New PanaLeica

The Online Photographer reports on the DMC-LX3 (successor to the DMC-LX2, which was rebadged as the Leica D-Lux

3) <a

href="http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2008/07/new-panasonic-h.html">here</a>.

Note the wide, fast Leica lens, and the emphasis on low-light performance.

This could be a very interesting camera. I'm going to see about getting one for photo.net to review ASAP.

DPreview coverage <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0807/08072102panasoniclx3.asp">here</a>.

PanaLeica or LeicaSonic?

Thanks, Bob. If the camera shoots halfway decent, I'm getting one. Reasonable price, fast and wide zoom, RAW and a decent optional finder- that's the stuff.

 

 

I wouldn't mind a cool lens hood set-up, too; but you can't have everything. Here is the camera with accessories:

 

 

http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0807/Panasonic/LX3_accessories.jpg

I like the optical viewfinder. Sadly, I have already wasted money on an Ixus that I`m starting to hate... this lens looks pretty good. Size counts here.

Looks great, I didn't see the density calculation so I cannot compare to other cameras like the DP1 but they are the same size and this has a way faster lens from the Pany/Leica connection. Its 24/60mm f2.0-2.8, vs. f4.0 for the DP1. Manual controls with full auto on demand, now if it will only do ISO 1600 OK they I will be fine with it.

 

Best of all is its under $400. Only negative I see is that its got no vf, you can get a hot shoe vf but I couldn't figure out what the coverage of the VF is either 24 or 35mm or maybe its got both 24 and 35mm vf lines?

 

I liked the 16:9 output and movie clips for HDTV slide shows.

"Best of all is its under $400."

 

?? The announcement I've seen says 400 pounds, not US$.

Okay. Great. It looks nice but for one thing...WHERE"S THE DAMN VIEWFINDER?

$500USD, according to the press release, available in August. And the viewfinder attaches to the hot shoe. There's more links with sample pics over at RFF.

"$500USD, according to the press release"

 

This press release says 400 pounds, in the EU:

 

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0807/08072102panasoniclx3.asp

 

Interesting price difference!

Sounds terrific. I might finally upgrade my ancient Digilux.

Slap the red badge on it add $200 and you've got the new Digilux 4.

For a little more cash you should consider GRD or DP1. DP1 has dslr sized sensor, and GRD is a real crackerjack. Do a

search on flickr for Paul A. Roid (Markus Hartel) to see his street pics done with the DP1.

<a href=" title="Untitled by Chaospress, on Flickr"><img

src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3234/2683930943_663abd01ec_o.jpg"alt="" /></a><p>my 2 cents~ Ricoh GRD w/flash

and a pinch of photoshop

Ray, that is also a really good option.

Ray, what's a cracker jack?

Orville, I'll send you an email...

<p>

Travis, a cracker jack? Something very good, often small but packs a punch. It could be a woman or a car or a

camera or photographer or lots of other things as long as it's a good one.. ;)

 

<p>Sorry Bob, honestly didn't mean to hijack your thread.

I'm not really that impressed by the look of the DP1 photos in b/w, and if the color on Marcus' motion studies are more than

just an experiment, can't say the color is that great. I really like the "look" if you will, of the GRD much better.

In certain situations with ISO 400 or higher and maybe some underexposure, the color on the GRD can sort of fall apart and

get ugly. I imagine it's the same with any small sensor camera. For color, these small cameras certainly can't compete

with something like 5D, which has awesome performance even at ISO 3200 shot RAW. I imagine the DP1 color is better

than anything else its size, since it has a sensor as a (less than FF) dslr sized sensor.

>> since it has a (less than FF) dslr sized sensor.

The PanaLeica has a 1:1.63" sensor. The Ricoh GRDII has a 1:1.75" sensor. That makes the PanaLeica sensor a little bigger, yes?

Sample photos, posted elsewhere (find via rangefinderforum) are discouraging, although the photographer's personal competence may be the problem. Fast lens

 

Nikon to the rumor-rescue: http://nikonblog.wordpress.com/

 

Supposedly to be announced in August, supposedly to offer a "22mm" accessory lens (which seems odd, given the standard 24mm).

...make that "standard 28mm" not 24mm... viewfinder like G9 (or Contax G)...looks pocketable....looks to have f2.7 at the short end. RAW. Smoke and mirrors. Nikon's sensor's probably better than Panasonic's..

The sample images at <a href="http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/9604.html">InfoSyncWorld</a> are indeed bad, but I'm not sure why. The EXIF data indicate more than two stops underexposure at ISO 125, an ISO you can't actually set on the camera (though it has auto-ISO, which is what I'm presuming happened here). The file is a JPEG, and I can't tell if the "4/1" compression indication in the EXIF data means that the JPEG was compressed. The file size indicates that the photo was shot at maximum JPEG resolution.

<p>

On the other hand <a href="http://panasonic.net/pavc/lumix/gallery/models/lx3.html">samples provided by Panasonic at ISO 80</a> look much better, and there are some decent-looking photos taken with the camera <a href="http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=3580&review=panasonic+lumix+lx3">here</a>, including B&W JPEG.

<p>

There's also a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/843626@N22/pool/">flickr pool for the camera</a>, which had a number of photos taken WITH the camera yesterday that have now been removed - I'm speculating that these were pre-production review cameras and Panasonic required the pictures taken with them to be removed under the terms of their evaluation agreement, but I don't have any real information about what happened.

<p>

My conclusion from all this is that we should wait a little longer for production samples of the camera to hit the street and be examined by careful reviewers before we start to think we know what the camera's capable of.

<p>

As long as we're talking about other P&S cameras already, by the way, have you all seen the new <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5025971/samsungs-tl9-point+and+shoot-camera-has-dual-analog-gauges">Samsung TL9's emulation of the RD-1's analog gauge set</a>? Pretty snazzy.