Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

Review Index – (updated 06 March’09)

Luminous Landscapes
“I was impressed with image quality, and as long as the ISO was kept in the lower end of its range, prints are clean and crisp. This is made possible on the LX3 because of its comparatively fast lens, f/2 to f/2.8, a real boon in a small sensor camera. That the LX3 offers 24mm at the wide end together with a true 16X19 aspect ratio sensor (rather than just a crop), makes it an ideal camera with casual landscape work.”

Digital Trends
“This is a terrific little camera that you’ll love to carry around for all types of shots. There’s no question that it’s expensive, and you should keep the ISO maxed at 400 because Panasonic cameras always have digital noise issues at high ISOs. However, this 24-60mm lens is wonderful.”
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Cameras.co.uk
“Panasonic have put together an impressive mix of picture quality and features. I also like the design and build quality of the DMC LX3. This is a serious digital camera and is well worth close inspection.”
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CNET
“While the Canon PowerShot G10 seems clunky in comparison and the lens isn’t quite as nice, overall I think it delivers better photo quality and the lens provides a more flexible range. But like its predecessor, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is a solid camera for the peripatetic photo enthusiast once you become accustomed to its quirks.”
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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.”

TechRadar
“When set to face detection AF, the LX-3 can behave rather oddly. And we have found on occasion that it diligently sets about recognizing ‘faces’ in scenes that contain no such thing – the wheels of a car, the eyelets of a boat’s anchor mooring, and sunflowers, to name but three examples.”
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DPInterface
“I’ve had no problems recommending the Panasonic Lumix LX3 to some friends and family shopping for an all-rounder digital camera and I would gladly recommend it to anyone out there as well. It’s a nice camera that you can bring around with you, satisfy most of your manual control cravings and it has decent fully automatic shooting abilities as well.”

DPExpert
“Panasonic deliberately constrained the pixel density on the LX3 to improve picture quality. They chose a limited zoom range in order to increase maximum aperture and resolution. The company has dared to do what serious photographers have been requesting, and they have ignored marketing focus groups. Bravo!”

Video Review by Popular Science

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.”

InfoSync
“The Lumix DMC-LX3 churned some of the best images we’ve seen in quite a while. An essential caveat with this camera is that you need to know how photography works in order to achieve the pinnacle of image quality.”
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Trusted Reviews
“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.”
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ByThom
“It’s really the lens that’s changed the most, and fortunately the change there is mostly right on target. It’s only that linear distortion that might put off a few.”

Digital Photography Review (DPReview.com)
“In most other respects the images are very good – automatic correction of chromatic aberration and sensible (if rather saturated) image processing mean a lot of time spent with the LX3 is time spent thinking. It’s a camera that encourages you to play, to experiment, to take photographs and one that rewards you for doing so.”
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Popular Science (Mini Review)
“The LX3 had the clearest low-light video, but it faltered in midday sunlight, with overexposed highlights and faded colors.”
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TWIP
“The video quality from the LX3 is superior to the G9. This also surprised me since I always thought the G9 did a great job. The G10 actually drops some video quality compared with the G9 and in a direct comparison between the LX3 and the G10, the clear winner is the LX3 when it comes to video.”

Imaging Resource
“I found the 24mm wide lens a lot of fun, giving the Panasonic LX3 a slightly different personality from its closest competitors. And the quality of the images was an unqualified joy to behold. Which, in the end, is what really matters.”
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60hzproductions (Head-to-head with the Canon G10)
“I would say this is one of the cameras to “make a statement” by going against the tide of more megapixel cameras that have inundated the market over the years. The most attractive features that it brought to the table in my book are the FAST f2.0-f2.8 lens, 24mm wide angle, HD video, and a slightly larger, 10.1 megapixel sensor.”

Luminous-Landscape
“This camera’s combination of high build quality, a terrific lens, wide angle coverage, a wide aperture second to none, and extensive and easy to use manual controls, makes it quite appealing to the serious photographer looking for a pocket camera.”

DCResource
“While it certainly doesn’t rival a digital SLR, the DMC-LX3 does deliver very good quality images for a compact camera. They have vibrant, saturated color, pleasing sharpness, low noise, and minimal purple fringing. The camera did tend to underexpose by around 1/3 stop, but that’s easy enough to fix.”

LaurenceKim
“I thought the LX3 would just be my casual point-n-shoot for family snapshots. I was wrong. This is a serious photographic tool. I wouldn’t hesitate to use this camera on a paying gig, particularly if I needed the use of high speed flash sync.”

DigitalCameraReview
“The final word in my mind is that while the LX3 outperforms many other compact cameras, it isn’t perfect. Most consumers are likely to find the cheaper point-and-shoot cameras, or even low-priced used DSLRs more appealing choices.”

LetsGoDigital
“Color reproduction is extremely accurate and the vivid colors offer a fresh result rich in contrast. The combination of a bright lens and an optical image stabilizer enable low ISO use which prevents the image quality from getting damaged by noise.”
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CameraLabs
“While the image quality of the LX3 is indeed superior to both its predecessor and other Panasonic compacts, it’s by no means perfection even at its lowest sensitivity. If you’re looking, there’s still textures from noise and processing on most images, and while the LX3 outperforms models like the Canon G9 at higher sensitivities, the G9 delivers more detailed and cleaner output when both cameras are set to 80 ISO.”
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DigitalCameraInfo
“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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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.”

Pocket-lint
“Image quality is, in a word, stunning. Metering and focusing are great, detail and white balance are superb too and while the price tag looks expensive for a 10-megapixel digital compact, compared to the competition at this level, it’s still great value.”
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CNET Australia
“One small gripe we had was the lens distortion, which was most apparent at the sides of the image. But this is a common trait for ultra-wide-angle optics, and the defects can easily be corrected on image-editing applications like the Adobe Photoshop.”
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Lawrence Ripsher
“For the first time in an affordable compact camera, we’ve seen that megapixels are not the only way of measuring progress and that actual image quality and performance is a genuine and attainable goal as well.”

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