With London seeing a large protest against the visit of the Pope yesterday, we thought we’d take our new Lumix LX5 along and grab a few shots.
We were positioned on top of railings, hanging on to a traffic light, so a lot of the shooting was one-handed – a good test for the camera’s optical stabilisation (and our balance!).
With the weather changing rapidly from sunny to overcast, we kept the camera on iAuto and it pretty much handled the conditions perfectly.
We shot in high quality JPEG rather than RAW for the sake of speed- we wanted to get the pics up quickly so used ACDSee and Photoshop to batch process the files, ready for uploading to our photo report page.
Anyone who’s used a LX3 will feel right at home with the LX5, although there has been a few changes, with the joystick control being replaced by a control wheel and a new movie button on the top plate.
The biggest different between the LX3 and the LX5 is the improved zoom range, which now extends from the fabulously wide 24mm to 90mm which makes a bigger difference than you might think.
This pretend pop took to a balcony some considerable distance from us, so a mix of the extra zoom length and come cropping at least gave us a usable photo.
Best high end compact?
We’ll be giving the camera a full test over the coming weeks, but our initial impression remains positive.
We made the LX3 our high-end compact camera of the year in 2009 and the LX5 is already a serious contender for this year’s prize.
We’re not the sort of site that does ‘pixel-peeping’ analysis – we’re just enthusiastic photographers – but if you’ve any questions about the camera, send them in and we’ll do out best to answer then.
well comparing it with the canon s95 which has better picture quality?
which brand is more long-lasting? canon or panasonic? 🙂
We’re still waiting for Canon to send us a review copy of the S95 camera, but a recent survey by SquareTrade found that Panasonic cameras were the most reliable for both budget and high end compact cameras, with Canon producing the least reliable high end compacts.
You can read a PDF file of the report here: https://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/Camera_failure_study.pdf
I’ve been testing the S95, LX5, ZS7, and HX5. What would you say would be the best for food photography AND concert shots?
I’m surprised the audio on the LX5 is mono – which is a huge downside. I miss the extended zoom on the low light cams but need something that would offer good depth of field and low lighting for food photography. However it’s a tough balance with the concert shots/video. I tend to go to smaller more intimate gigs but that doesn’t mean that i’m not sometimes at a bigger one.
Your thoughts?
The extended 90mm range is pretty good unless you’re in Row Z at the gig and the low light performance is pretty damn good for such a small camera too.
I’m in the process of writing a full review and will take some low light/high ISO shots for you to have a look at.
Thanks a bunch, Mike. Your posts have been super helpful. I realize now that the HX5 and the ZS7 just aren’t really going to cut it. I think I’m just afraid of the time that I will be in a huge arena in Row Z…
I’ve heard the mono audio mic is a problem – and that you can hear the zooming. Please include the audio quality in your review too!
I think I’m just a beginner – and the shots I took yesterday were terrible so I gave up (low lighting food shots – nothing would focus without the flash). But I’ve seen these shots and others and they all look amazing so it must be that I need to learn all the features to get it right. Because surely it can’t be the camera.
How pocketable is the LX5 compared to the Canon S90/S95 (I know you don’t have an S95 in yet, but I believe you’ve used the S90 before, and the two share virtually the same case).
Also:
– How’s the low light focusing ability?
– How is the high ISO noise?