Panasonic DMC-LX2K 10.2MP Digital Camera (Black) Review
I was definitely NOT disappointed with the camera, after reading so much about it and passing on the LX1 a year ago due to the reports of excessive noise in the images.
The camera design of the LX-2 is absolutely superb, with a quality metal body and extremely well thought out feature set. Panasonic has done their homework and solved so many of the design challenges facing point-and-shoot digital cameras. Some will miss a tilting screen or an optical viewfinder, but I don’t miss them. Either feature would compromise the current design and the very likeable large 16:9 viewfinder. They’ve done everything they can to compensate, including an extra-bright mode for the screen and even a high-angle mode that lets you shoot over the heads of a crowd, which accounts for the majority of “tilted” shots I’ve taken with my previous camera, a Nikon with a screen that tilts.
I’ve been waiting for a decent digicam with a true wide angle lens, real 16:9 wide-screen aspect ratio, and widescreen video. It may very well be that this camera is the design future of the industry—hard to believe people wouldn’t like this camera over its competitors. Once you start shooting wide-screen, you realize what a natural and creative format it really is.
That being said, there are image quality compromises with this camera… in order to solve the noticeable noise in the LX-1, Panasonic opted for strong noise reduction with their Venus III engine, and I can confirm the early reviews: they’ve reduced noise at a slight loss of very fine image detail and a bit of a watercolor effect at higher ISOs if you examine images at 100% magnification.
But on the other hand many consumers are not really going to notice this, the images are really outstanding in the majority of situations, and there are so many megapizels to play with that for many it will simply never be an issue, the way the images are viewed full-size on a monitor or at print sizes up to about 8×10. Most of us aren’t as critical as the pros who are doing the reviews. And there isn’t a point and shoot out there that has perfect images in every respect, others have flaws like corner softness and purple fringing that the Panasonic doesn’t have.
Fortunately this camera will shoot in RAW format and allow you to recover nearly all of the original detail, albeit with some work, to really show the superb quality of the Leica lens. But this time around they’ve bundled halfway decent RAW image processing software, so you actually have the tools to do this without shelling out more money.
To be honest, those looking for perfect image quality arguably are the type to be purchasing DSLRs and not high-end point-and-shoots. I think Panasonic may have hit the sweet spot in their target market with this camera.
Beware—this camera will only work with 4 GB SD cards that are the newer SD-HC type. Unlike many of its peers, it will NOT work with standard SD 4 GB cards that are formatted FAT32. Panasonic may be deliberately protecting sales of the new 4 GB format. So either go with a standard 2 GB card or the SD-HC 4 GB cards. I learned the hard way.
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