Panasonic LX100 review
Panasonic's LX compact series gets a bigger sensor and traditional controls
"There may be smaller interchangeable lens cameras, but the LX100 is a joy to use. It gives you bags of control and produces high quality images. Just beware of flare when the sun is near the edge of the frame."
- Large sensor in a compact body
- Small high-quality lens
- Traditional controls
- Electronic viewfinder
- Screen not touch-sensitive
- 16Mp sensor produces 12Mp images
- Lens quite prone to flare
That's why the Panasonic LX100 is such big news – it gives you the best of both worlds. It's still a high-end compact camera that will fit in your jacket pocket, but it comes with a much larger Micro Four Thirds sensor. This is the type of sensor used in Panasonic and Olympus mirrorless compact system cameras.
Panasonic's LX series of compact cameras, such as the Panasonic LX7 have found favour in the past because of their high quality build, extensive array of controls (for a compact camera) and impressive image quality. However, the arrival of cameras like the Fuji X100S and Sony RX100 III raised questions about the small size of the sensor inside the Panasonic LX7.
Panasonic's answer is the LX100, which features a Four Thirds-type sensor instead of the 1/1.7-inch device in the LX7. That gives it an edge over the Fuji X30 announced around the same time.
Further good news is that the sensor is the same 16-million pixel device as is used in the Panasonic GX7. However, as the LX100 uses Panasonic's Multi Aspect Ratio technology, images only ever use a maximum of 12.5 million pixels (in 4:3 mode). By comparison the LX7 (which continues in Panasonic's range) has a 12Mp sensor, but images have a maximum size of 10.1million pixels. The Multi Aspect Ratio system means that it's best to select the aspect ratio that you want for the image at the shooting stage rather than crop-post capture.
Naturally Panasonic has coupled the sensor with a new Venus engine and this enables a native range of ISO 200-25,600 with expansion settings taking this to ISO 100-25,600. The processor also makes it possible to shoot 4K video – which effectively means that you can have 8Mp stills images captured at 30 frames per second.
The LX7 has a Leica DC Vario-Summilux 24-90mm (equivalent) f/1.4-2.3 lens and despite the increase in sensor size, the LX100 has a Leica DC Vario-Summilux 24-75mm (equivalent) f/1.7-2.8 optic that is only a little larger. Panasonic has managed this feat by using a new construction for the lens. The optic has six groups that can all be moved independently, and five aspherical lenses created from a 'special material' with extra dispersion properties.
If the company had used the same design and materials to build the LX100's lens, the change in the sensor size would have meant a ridiculously large optic on a compact camera.
Although the LX100 doesn't have a built-in flash, it is supplied with a small external flash that can be slotted into the hot-shoe.
As usual, there are a collection of autofocus options (Face/Eye Detection, Tracking, 49-Area, Custom Multi, 1-Area and Pinpoint) and it's possible to focus manually. As is becoming common with compact system cameras, there's a Focus Peaking display that shows the areas of highest contrast, which are also the areas of sharpest focus. In addition, there's a zebras display that indicates areas of the scene that are close to burning out. There are two zebra pattern options available, and the user can specify the level at which they activate running in 5% increments from 50% to 105%.
Sample images
Despite the bright subject the LX100 got the exposure spot-on here and the level of detail in the ISO200 JPEG is superb. The edges also look nice and natural, even at 100% on-screen.
This tricky scene required an exposure reduction of 2/3EV to be dialed in to retain the detail in the white house and post and get the sky looking as it did at the time.
As you might expect, using the Natural Photo Style has produced the most authentic looking result here. It's also reduced the contrast a little so that there's more detail in the darker parts of the tree. Using the Scenery Photo Style tends to produce blues and greens that look a little over the top.
The flare in this shot makes it pretty clear where the sun was at the time it was taken.
Holding my hand above the lens was enough to cut out the flare.
The LX100 is quite discreet, which makes it a good choice for street and documentary photography.
This shot, taken using the general-purpose Multiple Metering looks about 1/3EV too bright, but there are few true blacks and nothing is burned out in either the JEPG or the raw file so there's plenty of scope to get the image looking just right post-capture.
Filters
This simple scene suited the square format. Subsequent images demonstrate some of the Filter effects available.
source:-Panasonic LX100 review
