So, we just had a double leak that gives us any info we needed about tomorrow’s Panasonic announcement: 3Dnews (Translation here) and Oman Observer (Click here) posted the full press release. The most important new info is that the LX7 is not going to become the new Sony RX100 competitor. It still uses the same 1:1.7 inch sensor compared to Sony’s 1 inch size. Not a smart move don’t you think?
The Russian press release also points out that Panasonic believes that by 2015 Mirrorless will overtake digital SLR cameras. I am pretty sure they are right in this 😉
17 Responses
Can somebody do the math for me? The LX7 has f2.3 at the long end. How does that compare in terms of DOF to the Sony RX100?
Since it’s a 1/1.7 inch versus 1 inch sensor, but it’s f2.3 versus f4.9 at the long end, it seems to me that the LX7’s sensor actually should start capturing more light at a shallower DOF than the RX100 around 70 mm FF equivalent. Is this true?
It should have thinner dof at all the focal lengths.
See this graph:
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/1310839954/photos/2099528/relative-apertures-logscalechart
Based on the LX7 specs, you may have an idea of the equivalent aperture (for DOF) by joining the beginning of the Samsun EX2F line with the end of the Olympus XZ-1 line: it should be always below the RX100 line.
The LX7 has a slightly smaller sensor now (1/1.8″) so this will impact the DOF measurements.
Multiply the f/stop by the crop factor (5.1 by the looks of it). So the LX7 4.7-17.7 f/1.4-2.3 in 135 format equivalence = 24-90 f/7.1-11 and the RX100 is going to be equivalent to a 28-100 f/5-13, so depth of field at the tele end will be fairly comparable, but the overall function of the cameras won’t be that different, the LX7 makes up for the smaller sensor in part with larger aperture. The Samsung EX2f seems to have a bit larger sensor and is equivalent to a 24-80 f/6.3-11. I would look more at what features do you want, like articulated screen, etc. RX100 has the advantage of the largest sensor, but is handicapped in other ways too. Each has their own strengths/weaknesses.
RX100 is not only about large sensor. It’s about large sensor in tiny camera. Samsung is larger camera than RX100
Panasonic would have needed to know about the Sony RX100 many months ago if they were to come up with a response to that by now. If they had to develop a new 1″ sensor of their own, even longer.
Panasonic considered a larger sensor last September after the Nikon 1 release, but it looks like they went with an even smaller sensor (1/1.8″).
http://www.techradar.com/news/photography-video-capture/cameras/panasonic-lx-series-to-have-larger-sensor-1030532
The LX7 specs are very disappointing. The RX 100 will own this segment, unless they sell their sensor to Olympus for a 1″ XZ-2. A flash hot-shoe would have been nice on the RX
Look at focal lengths:
– LX7: 4.7-17.7mm actual focal lengths, 24-90mm 24×36 equivalent focal lengths
– LX5: 5.1-19.2mm actual focal lengths, 24-90mm 24×36 equivalent focal lengths (same as LX7)
The shorter actual focal lengths of the LX7’s zoom lens means LX7’s sensor is smaller than LX5’s sensor.
LX5’s sensor is 1/1.63 inch. LX7’s sensor should be 1/1.77 inch.
If it’s the same size sensor as the LX5, then the LX7 gives you a 35mm-equivalent of 22-83mm, F6.6-10.8. That compares to 28-100mm, F4.9-13.4 for the Sony RX100.
At the long end, both cameras are mediocre for thin DOF. From 10 feet, that’s around 2.9 ft DOF for the LX7 vs. 2.5 ft for the Sony.
I would have preferred it to go to 24mm F2.3 (112mm F10.8 equiv. for 1.5ft DOF) on the long end , but I guess for vacationers, a wider fast lens gives you nice night shots.
rx100 for me. Bigger sensor, bigger boobs..I mean sexier body
Funny that every time mirrorlessrumors post something about Sony, the theme goes like that:
“Sony announced FS700. Don’t worry Panasonic is coming with m4/3 super35 at NAB too”
“Sony announced RX100. Don’t worry Panasonic is announcing LX7 with inch sensor too”
Both time the claim turned out to be false.
What’s up with that?
i like the comparison chart.. how is the Panasonic´s 50p video with full time AF superior to the A57 50p with full time AF? or its 6fps equal to A57´s 10fps or the 920k touchscreen equal to 1040k touchscreen on the Canon? ..i hope its just the Panasonic advertisement that´s bad in math 😉
I was actually a bit worried the LX7 would have the same size sensor as the LX5.. now it turns out to even be a (little) bit smaller. Better be a magical tiny super top quality sensor then.
I don’t think it’s about a smart move or not, I don’t think it was possible to change the pans when they found out about the 1-inch sensor, since no other competir was going that bold, Olympus and Samsung just launched their cameras and it’a basically the same sensor size as Panasonic, but we can expected something from them in the future.
The LX7 sensor is _smaller_ than that in the LX5, see the comparison on
http://www.dpreview.com/previews/panasonic-lumix-dmc-lx7
Still, image quality will surely be better. The question is by how much and how it compares to larger sensor compact cameras …