Image courtesy: ePhotozine
The Panasonic LX100 is one of the very few cameras who earns the “Editor’s choice” award at ePhotozine:
The Panasonic Lumix LX100 gives good noise performance, with good results up to ISO1600, and the camera is capable of resolving excellent levels of detail, producing very good images. The Panasonic Lumix LX100 offers an impressive range of features including 4K video recording, a bright f/1.7-2.8 Leica lens, great external controls, and packs it all into a stylish and good to use metal body, making the LX100 our Editor’s Choice!
For ePhotozine these are the PROS and Cons:
Panasonic Lumix LX100 Pros
Excellent f/1.7-f/2.8 Leica lens
In camera raw editing
Lots of physical controls
Excellent build quality and handling
High resolution electronic viewfinder
12fps continuous shooting
Very good noise performance
Dual axis electronic level
Extremely fast focus
4K video recording
2 year warranty
Panasonic Lumix LX100 Cons
Touch screen would have been nice
Some noise visible in shadows
Lens flare can be an issue
Read the full review at ephotozine.com/article/panasonic-lumix-dmc-lx100-full-review-26173
LX100 preorders at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto. Europe at WexUK and Wex Germany. in Asia at Amazon Japan.
74 Responses
12 fps continuous shooting? Can it really do that with continuous autofocus?
i dont think so
Its the AF from GH4, yes 12fps with AF-C.
Nope, 6.5 fps in AF-C mode. Still a remarkable achievement for such a compact camera. Should be acceptable for sports shooting within the available zoom range. Decent size buffer too.
wowzers thats very advanced then
The LX100 verdict is well predicted .
Nothing surprise here .
A true photographing tool in a compact format sense .
Agree!
I’ve been a panasonic devotee for years now owning 9 Panny’s (just did a finger tally) but $900? I’d place “price” under the “cons” column for sure. I certainly can’t afford this fancy compact and if I did have FU-money for an expensive compact, I noticed you can but Sony RX1s for nearly $1400 these days. That or a GH4. This is one compact that will have to wait a few years until I own it, if ever.
maybe you can sell a few of the cameras you have,to raise a budget… i am sure you can miss at least 4 or 5 of them. 🙂
I only own one now ass-hat.
as for the people who think spending $1000 is a steal…I guess you’re a bunch of clueless rich-kids. Not to mention I’ve never desired a 12-35 f 2,8 lens from any manufacturer.
I like having a compact but not for 1K. Sorry kids.
why you speak so unhappy?
He is always upset
Hmmm . . . buy a GX7 + 12-35/2.8 and see how that adds up. Granted the LX100 is not a GX7 replacement, nor is the built-in lens of the LX100 a 12-35/2.8 replacement, but for what you get I don’t see the price as being out of whack. However, wait a while and the price will likely fall or you can get a holiday deal sometime . . . .
What is the cheapest 24-70mm F1.8-2.8 lens that you can buy on any system or even included in any camera? That’s right, there aren’t any. Here are some similar lens and the MSRP for JUST THE LENS. Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 $1200, Olympus 12-40mm F2.8 $999, Olympus 14-35mm f2.0 $1999.
$900 is a steal.
Smaller sensor area used if you are happy to exclude that small matter then the RX100mkIII has a 24-75mm F/1.8-2.8, built-in flash , tilting lcd , at least as good image quality at low ISO, smaller lighter and $100 cheaper. The Panasonic’s main advanatge is its 4k video
If you can wait a year or two, I bet the price will be down quite a bit. As soon as the LX200 comes out, some early adopters will be ready to unload theirs.
Funny enough, when the GF1 first launched in 2009, it was priced at $900 too.
“Lens flare can be an issue”
Ironically, people pay money to buy plugins to add flares or purposely shoot against sun to get flares on their photos or footages.
I had to contain my laughter one time when I had a picture with really bad lens flare on my screen and thinking whether or not to delete the photo, and my friend saw it and told me it was the most awesome photo he ever saw because of the cool “light effects”.
Curse you, J. J. Abrams, you’ve ruined a generation!
No slow motion video (lx7 does 120fps), no built in flash, macro only 3cm (lx7 was 1 cm) – still looks good, but not interested in paying $900 with a camera that lacks very basic features. Love my LX-7, hope they come out with an Lx-8.
Buy a GoPro if you want high frame rates on the cheap from a tiny little sensor. It’s an action camera after all, and better packaged for doing action things than a point and shoot camera.
What would you want in an LX-8 that the LX-7 doesn’t already deliver? There aren’t any new sensor technology Panasonic can currently implement this year and apparently you like the LX-7’s feature set more than the LX100.
I don’t get this as well. Why not 720P 120 or 240? Even my iphone has this. Why is there any issue having this feature which was on the last model. This is really a great feature and more useful than special effect filters.
Results are good, though to me it looks like 16MP and above is really the magic number for m43’s sensors because none of these samples feel that sharp to me compared to what we can get out of our ILC m43’s cameras.
16 mp more sharp then 12 mp? maybe more detail but not much.. prob the 16 mp sensors are less thick filters equippedthen 12mp? or just the image processor more advanced
No, a higher megapixel count (even from 12 to 16Mp) means that image sharpening (whether in camera or from RAW processing) can be much better controlled due to more pixels being available to manipulate at object edges, which is where sharpening is most pronounce.
i meant ooc without further processing by hand…older imagessors sometimes not really gave profit, now all brands use more sopisticated algorythms but its easy just to count on higher mp as basicly higher mp gives less quality if there was an average image proc attached to it. we used to say that bigger pixels give better IQ, but while the pixels became smaller because of more MP, the Image procesor took care of the loss in that department. if there was less advancement in this part of the camera, higher MP would mean less quality.
I owned GF 12 mp till GX 16 mp .
The 16mp sensor have higher resolution & detailing than the 12mp sensor .
Of course I can’t deny latest processor playing a role for the contribution .
Still I hope Pana can come out at a 18mp or 22mp sensor in 2015 .
imo the image processor decides the quality of a sensor for a big part. not only the # of mp. example when the first 24×36 sony dslr came out and the nikon which used the same version sensor….the Nikon looked better in several parts of the tests on Dpreview, because of the way they prepare the sensor data. Olympus did good work too with the processing in the E-5 regarding to the “fine detail” optimising in RAW(especially in textures). all based on my memory of what i read back then. hope my brain still good working.
Yes , need to keep shooting to make brain in good sharp .
Not likely, if they don’t DRASTICALLY improve high-ISO performance too. They probably want to keep 3200 and 6400 at least ‘acceptable’.= /
That’s why Pana need the Organic Tech + MCS to achieve such breakthrough ( ISO , DR & MP ) .
With current silicon photodiode oriented sensor , Pana can’t go anything beyond ISO 6400 ( Clean & Clear ) & above 16 MP .
i wait for the G7 (lowprice gh4…) 4k and that for 499,- (700,- at start-4 months later..)
not this- and if-it will go down in price to 499 hope 399,- okay?
Yes you can wait until G12 is you like. Ooops, I forgot the G line is abandoned. 🙂
What’s wrong with his needs and his money justification?
Yes, LX100 is great but to a lot of people , 900 US dollars is not cheap especially they already have m43 lens.
Hey nobody stops you buying it, go crazy. Myself, i’m still considering.
No GF or G models anymore. I really hope Panasonic didn’t stop GX line. I have the GX7 with 17.5mm nokton and I hope Panasonic will release a new GX with all GH4, LX100 and FZ1000 improvements, features, etc…
We have to be ambitious.
Why with GH4 features only in next GX ? The next GX must come with OrganicTechSensor & MCS .
Otherwise I rather Pana hold the GX project till all the techs are ready .
No point come out something that can’t compete within few months released .
Getting better and better! Can’t wait for the user reviews to come out.
Looks like it’s time to sell my walkabout lens (17mm f/1.8) and put that money toward a new LX100. My E-M5 setup becomes more a situational tool (portrait, telephoto, UWA), though I don’t see myself giving up the general purpose 25mm Panaleica.
Wow, 16 comments already and no obvious trolling. Maybe there’s hope for this forum yet. While I won’t be buying it, I think this looks like an excellent camera with a very innovative lens design that I hope is a sign of things to come from Panasonic.
Don’t get so excited, the infamous troll which copies everybody’s names will soon start his pitiful comments.
Yes, but just a sign of their jealously for them buying a Canon G1X II instead of getting the camera they wanted…the LX100.
True, me. Do you pity me?
Inasmuch as a troll is someone who just posts a comment to be controversial and to generate discussion for its own sake, rather than providing actual content, a case can be made that your comment is an example of trolling.
As, I guess, can this one.
In the interweb world, however, the definition of ‘trolling’ has changed. It is now simply an epithet one uses to refer to someone who only happens to hold an opinion differing from one’s own.
No, a troll is what we call someone who comes over and leaves a comment devoid of any meaning whatsoever — positive or negative. By all means criticise the m43 format, it is as unperfect as anything from Leica, Sony, Fuji, Canon or Nikon. But when you make stupid remarks for the sake of riling people up for no reason, then you are a troll, period.
Pity about the flare, it’s the hallmark of bad lenses and can’t be fixed in post. Also the display misses the point completely. Next…
“and can’t be fixed in post”
Somebody doesn’t have photo-editing skills.
Somebody needs a basic photo course.
All compact camera zoom lens will have pretty bad lens flare. That’s one of the sacrifice you make when you design a zoom lens that is compact or collapsible. Even higher quality zooms like the Fuji 18-55mm f2.8-4 or Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 have bad lens flare because of their more compact designs. Olympus was able to control it with their 12-40mm, but then that lens is a lot bigger.
Fortunately, better manufacturers don’t have this error.
The lens manufacturers with the most flare are Leica and Zeiss. Are they not both good lens manufacturers?
Don’t listen to this troll, his only porous is to trash by any means m4/3 system.
You are a smart boy, now make sure your flared pics of brick walls have sharp corners!
Hide under a bridge troll!
flare is the hallmark of bad lenses…Wow, I never knew that in all these years, and to think I could produce lens flare in lenses I have owned for Leicas, Nikons, Canons, Olympus, even a Hassy I had for awhile back in the 80’s. I had no idea I owned such junk glass. Eno, what camera and lens should I buy so I won’t have any lens flare? I am eagerly anticipating your response since I just threw a bunch of lenses and camera bodies in the trash and need to find one of those high quality flareless lenses. Cost is almost no object to me in my quest for flareless lenses. Please tell me what brand of flareless lenses you own because I want to buy some.
That troll isn’t me is Viezuvure or whatever other name he’s stolen.
Eno you sad person….
The only sad thing here is your trolling.
First of all, you need some brain behind the camera, and it looks like you have a supply problem there.
Second, flare makes or breaks pics, but this is obviously beyond you…
Tsk tsk. Upvoting yourself just makes you even sadder.
yawn…
I wonder what mental disease causes people to troll. Surely life is more precious than that.
I’ll likely sell my Panny 12-35 to fund this since I want a walk around zoom and that on my EM-5 is just too large. This will give me a go tot ravel camera with a fast lens and less bulk. AN easy excuse to have it with me and not worry about a lens choice. As a plus I get great video as well. I will keep my primes for my EM-5 and this will be a perfect combo. I had a GM1 and returned it as the ergonomics were poor and once i put a fast lens on it is large. In addition the manual controls on the LX are a great tool IMO and I love the “manual” controls which gets one more connected like an old school cam. This should be a great street shooter and just simply fun, my guess is people will shoot more with this camera and enjoy the images and not worry about the pixels!
Good idea. I might do that as well. Since Olympus is a long-time coming with the mythical Trip-D, I may just buy an LX100 body for the zoom and 4K, and then a cheap PEN body to stick a pancake on which I can have always with me in a pocket. I find that having two cameras for travel is a pre-requisite.
Good idea, I’ll get rid of that half-baked system too, it never delivered for the price. If m43 is good enough, this cam is probably good enough.
I hope I can sell for a decent price coz nobody seems to want it.
and who uses “ephotozine” to be the arbiter of cameras?
ephotozine is a website that makes money when you buy cameras through them. Like this one, like many seats that review cameras.
I am not saying they are not impartial, but neither am I saying they do not benefit from purchases of items they recommend.
Take it for what you will.
Which should make a sane human wonder: then why are you here so frequently? Don’t you have something better to do?
Best of the Best!
I cannot decide…down to the two best cameras now at this size:
1. LX100
2. RX100 III
Why can’t Panasonic make a 1.7-2.8f 24-75MM lens for the Micro-4/3 system? They could put it on this camera for under $1,000, I’d like one to put on my GM1
The lens in the LX100 is not covering the full M43 Sensor. The Readout is croped. I expect there is masive postprocessing to correct the lens errors which is much easyer if you have additional pixels outside of the final rectangular result.
Such a lens for the M43-mount would be larger, more expensive and correction would be more difficult.
“lens flare was occasionally quite high when shooting with the sun in the frame”
Neither shocking nor a concern. This is no more troubling to me than saying “sharpness was reduced when shooting through dirty window glass” or “motion blur was noticeable in high-speed moving subjects when shot at low shutter speeds” or “images appeared dark when shot in darkness without flash or other lighting”
With that said it would be nice if there were some provision for a bayonet mount lens hood, but on a compact camera that is insignificant. I look forward to reviews from a trusted source and have high hopes for this camera.
I just got my LX100, and the lens flares really ARE much stronger than anything I’ve seen on a camera before. I like lens flares, but this camera produces a unique SUPER BRIGHT PURPLE flare that can completely fill your image when shooting an object in silhouette against the sun. It also has a pretty strong rolling shutter effect.
I agree – unacceptable, in fact I have had several lens for m4/3 from Panasonic and they all went back due to lens flare – what is it with this company and the way it makes lenses only for folk who don’t shoot into the sun? I have seen issues where the sun isn’t even in the frame! No such effect on my Oly 25mm f1.8 at all!