Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 at a glance:
- 10.1-million-pixel CCD sensor
- 24-90mm (equivalent) f/2-3.3 zoom
- 1280×720-pixel HD video capture
- ISO 80-3200 with ISO 6400-12,800 extended settings
- Street price around £430 (price varies greatly)
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 review – Introduction
For an enthusiast photographer, the lack of manual control when using a point-and-shoot compact camera can be frustrating. Thankfully, the latest in Panasonic’s LX range is aimed at those photographers who demand more from a compact camera than just the ability to point and press the shutter.
In fact, as Panasonic’s flagship compact camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 comes with a full array of exposure and metering controls that one would usually expect from a DSLR.
Consequently, the LX5 is a ‘serious’ compact camera, designed to be used when the weight and size of a DSLR is a burden.
The LX5 is the fourth in the LX series, following on from the LX3, which was released in 2008. That may seem odd, but Panasonic, like other Japanese manufacturers, does not use the number 4 in its designations. This is because the number is considered unlucky in Japan, due to it being pronounced the same way as the word for ‘death’.
There are a number of ways in which the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 improves upon its predecessor.
First, the focal length has been increased from a 24-60mm equivalent optic in the LX3 to a 24-90mm equivalent in the LX5. Importantly, the maximum f/2 aperture has been retained, although this is reduced to f/3.3 at the 90mm focal length.
While the 10.1-million-pixel sensor of the LX5 is of the same resolution as its predecessor, Panasonic has revised its design to improve performance in low light and to increase the camera’s dynamic range.
There have also been changes to the build and handling of the camera, with an improved grip and direct video record button. Finally, the LX5 has a port beneath its hotshoe that allows the connection of the Panasonic DMW-LVF1 electronic viewfinder, which is more commonly paired with the Panasonic DMC-GF1 Micro Four Thirds camera.
Although the image quality and features of Panasonic’s LX range means these cameras are often compared to Canon’s PowerShot G-series models, they are actually quite different propositions. The LX5 is substantially smaller than the G11, and is pocketable. I was therefore keen to find out whether it could be the ideal enthusiast compact camera.
Features
With a 10.1-million-pixel, 1.63in CCD sensor, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 has the same resolution as the LX3, although it has undergone some improvements to the construction of the sensor and the signal processing.
This has been achieved by increasing the charge capacity of the Vertical Charge Coupled Device (VCCD) and that of the photodiodes. The micro lenses above the photosites have also been made larger to direct more light onto them. By doing this, the performance of the sensor should be more efficient in both low and bright light, resulting in a greater dynamic range and less amplification noise.
Despite the newly designed sensor, the standard ISO sensitivity range remains at ISO 80-3200. However, the LX5 does have an extended range of ISO 6400-12,800, although images captured at these settings are at a greatly reduced resolution of three million pixels.
The 10.1-million-pixel sensor is capable of producing images that measure 3648×2736 pixels in its native 4:3 aspect ratio. Images can be saved as JPEG files, as Panasonic RW2 raw files, or both simultaneously, which should prove popular with enthusiast photographers. Like the LX3, the LX5 can also record JPEG images in 3:2 and 16:9 aspect ratios, but new to the LX5 is the square 1:1 format.
The 24-90mm focal length is great for social occasions and holiday photographs, with the 24mm end perfect for landscapes
As previously mentioned, the other major addition to the LX range is the new Leica DC Vario Summicron 3.8x, 24-90mm equivalent zoom lens. This new lens unit comprises ten elements in nine groups, which includes three aspherical lenses that Panasonic claims provide a 30% improvement in resolution and a reduction in chromatic aberration compared to the lens of the LX3. As you would expect from Panasonic’s flagship compact camera, the LX5 has full manual exposure control, as well as aperture and shutter priority modes.
For less demanding photographers there is a full complement of automatic exposure settings, including intelligent Auto (iAuto), which detects what you are trying to photograph and changes the scene mode and settings accordingly.
With a range of features that would look impressive on a DSLR, the LX5 has a specification that will appeal to many photographers looking for a compact camera.
Features in use: 10.1-million-pixel, High-Sensitivity CCD Sensor
Like many other compact camera manufacturers, Panasonic has decided not to add more photosites to the sensor of the LX5, keeping it at the same 10.1-million-pixel resolution as the LX3. Instead, the aim of Panasonic’s engineers has not been to improve the image quality, but to improve the way that the light is captured and then used.
The first change Panasonic has made to the sensor is to increase the size of the lenses over each photosite. Doing this means more light can be captured and directed onto the photodiode, as can be seen in the diagram below. The photodiodes themselves have also been made larger, which increases the amount of signal charge (created by the captured light) that can be stored. With more light, or photons, being captured, the photodiodes’ dynamic range, low-light performance and image noise can all be improved.
The signal charge created by the photodiodes is then transferred to the Vertical Charge Coupled Device (VCCD), which has also been made larger in the LX5. The ability to hold more charge before the VCCD reaches capacity should also result in an improved dynamic range in comparison to other similarly specified sensors.
Panasonic claims that the improvements to the sensor include an ‘expansion’ of dynamic range by increasing the sensitivity by approximately 31% and the saturation by approximately 38% compared to the LX3. Although we didn’t have an LX3 available at the time of testing, our dynamic range and noise tests show that, particularly at low IS0 sensitivities, the LX5 lives up to Panasonic’s claims.
Build and Handling
At first glance the Lumix DMC-LX5 appears to be largely unchanged from its predecessor, but there have been a few tweaks to improve the camera’s handling. Most notably, the handgrip has been redesigned and, although not much thicker, it is wider and has a more contoured rubber grip, which makes it more comfortable to hold.
A direct video record button has also been added and is situated next to the shutter-release button, on the top-plate of the LX5. The Quick Menu joystick switch has been removed and replaced with a simple button, but a clickable scroll wheel has been added to allow exposure settings to be quickly changed. The addition of this scroll wheel should please most photographers, as it again gives the LX5 a similar feel to changing the exposure settings of a DSLR.
The only other noticeable change to the camera body is the addition of the port below the hotshoe, which allows the connection of the DMW-LVF1 EVF, which is the same as that used on the Panasonic GF1. So far, the viewfinder is the only accessory listed as compatible with the socket. The hotshoe itself allows any of the current range of Panasonic flashguns to be used with the LX5. However, due to the size of the camera, the small DMW-FL220 is the most suitable.
Along with the tweaks to the camera’s body comes an increase in size and weight, although they are quite insignificant and the LX5 is still small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. Overall, the build quality of the LX5 is very high, with a solid metal body and well-defined buttons.
Switching between the various exposure modes is made simple through the use of a control dial on the camera’s top-plate, and the Quick Menu button makes it easy to access shooting settings. Changing the ISO sensitivity is made easier by having its own dedicated button, and there is also a customisable FN (Function) button that can be programmed to directly access other settings, such as the white balance.
White balance and Colour
Those who like to use a camera’s automatic white balance will be pleased to hear that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 performs very well in this mode. Images taken in bright sunshine look excellent. Shady images look a little green/blue, but switching to the shade white balance setting does a good job, adding a little yellow/orange to the image to counter this.
Similarly, the AWB setting worked well under both fluorescent and tungsten light, producing a fairly neutral result, but leaving just a hint of the colour of the ambient light.
The colours themselves are particularly well rendered straight from the JPEG files produced by the camera, with a pleasing level of saturation and contrast while still looking natural. As you would expect, there is a range of preset colour settings that can be individually adjusted to your personal taste. Of these, I found the dynamic and vivid settings great for producing punchy images that are brilliant for holiday snaps. Greens and blues in particular seem to be darker and more saturated in these modes, making it great for images with lots of green grass and blue sky.
One very useful feature of the colour settings is the multi-film mode. This allows you to take a single image, but have three different film colour styles applied to it, creating three different-looking images. This mode will prove very useful if you like to quickly upload images online or print them. It allows the effects to be previewed in-camera and thereby saves time editing in a different style later.
Metering
Despite having both centre-weighted and spot metering, the LX5 will probably spend most of its time set to its evaluative metering mode. This is no bad thing as I found the evaluative metering produced good exposures in all but a very few situations. In fact, I only had to use centre-weighted or spot metering when there was an extreme highlight in the image that was completely burning out.
For most subjects a slight tweak of the exposure compensation by 0.3-1EV was all the adjustment needed to give the exposure I required. This is easily done by pressing the dial on the rear of the camera, then turning the dial either left or right to increase of decrease the metered exposure. Very bright skies do tend to be a little burnt out in some scenes, requiring a slight adjustment to underexposed images, and conversely, images taken in very overcast conditions are quite dark and need slight overexposure. However, on the whole, in various different lighting conditions both inside and out, the LX5 produces well-exposed images.
Image: With an f/2 lens, the LX5’s macro mode has a nice shallow depth of field, but is still able to capture a great deal of detail
Like other models in the Lumix range, the LX5 features an Intelligent Auto (iAuto) mode that detects what is being photographed and changes the scene mode and exposure settings accordingly. For example, when photographing a flower, the LX5 detects that the focus point is very close and switches to macro mode. In this mode the aperture is opened to create quite a shallow depth of field.
Similarly, iAuto mode can detect whether you are trying to take a landscape or portrait and switch the scene modes appropriately. I found that the iAuto mode picked a suitable scene mode on all but one occasion, where it thought a circular flower bed was a face. Even so, the exposure was still almost perfect. So, with a variety of manual and automated exposure and metering modes, the LX5 can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it.
Autofocus
There are a number of different autofocus modes in the LX5 and the camera is capable of capturing all but the fastest moving subjects in focus. In its most basic AF mode, one of up to 713 points can be selected. The size of the AF point can also be adjusted to one of four different sizes, with the smallest size allowing for precise details to be accurately focused on.
For subjects moving at moderate speeds, such as a child running, the AF tracking mode can be used. To use this mode, an AF point is selected over the part of the image upon which you wish to focus. If this subject moves, the AF point will also move, tracking and focusing on the subject as it travels around the scene.
The face detection mode will also prove very useful during social occasions. When in this mode, the LX5 automatically detects faces in the scene and then prioritises focus on them. Not only this, but the LX5 has a face recognition feature whereby you can program the camera to recognise particular faces in a scene. When the camera ‘sees’ these faces, it prioritises them above any other faces, which is useful when wanting to focus on someone in a crowd.
I found that the AF of the LX5 performs very well, quickly focusing in bright conditions, but also performing well in low light. Manual focusing is a little more difficult. Although manual mode does have a magnified view, it could be of a slightly better resolution to aid absolutely critical focusing.
Even in low light the LX5 focuses accurately and quickly, with the rear of the screen increasing in brightness to allow you to more accurately compose the image and choose the point of focus.
Noise, Resolution and Sensitivity
With a 10.1-million-pixel compact camera sensor, the LX5 performs quite well, managing to resolve to just over 20 on our resolution test chart when the sensitivity is set between ISO 80 and 200. By ISO 400, detail resolution begins to drop and at ISO 800 the sensor can resolve up to 18. The maximum sensitivity before the resolution drops is ISO 3200 and even at this point the LX5 still resolves up to 16.
Image: Low-light exposures push the LX5 to its limit. This shot was taken at IS0 3200 and, although noisy, it is still acceptable when printed as a 6x4in image
Colour noise is well controlled throughout the entire sensitivity range, but luminance noise is visible at ISO 200 and above, and becomes progressively more obtrusive. In its default setting, the noise reduction is quite strong at ISO 1600-3200 and gives images a characteristic smudged appearance.
The shortcomings of the LX5 are fairly typical of a compact-style camera, but the fact that it has a usable sensitivity range of ISO 80-800 means that its image quality is around 1EV better than most other similar compact cameras on the market.
Left: These images show 72ppi (100% on a computer screen) sections of images of a resolution chart, captured using matching 105mm macro lenses. We show the section of the resolution chart where the camera starts to fail to reproduce the lines separately. The higher the number visible in these images, the better the camera’s detail resolution is at the specified sensitivity setting. Right: This graph shows the brightness values recorded by the test camera when it is used to photograph a stepped graduation wedge. The wedge has transmission values in 1⁄2EV steps ranging from 0 to 12EV. The camera’s exposure is set so the 12EV section in the wedge has a brightness value of 255. Software analysis of the image then determines the recorded brightness values of all the other steps and calculates the camera’s dynamic range.
Dynamic range
Our dynamic range tests confirm that Panasonic has improved the dynamic range of the LX5. With a measured value of 12.5EV, the dynamic range is very impressive for a compact camera, but the shape of the ‘curve’ is interesting as it isn’t actually a curve, but more of a line. In practice, the dynamic range of the LX5 is noticeable in sky detail.
Although it doesn’t prevent some images having burnt-out highlights, it does mean that bright blue skies are slightly darker than on other compact cameras. Similarly, I have found that a lot of detail can be recovered from very dark shadow areas by increasing the brightness of JPEG files in Camera Raw by up to 3EV. At ISO 400, chroma noise is slightly visible when the brightness is increased, but it is good to know that there is some room for adjustment of these shadow areas.
LCD, Viewfinder, Live view and Video
As previously mentioned, one of the major new features of the DMC-LX5 is the addition of a port below the camera’s hotshoe that allows the use of the Panasonic DMW-LVF1 electronic viewfinder. Although we weren’t able to test the LX5 with one of these viewfinders, we have previously used the same 202,000-dot viewfinder with the Lumix DMC-GF1 and found it very clear, bright and easy to use. However, at around £150 the EVF is an expensive accessory for a compact camera, especially given that the 3in, 460,000-dot LCD screen is of a high quality.
An optical viewfinder is also available in the form of the DMW-VF1. This offers a 24mm angle of view but costs around the same price as the electronic viewfinder, so I cannot see it being a particularly popular accessory for the LX5.
In bright conditions an electronic viewfinder may be slightly easier to view than the rear LCD screen, but I didn’t find the screen difficult to use in bright light. It is also has an extremely high angle of view, making it useful for low and high-angle photographs.
One slight bugbear I have is that when captured images are shown on the rear screen, a fairly medium-quality preview file is shown. This means details don’t look as good on the rear of the screen as they do when displayed full size on a computer. This is something to consider when using the camera to assess images.
Like nearly every other compact camera being released at the moment, the LX5 is capable of HD video capture at 1280×720-pixel resolution. The way video is saved is improved from the LX3, with the AVCHD Lite codec now available as well as the motion JPEG format. The former option offers higher quality video, while reducing file sizes.
Our verdict
When Panasonic announced the Lumix DMC-LX5, it mentioned the Canon PowerShot G11 numerous times as the camera’s direct competitor. Having now tested the LX5, the reason why is clear.
Like the G11, the LX5 has a full range of manual-exposure controls, a metal body and larger-than-normal sensor for a compact camera, although its body is smaller and lighter. The Panasonic camera lacks the G11’s optical viewfinder, but given that this viewfinder is of poor quality, and that an optional EVF is available for the LX5, this shouldn’t prove to be a defining issue.
In terms of image quality the LX5 is very good, particularly at sensitivities of ISO 400 and below. However, its sensor is still that of a compact and it suffers from luminance noise as the sensitivity increases. Yet the new sensor design does go some way towards improving both the dynamic range and noise beyond what we have seen from the last generation of compact cameras.
Overall, I am very impressed with the LX5. It is currently one of, if not the, best high-end compact cameras available.
The competition
The obvious competition for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is the Canon PowerShot G11.
With many of the same features, including a 10.1-million-pixel sensor, the differences come down to build, handling and image quality.
Here, the DMC-LX5 wins in terms of size. While the G11 is an extremely nice camera to handle, although it is a little on the large size.
There are two other cameras that offer some competition: the Samsung EX1 and the recently announced Nikon Coolpix P7000.
Both these cameras owe much of their design to the G11 and, as such, are larger than most current compact cameras.
Although the focal length of the EX1’s lens is the shortest of the four cameras at 24-74mm, the EX1 does have the major advantage of an f/1.8 aperture, which should help low-light performance.
For more options, have a look at the best vintage digital cameras.
