I bought a Camera
March 16, 2007
It’s strange I do this so rarely, acquire photo equipment. Considering.
Can you believe it? I bought a digital point-and-shoot. I bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2.
Why? Because it behaves the most like an SLR of any point-and-shoot I can find. And I really need a camera I can, and actually will, carry most places I go. Both of my SLRs are frankly too cumbersome to take out on a daily basis.
I like the Lumix LX2 because:
* Its saturation and latitude at low ISOs look good.
* It has a grip of manual overrides, etc.: shutter priority, aperture priority, white balance adjustment, manual focus
* It has a Leica lens, and it’s wide (28mm)
* It has a wide format (16×9), though that WILL require me to re-think a few things
* It even has slow-synch flash
* It has better resolution than my digital SLR (sigh)
* Though video certainly isn’t a real criterion for me, it is kinda cool that it does video at 1280×720. That seems pretty awesome for a tiny camera.
I know, but choose to ignore:
* It’s very noisy at higher ISOs.
* The lens can be somewhat soft sometimes.
I bought it from B&H Photo in NYC, which is where I order most of my photo stuff from that I can’t find at Citizen’s (Ye Olde Local but Understocked Rickety Little Camera Store). It should come next week sometime. I paid an extra $10 to get it in black, because it looks so very much more hot in black.
6 Comments
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June 19, 2008
Fantastic! I need a new Digital Camera, and was dreading all the research I normally have to do.
I trust your opinion on photography above any one elses.
You’d recommend this one, then?
Dunno yet! I don’t have it yet! I’ll definitely post an update when I get it and have some photos to look at :).
You should definitely post an update when you have had a chance to play.
I’m in a bit of a similar boat, but haven’t had a chance to look around at the options yet.
Lyza,
How has this camera performed overall? I checked out Panasonic’s website and it still has some of the best specs even though it’s two years old. Anyway, your input would be much appreciated.
-Jim
Jim,
Very well overall! Gorgeous saturation, especially reds. Love the wide aspect ratio. The video is not the fastest frame rate, but is lovely and relatively high-res.
Complaints:
* Somewhat flaky/slow autofocus
* NOT nice in low light/high ISOs–pretty noisy sensor
(I guess that’s pretty much what I said above!)
My personal biggest pet peeve about it is that it doesn’t have a viewfinder (just the big LCD). When it’s bright out or I want to compose carefully this drives me bonkers.
I’m still using this little guy a lot. Definitely no regrets on the purchase.
Thanks, I read this entry when you first posted it back in March 2007, I wanted to see if you still had the same sentiment after using it for a year and it sounds like you do. I off to purchase one now!
-Jim