Lawrence Ripsher

A few weeks ago Panasonic followed up with their successful (but flawed) LX-2 with the newly announced. I've always been a fan of Panasonic features, build quality, etc in their compacts in the past but haven't loved their sensor choices. This one looks like it might be different though – included in the large number of improvements were four things that really caught my eye;

• A fast lens… f/2.0 at the wide end to f/2.8 at the long end. This is the fastest lens to my knowledge on a compact since the very early days (e.g. Olympus C-5050)
• NO increase in megapixels and a minor increase in sensor size.We've already hit a (ridiculous) 14MP in compacts and this was a rare case of a manufacturer reigning in the megapixel craze and doing the right thing which in itself I'm extremely happy to see 
• A shorter and wider lens. Just 24mm to 60mm. Again, quality over quantity being the basic premise
• The first real attempt (again from my recollection) by a compact camera manufacturer to directly the address the issue of noise and image quality rather than just features and numbers in their marketing / product announcement

On paper, its the most exciting compact camera development this year (leaving Micro 4/3rds aside for the time being) so in anticipation I sold my G9 last week and this morning purhased a LX3, released here in Singapore just yesterday. Will the camera live up to its hype? 

I'll be using and reviewing the camera over the next 7-10 days. Check back at the end of next weekend to see how it's gone.