vincechu
Veteran
*In the process of completely rewriting and tidying up my review, as well as adding a few more photos - check back later 
*
Hey everyone, I know a lot of people are interested in the LX5 and I just thought I'd share my thoughts about itin an on going real-life review. I'm going to do this casually and update when I can and add my additional thoughts
Initial impressions
When in store I played on one briefly before buying, and was delighted with the build quality (the LX5's [metal?] body feels solid) and classy and image quality (on the LX5's screen) looked very good.
A little worry...
When I got home and charged up the battery and fired a few test shots, I was very worried as I noticed pink/purple/green banding appearing on the LCD and in videos - it doesn't appear in still photos, so I returned my LX5 for another the day after for a replacement. However the replacement also did the same thing.
I was really worried when I saw this banding and was pretty annoyed that a new camera at this price range had such a "flaw". But after a little research online and a call to Panasonic Support, it turns out this banding is normal for cameras with CCD sensors. The banding appears on the camera's screen when the camera is pointed at bright light sources (e.g. sunlight, and lightbulbs) and looks pretty worrying (but you get used to it very slowly). The banding appears in recorded video but not in still images, and is worse when a wider aperture (stopping down helps) is used or the stronger the light source pointed at.
See more about the banding here: A Guide to CCD and CMOS Sensor Technology
And a quote from the LX5 manual regarding the banding:
I'm still not really happy about the banding, each time it appears on the LCD it's unnerving(? hope thats the right word to use).
I'm not over the banding issue so why haven't I refunded or exchanged the camera then?
Well I guess it's because I'm in love with it
and it's like when you love a person, you might not like everything about them but you accept them with all of their good points and their bad points don't you?
Fortunately with the LX5 there's a lot to love:
1. Lens - The f/2 aperture helps a lot in lowlight and giving a shallow dof. Bokeh is very nice and smooth. The range 24-90mm equiv is fine for me, but others may find it limiting. I really like the wide end which I find useful for street.
Bokeh:
View attachment 29580
So smooth the keyboard's keys are smoothed out, nice rounded bokeh:
View attachment 29581
Wide angle:
2. Amazing macro ability, with the LX5 you can focus so close you're pretty much touching your subject with the lens, on paper thats a 1cm minimum focusing distance.
The flower's about 1cm from the tip of the lens in these:
3. Build quality
4. Appeareance, very cool (kind of retro) looks - especially with a viewfinder, the 2 part leather case and the included leather strap!
5. Flash exposure is good - it doesn't white out everything! and you can adjust it's power in menu.
6. Accessory port for EVF - I'm a big fan of viewfinders and use one when available, great for use when looking at the LCD is difficult because of bright light which leads me on to...
7. The LCD is bright, clear and vibrant - much better than others I've used...
8. ISO performance - very good for a compact and it certainly comes close if not matches my old Panasonic G1 (which I've sold it so can't do any comparisons)
Here's a ISO12800 Sample (note the LX5 drops from 10megapixels to 3 from ISO 6400 upwards):
View attachment 29586
For my uses, small prints and viewing online ISO12800 from the LX5 isn't actually too bad ;-) I think in black and white the noise might actually look nice and add a grainy film effect.
9. Built in creative options - Such as Pinhole filter and multiple exposure - some may find them gimmicky but I find them good fun.
10. In camera horizon adjustment - I'm sure it'll come in useful in future ;-)
11. Aspect ratio switch on lens barrel - makes changing aspect ratio really quick and I think this has made me think about which aspect ratio will help my composition have more impact e.g. landscape on 16:9
Here's what I would change:
1. The banding issue (surprised?
)
2. Jpeg colour output as standard isn't great - colours too washed out (a little desaturated and flat) for my liking and I find I often have to spend time adjusting colours in Silkypix.
3. The LCD, whilst bright and vibrant, doesn't give an accurate rendition of the image actually taken. Specifically the colours look more saturated and brighter on the LCD, so when you view the images on the PC, they seem under exposed and the colours washed out.
Examples of 2 + 3 (out of camera jpegs):
The first 2 photos are what Standard film mode looks like on the camera's LCD screen saturated and contrasty), but were actually taken using Dynamic film mode and with +2 in Saturation and +2 in contrast.
View attachment 29587
View attachment 29588
The next 2 are out of camera jpegs set to Standard film mode - see what I mean about washed out colours (we all know how bright the red on a Coca-Cola label looks like on real life).
View attachment 29589
View attachment 29590
4. The selftimer button! I think i actually hate this (). The LX5 has one touch buttons for selecting focusing point, movie, ISO and a function button which I have mapped to metering mode. Personally I honestly don't see the point in dedicating a button for the selftimer, I can think of other more useful things to have one touch access to (such as white balance, focusing mode, flash power compensation, highlight warning on/off and film mode). I mean is it me or is self time one of the lesser used functions of a camera? lol Please Panasonic let us change the function of the selftimer button in a future firmware update
That's all I really have to say for now, if you have any questions or anything you want me to try out and report back on, let me know and I'll try to help if I have time.
In the mean time a few more photos:
View attachment 29591
View attachment 29592
View attachment 29594
Update 29/09/10
I've had the camera for another few weeks now, here are a few more photos with some more of my thoughts:
The first set of photos of flowers are edited in silkypix, I love the DOF you can get from the f/2.0 leica lens.
Me!
View attachment 29596
View attachment 29597
The sky looks completely blown here, and it kind of is - the LX5 exposed the foreground and building perfectly at the expense of the sky, which in fairness was a very bright white/grey colour and difficult to get right without doing a HDR anyway.
View attachment 29598
The rest are out of camera jpegs, resized in Photofun. jpegs were set to "vibrant" in camera, intelligent resolution and intelligent exposure were both set to low.
View attachment 29599
This one kind of looks like a HDR, but I think "Intelligent exposure" helped, this handy feature helps to increase dynamic range and you can set it to low, normal or high, in this case it was low.
View attachment 29601
A few lowlight shots in Birmingham - remember these are out of camera jpegs - noise seems very well controlled at standard setting and looks better than my old G1! The built in IS helped with the slow shutter speeds - these were handheld.
ISO1600 at f/2.0:
ISO 800 at f/2.0 unless otherwise stated:
The only time I've noticed lens flare out of around 250 pics I've taken with the camera.
f/2.5
Comments to go with my update:
1. I hope you can see how well the cameras metering system works - I'd say the majority of photos came out perfectly exposed without me needing to adjust things in camera to compensate. Of the few that were underexposed it was either the camera protecting highlights OR me being too lazy or in a hurry to make adjustments.
2. I'm really liking the macro focusing capabilities of the lens - I think that in future when I get my SLR I won't need to buy a macro lens!
3. The banding which you can see in liveview didn't actually bother me as much as I thought it would - I only noticed it shooting that bright blue sky with the church in the photo.
4. I'm a bit of a newbie to photography - only been at it for 9months! If i were a more capable, more experienced photographer then I'm sure I'd be able to produce photos of an amazing quality with this camera! Especially if I can master post processing.
5. ISO 800 and 1600 are both very usable, I used default NR with the out of camera jpegs and I was actually pretty impressed - the results are better (less visable noise) than my old Panny G1 with 20mm 1.7!
6. Originally when I wrote the review, I complained that the out of camera jpegs were too flat, the colours not saturated or punchy enough, but after playing around with the film modes I think colours are good on "Vibrant" setting, and the camera allows you to adjust saturation and contrast to +2 or -2 in camera which really helps.
*Hey everyone, I know a lot of people are interested in the LX5 and I just thought I'd share my thoughts about itin an on going real-life review. I'm going to do this casually and update when I can and add my additional thoughts
Initial impressions
When in store I played on one briefly before buying, and was delighted with the build quality (the LX5's [metal?] body feels solid) and classy and image quality (on the LX5's screen) looked very good.
A little worry...
When I got home and charged up the battery and fired a few test shots, I was very worried as I noticed pink/purple/green banding appearing on the LCD and in videos - it doesn't appear in still photos, so I returned my LX5 for another the day after for a replacement. However the replacement also did the same thing.
I was really worried when I saw this banding and was pretty annoyed that a new camera at this price range had such a "flaw". But after a little research online and a call to Panasonic Support, it turns out this banding is normal for cameras with CCD sensors. The banding appears on the camera's screen when the camera is pointed at bright light sources (e.g. sunlight, and lightbulbs) and looks pretty worrying (but you get used to it very slowly). The banding appears in recorded video but not in still images, and is worse when a wider aperture (stopping down helps) is used or the stronger the light source pointed at.
See more about the banding here: A Guide to CCD and CMOS Sensor Technology
And a quote from the LX5 manual regarding the banding:
I'm still not really happy about the banding, each time it appears on the LCD it's unnerving(? hope thats the right word to use).
I'm not over the banding issue so why haven't I refunded or exchanged the camera then?
Well I guess it's because I'm in love with it
and it's like when you love a person, you might not like everything about them but you accept them with all of their good points and their bad points don't you? Fortunately with the LX5 there's a lot to love:
1. Lens - The f/2 aperture helps a lot in lowlight and giving a shallow dof. Bokeh is very nice and smooth. The range 24-90mm equiv is fine for me, but others may find it limiting. I really like the wide end which I find useful for street.
Bokeh:
View attachment 29580
So smooth the keyboard's keys are smoothed out, nice rounded bokeh:
View attachment 29581
Wide angle:
2. Amazing macro ability, with the LX5 you can focus so close you're pretty much touching your subject with the lens, on paper thats a 1cm minimum focusing distance.
The flower's about 1cm from the tip of the lens in these:
3. Build quality
4. Appeareance, very cool (kind of retro) looks - especially with a viewfinder, the 2 part leather case and the included leather strap!
5. Flash exposure is good - it doesn't white out everything! and you can adjust it's power in menu.
6. Accessory port for EVF - I'm a big fan of viewfinders and use one when available, great for use when looking at the LCD is difficult because of bright light which leads me on to...
7. The LCD is bright, clear and vibrant - much better than others I've used...
8. ISO performance - very good for a compact and it certainly comes close if not matches my old Panasonic G1 (which I've sold it so can't do any comparisons)
Here's a ISO12800 Sample (note the LX5 drops from 10megapixels to 3 from ISO 6400 upwards):
View attachment 29586
For my uses, small prints and viewing online ISO12800 from the LX5 isn't actually too bad ;-) I think in black and white the noise might actually look nice and add a grainy film effect.
9. Built in creative options - Such as Pinhole filter and multiple exposure - some may find them gimmicky but I find them good fun.
10. In camera horizon adjustment - I'm sure it'll come in useful in future ;-)
11. Aspect ratio switch on lens barrel - makes changing aspect ratio really quick and I think this has made me think about which aspect ratio will help my composition have more impact e.g. landscape on 16:9
Here's what I would change:
1. The banding issue (surprised?
)2. Jpeg colour output as standard isn't great - colours too washed out (a little desaturated and flat) for my liking and I find I often have to spend time adjusting colours in Silkypix.
3. The LCD, whilst bright and vibrant, doesn't give an accurate rendition of the image actually taken. Specifically the colours look more saturated and brighter on the LCD, so when you view the images on the PC, they seem under exposed and the colours washed out.
Examples of 2 + 3 (out of camera jpegs):
The first 2 photos are what Standard film mode looks like on the camera's LCD screen saturated and contrasty), but were actually taken using Dynamic film mode and with +2 in Saturation and +2 in contrast.
View attachment 29587
View attachment 29588
The next 2 are out of camera jpegs set to Standard film mode - see what I mean about washed out colours (we all know how bright the red on a Coca-Cola label looks like on real life).
View attachment 29589
View attachment 29590
4. The selftimer button! I think i actually hate this
(). The LX5 has one touch buttons for selecting focusing point, movie, ISO and a function button which I have mapped to metering mode. Personally I honestly don't see the point in dedicating a button for the selftimer, I can think of other more useful things to have one touch access to (such as white balance, focusing mode, flash power compensation, highlight warning on/off and film mode). I mean is it me or is self time one of the lesser used functions of a camera? lol Please Panasonic let us change the function of the selftimer button in a future firmware update That's all I really have to say for now, if you have any questions or anything you want me to try out and report back on, let me know and I'll try to help if I have time.
In the mean time a few more photos:
View attachment 29591
View attachment 29592
View attachment 29594
Update 29/09/10
I've had the camera for another few weeks now, here are a few more photos with some more of my thoughts:
The first set of photos of flowers are edited in silkypix, I love the DOF you can get from the f/2.0 leica lens.
Me!
View attachment 29596
View attachment 29597
The sky looks completely blown here, and it kind of is - the LX5 exposed the foreground and building perfectly at the expense of the sky, which in fairness was a very bright white/grey colour and difficult to get right without doing a HDR anyway.
View attachment 29598
The rest are out of camera jpegs, resized in Photofun. jpegs were set to "vibrant" in camera, intelligent resolution and intelligent exposure were both set to low.
View attachment 29599
This one kind of looks like a HDR, but I think "Intelligent exposure" helped, this handy feature helps to increase dynamic range and you can set it to low, normal or high, in this case it was low.
View attachment 29601
A few lowlight shots in Birmingham - remember these are out of camera jpegs - noise seems very well controlled at standard setting and looks better than my old G1! The built in IS helped with the slow shutter speeds - these were handheld.
ISO1600 at f/2.0:
ISO 800 at f/2.0 unless otherwise stated:
The only time I've noticed lens flare out of around 250 pics I've taken with the camera.
f/2.5
Comments to go with my update:
1. I hope you can see how well the cameras metering system works - I'd say the majority of photos came out perfectly exposed without me needing to adjust things in camera to compensate. Of the few that were underexposed it was either the camera protecting highlights OR me being too lazy or in a hurry to make adjustments.
2. I'm really liking the macro focusing capabilities of the lens - I think that in future when I get my SLR I won't need to buy a macro lens!
3. The banding which you can see in liveview didn't actually bother me as much as I thought it would - I only noticed it shooting that bright blue sky with the church in the photo.
4. I'm a bit of a newbie to photography - only been at it for 9months! If i were a more capable, more experienced photographer then I'm sure I'd be able to produce photos of an amazing quality with this camera! Especially if I can master post processing.
5. ISO 800 and 1600 are both very usable, I used default NR with the out of camera jpegs and I was actually pretty impressed - the results are better (less visable noise) than my old Panny G1 with 20mm 1.7!
6. Originally when I wrote the review, I complained that the out of camera jpegs were too flat, the colours not saturated or punchy enough, but after playing around with the film modes I think colours are good on "Vibrant" setting, and the camera allows you to adjust saturation and contrast to +2 or -2 in camera which really helps.
That's my prejudice showing, though I'd definitely want to try out the different art modes.
