability, and a solid feel we wish was in more point-and-shoot cameras. Yet, at the same time, it scored poor to average on most of our tests, lacks a fluorescent white balance preset, and has a poorly executed menu system. “

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There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

Comment by
By Amazonian "MM" (Brooklyn, NY) on 8 December 2009:

O.k. Let me start off by saying that I bought this camera via 17th Street Photo’s actual store in the photography district on 17th street here in New York City. I called (on Sept. 10th 2008) before I went to the store and I spoke with a super friendly man named Doug who told me that they got the silver and black ones and that they had 50 each. So, I went down there and immediately bought one. They have a 7 days no questions asked return policy so I tried it out like a crazy man. Keep in mind that if you mention the fact that on EBAY they have the price listed at $475, they will honor it in the store even though they have it priced at $499. Anywho, the purchasing experience with them was excellent.

By the way, I’ve been waiting for Amazon to have this camera too. I pre-ordered both of them (black and silver), and never received an email saying that they were finally available to purchase. So, I took things into my own hands and found it myself (which is explained above).

So, onto the previous testing and my current camera:

Before purchasing the LX3, I bought the fx500 from Panasonic (from amazon.com) and the Fujifilm f100 (from B&H) in order to try those out. I wanted to try the fx500 because of the 25mm wide angle lens, 5x optical zoom, and to see what recording movies at 1280 x 720 at 30fps was like. And, I tried the f100 because I was told at B&H that the f100 was the best non-noisy camera to shoot indoor shots without flash (FYI the best movie option on the f100 was at 640 x 480 at 30fps so I had no desire in trying that). I’ll get to the results in a minute. Before those two, I was a Canon Powershot sd500 owner for more than 5 years and loved the camera, but I needed a new one for my honeymoon that is coming up on 10/12 for Hawaii.

Results of testing:

FX500: 25mm wide angle was awesome, 5x zoom was nice but focusing was a problem even after trying to focus 3 times (keep in mind my hands were steady as a rock so it wasn’t due to camera-shaking). the movie quality at 1280 x 720 at 30fps was a nice improvement from my powershot sd500’s 640 x 480 at 30fps, but in the end the actual quality and sound wasn’t as eye popping improvement. Picture quality was very noisy, no matter all of the tinkering that I tried.

F100: yes, the picture quality indoors without any flash with this camera was better and less noisy than the fx500, but I ultimately did not keep this camera because of the poor movie quality, wide angle only goes to 28mm, the LCD is small and it’s resolution is horrible.

So, sorry for the wait, but I thought I’d be as thorough as I possibly could about my review before the review.

LX3:

Keep in mind, I’d say that I’m an advanced beginner digital photographer. So, after owning the LX3 for almost a month, I simply have to say that I am SOOOOOOOO happy to have finally found the digital camera I’ve been looking for. I’ve read all of the digital camera websites out there, gone to the brick and morter stores to ask specialists directly, gone out and purchased digital cameras to test hands on, etc. etc. to finally come to the pleasure of owning the LX3.

What I was look for was a compact digital camera that had:

-Excellent wide angle: at 24mm, it’s the widest I’ve ever used, and I cannot go back to a camera even with 28mm ever again. the 24mm on this camera is SICK! it blows 28mm out of the park. I haven’t noticed any barrel distortion at 24mm. if wide angle is the main thing you are looking for in a compact digital camera, LX3 is where you will need to stop. and it doesn’t stop there. if you get the lens adapter and purchase the wide angle lens, you’ll be able to even go to 18mm!!!!. I haven’t gotten that yet. Oh, I definitely do no mind that this camera doesn’t have insane optical zoom options. I’m totally happy with the 24mm-60mm range. I found out that I personally didn’t even use the zoom options that much when I had the sd500 canon that it’s range was 35mm-115mm.
-Low f-stop: Finally the LX3 is the camera that steps up to the plate to offer an f-stop starting at 2.0. The slowest you’ll see on the other comparable camera companies are at like 2.8.
-Excellent indoor no flash quality: If you use the “iA” mode in a low light situation it will most likely automatically use ISO400 to take the picture and in the darker parts of the photo (like shadows, etc.) there will be noise, which is common anyway. But, if you use the “P” or “A” modes and change the “+/-” with the “Q.Menu” joystick, it will lighten up the photo and reduce the amount of noise. I found this out on my own, and I’ve been INSANELY pleased with the difference. So, all in all, in indoor low light situations, I now use either the “P” or “A” mode over the “iA” mode.
-1280 x 720 HD movie quality: The fx500 had 1280×720 HD quality at 30fps, while the LX3 has 1280×720 HD quality at 24fps. And honestly, the LX3 resolution LOOKS and SOUNDS much better to me than the fx500. Movie after movie that I take, they look and sound amazing. i LOVE the movie HD option on the LX3. My advise, I bought two 16gb extreme 3 sdhc cards from amazon and I’ll have no worries about recording speed and space issues.
-Easy to use manual controls: It took me no time to learn them. Easy breezy for a photographer at my level (again: advanced beginner)
-Easy to hold: I actually use the around the wrist cord that came with my powershot sd500 and that’s fine. The LX3 comes with a around the neck strap (which I don’t use). It does not come with an “around the wrist” cord. Maybe I’ll use the “around the neck” strap for days that I would go on hikes or something like that. This is NOT a pocket camera. More of a “around the wrist” camera.
-3.0inch 460k resolution LCD: Best LCD for a digital camera I’ve ever used, and it’s AWESOME. I’d rather have this than a 3.0inch 230k resolution touch screen LCD that the FX500 had.
-South of $500: Bought it at $475, no sales tax.

…and the LX3 met all of those requirements.

CONS: You do need a cap for the lens (it comes with one and a cord to attached it to the camera). Initially, I’d say that was the only semi-annoying thing, but I’ve already gotten used to it, and it’s no biggie at all. It’s a little tough taking vertical shots, but again … not a big problem at all.

Any questions let me know. I’ve easily taken north of 2000 shots already of all different types. Honestly, I’m insanely pleased with this camera. Oh, I read in another review about noise at iso400. If you really want to keep a shot taken in iso400 indoors without flash and there is still noise in it, there is an AMAZINGLY helpful plugin used in Adobe Photoshop that you can get called “Imageonic Professional Noiseware” that does an amazing job in totally removing it.

Mark.

[Reply]
Comment by
By Tsur (Madison, WI United States) on 8 December 2009:

This is a good little camera. I thought long and hard before I gave it only three stars. But, despite it being better than any other compact, I still have lots of criticism.

The good:
The image quality is very strong. Not as good as the DP1/2, but that camera is a disaster in nearly all other regards. With F/2 and and 400 you’ll likely get the indoor shot you need. And when that fails, 800 is tolerable. The LX3 is a zippy performer too. While a little slow on the startup, the auto-focus is decently quick (could be better) and the shot to shot performance is quite good. The full-auto mode is good too. Hand the camera over to a novice and he/she will get a good shot. Love the aspect ratio.

The meh:
The zoom range is a little limited. But I’m not too bothered by it. Other than macro, I can’t imagine the manual focus ever being usable. I’d gladly give up some screen real estate for a viewfinder (even an evf). An integrated lens cap would have been a nice touch, as would a wrist strap. It’d be nice if the RAW format were more open. At the time of this review Aperture doesn’t support it at all and Lightroom only kinda supports it.

The bad:
My main complaint is the interface. It’s not awful. In fact it’s probably better than most compacts. But this camera had so much manual potential, only to be let down my too many darned buttons. The user programable setting are a good example. It has four presets. But only two of them are really useful. The other two require you to turn the dial, hit the select button, navigate down and then confirm; you just missed your shot. I wonder why it would be so difficult to have two or three more dials on the camera to control shutter, aperture and ISO? Instead, we get the worlds tiniest joystick. Again, by the time you’ve actually changed a setting you probably missed the shot. Also, why is a manual focus that goes around the lens so hard to implement? It’s such a wonderful convention that is almost never seen on a compact.

The wrap up:
I do really like this camera. It’s a good RAW shooter with good quality; all in a compact package. But, I hope that Panasonic really concentrates on the fundamentals for the LX4. A viewfinder and a couple of dials or knobs would have made this a four star camera for sure. If they managed to squeeze a larger sensor in too, it would be the best camera of all time.

The unrelated:
Shame on Amazon for allowing price gouging from their partners. Currently (April/May 2009) the LX3K is quite scarce. I ended up paying a reasonable $50 over MSRP. But during the shortage the camera has been on sale for as much as $750 ($250 over MSRP!). Capitalism, the free market and supply/demand are all good things. But I’m a little offended that Amazon would allow their customers to be bludgeoned by such heavy pricing. Remember, just because someone agrees to be taken advantage of, doesn’t make it right to do so.

[Reply]
Comment by
-2 By Ashi- (San Jose, CA United States) on 8 December 2009:

There are plenty of reviews of this excellent camera. What I’m going to do here is providing some user feedback and tips on how to fully utilize this camera.

First of all, this is a professional’s camera (or at least like me, a serious amateur). You can use iA mode for point and shoot, and most scene modes are good enough, but you can’t get the most out of it by using it that way. There are other cameras which can achieve that purpose and cost much less.

To begin, I would suggest read the manual fully. The manual is not the best I’ve read, and the grammar is awkward and seems translated, but it does provide very important information. After all, this camera can overwhelm people with features.

Get familiar with q.menu joystick/button. This thing can save a lot of time. Some complain about the lack of a dedicated ISO button or dial, which this camera’s closest competitor, Canon Powershot G10 provides, but the feature is just under the q.menu button. Important features such as ISO, white balance, metering modes, etc., are also under here.

I would suggest set an ISO limit to cap at ISO 200, which this camera allows. Also turn the flash power to the lowest setting. With f2.0 aperture, I rarely use flash anyways.

I agree with others before me, the lens cap is annoying. I also agree the camera should allow turning off all beeping sounds except for the focus confirmation. Panasonic’s setting menu can be cryptic, but fortunately there is the q.menu button.

Aspect Ratio dial is absolutely wonderful. 4:3 is very good for digital photo frames of the same aspect ratio, as well as for computer monitors. 3:2 is best if you intend to print them on paper, as most shops print them in 4×6, which is the same ratio as 3:2. 16:9 is best for HD TV or widescreen LCD monitors.

Get a 150x SD flash memory. I personally use OCZ 8GB SDHC flash memory. Or you could opt for two pieces of smaller memory chips, depend on your habit. Fast memory = faster capture and less waiting time, if you intend on using RAW+Jpeg a lot. Also recommended is getting yourself a second battery. If you shoot a lot of photos like me, the battery will last less than a whole day. It is not bad, but you definitely do not want to lose any opportunity when a magic moment comes.

I wish there is a continuous depth of view. Neither this camera nor Canon G10 allows that, which is rather bizarre, considering these are very high-end cameras. My ancient Canon PowerShot S1 IS instantly provides feedback on the impact of changing aperture and shutter speed, which has given me a lot of creative warrants. To be fair, most DSLRs don’t have that feature either. Canon’s SX10IS, however, is able to do it. Not a big deal for some, but I find it inconvenient having to press the shutter button half way first before able to see if the picture is going to be overexposed or underexposed than I intended.

Get Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. If you intend to shoot your picture in RAW, and do a lot of post processing, this is a gem. You can get a 30-day trial on Adobe’s website, but I think you’ll most likely end up buying it.

This is a landscape or indoor camera. I find its auto focus performance under bright day light is subpar. Compare to my own eyes, the exposure tends to overexpose under bright light and underexpose under dim light. Now I think of it, it means the Leica lens it equips (DC Vario-Summicron, by the way) is optically accurate, since human eyes have pupils to regulate the light, hence the discrepancy. I’m the kind who prefer to have my photos as the documentary of what I saw. If I need creative lighting/color bias, I do it after I went home with computer’s assistance, but not at the camera level.

You’ll need a tripod. ISO 80 is susceptible to shaking under low light condition. It is more intolerant to handshake even with MEGA O.I.S turned on, compared with my Canon PowerShot S1 anyways.

It’s a very good camera for low-light and landscape. It is not a DSLR substitute, but an excellent complementary camera if you have a DSLR to handle your daylight photography needs.

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