Panasonic LX3 Review – Handling and Controls (Part 2)
Handling and Controls
When reviewing the G9, I made a big deal about the camera’s excellent handling and ergonomics. This was mostly down to the fact that the camera sported analogue controls (i.e. dials which rotate) which are the best and fastest way to change settings such as ISO, aperture and so on. Like almost every other compact camera, the LX3 doesn’t have any analog controls and instead relies on a more traditional menu system. However, rather than just offering a up / down / left / right arrow control pad, it also provides a joystick which can be moved in the same four directions. I was skeptical initially as to how well this would work but after just a few minutes use, I immediately became sold. The key to its success is the fact that by using the joystick you have immediate access to the two most important settings when shooting – aperture and exposure. Although I won’t go into detail, this is because these are the two settings that can influence exposure and image creativity when in Aperture mode – which is the best more for shooting in the vast majority of situations (with the only exceptions when you need to guarantee a shutter speed e.g. sports / long exposure or in the most difficult of exposure situations). Again, it’s out of the scope of this review but I’ll just briefly underscore that Aperture mode is my recommendation for ALL photographers (beginner or otherwise) in almost every situation – if there is sufficient demand, I’ll write an article about that. If you have no idea at all what I’m talking about – I give an introduction here.
Anyway, coming back briefly to the joystick, this little four way jogger works very well. During aperture mode, moving it up / down allows you directly adjust the aperture. Moving it to the left then gives you the same up / down control over exposure. This allows you to bypass the menu system saving valuable time / effort and freeing you up to focus on the subject / composition.
The rest of the menuing system is well laid out (with a few exceptions listed below under “flaws”). But on the whole, this was a camera that was exceptionally easy to learn how to use and almost as easy to master. While not quite at the same level as something like the G9 (or other compact cameras that make intelligent use of analog controls), this is about as close as you can currently get with a menu based system.
Performance
Moving on to performance, I was generally very impressed. Startup time, while not exceptional, is reasonable. The auto focus time is very good – something I’ve always been impressed about with Panasonics – and generally performs well under low light with only a few exceptions. Shot to shot time is excellent and the burst mode is superb. On the subject of burst mode, it’s worth me making a point for the purposes of setting expectations. That is, no compact camera has an auto focus (AF) system that can keep up with a high speed moving target in challenging environments (e.g. pro sports events). For this, even semi pro cameras such as the Canon 40D will only produce a low to moderate percentage of in-focus shots. In actual fact, the pro AF systems of the Canon 1D and Nikon D3 are required to be able to return high % winners in those environments (I detail this significantly in my 1D Mk 3 review). However, what the burst mode on the LX3 is useful for is for when the subject is static in terms of focal length but changing rapidly. An example of that would be for certain portrait shots. An example of such a situation follows in the triptych I put together (these weren’t all from the same sequence, but you get the point):
Another separate case for burst mode would be in low light where the shutter speed is slower – here taking multiple shots in succession can result in much sharper images (best explained in a post titled “Poor Man’s Image Stabilisation” by my good friend and fellow photographer Chuck Inglefield).
As a final note regarding auto focus and use of compacts in general for faster moving subjects, I recommend reading my post Shooting with Compacts – Tips and Advice.
Flaws
Despite the generally excellent handling, there are a few design decisions which I believe could be improved upon. In my week of usage, the issues I found were:
- There is a hard switch to move from camera (regular operation) to play (review). This means that if you’re reviewing an image and want to immediately start switch to camera mode, you can’t just half press the shutter button like with some other cameras – you have to move the hard switch to camera mode first. It only takes a fraction of a second longer but I’d much prefer to see a soft switch mode to review mode.
- Now, having said that, you can access review mode via the functional button (which can be reprogrammed), but now when you use this mode and delete an image it switches you back to camera mode. So for reviewing / deleting multiple images you have to use the hard switch button (so, see previous point).
- There isn’t a dedicated ISO button from available. That would have been a nice feature – particularly as ISO is the fifth menu item down (further than I’d like). You can reprogram the function button to shortcut you to ISO – but then you don’t have a quick access review button (so, see previous point)
- White Balance is the sixth menu item down. This should be much higher up due to the frequency of it being required (particularly to film mode which is currently #1)
- In some cases, I noticed that the image being displayed in the LCD when shooting didn’t always look like the final output from a exposure point of view. As such, I recommend using the histogram in the LCD when in challenging lighting conditions
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If you hold the joystick down, you get access to a quick settings menu which includes ISO, WB, file size and something else I think.
You still need to use the main menu for custom WB.
That should be the same from the LX2/1.
re: "There is a hard switch to move from camera (regular operation) to play (review)."
I believe Review can be moved to the Fn switch on the four way controller. See page 29 of the manual.
Thanks Michael, I'm aware of the hold down joystick shortcut and it works quite well but from a personal point of view, I'd still prefer a direct menu access to it. Not a huge deal – overall I rate the controls as excellent – but would just prefer a more appropriately ordered menu.
John, re Fn shortcut, was aware of the I write about it in the review (and didn't like it because deleting an image switches you back to camera mode).
For performance you should try Ricoh GRD II, I used to have LX2, and very disappointed with time lag for candid shots.
"You still need to use the main menu for custom WB."
When using the quick menu (holding down the joystick), you can scroll to the custom WB settings (two custom and K), and press the "display" button under the directional buttons to adjust the K level and fine tune the WB.
Do you find the lack of an optical viewfinder a problem? Please comment on how you use the screen to compose a shot.
Jerry, re Ricoh – like those cameras. Think the company does an excellent job of providing great compact bodies but have never been a fan of their sensors. In good light they're great though.
Mike, re joystick – thanks, was aware of this. Again, personal preferences will vary and while the joystick is a nice feature I find it faster to go through the main menu (hence my wish for WB settings to be higher up).
Peter, re optical viewfinder and composing. Hard to complain for me on this issue because it's really a question that applies to every compact. No compact camera out there has an internal viewfinder that is much better than pathetic so composing on the LCD is something you kinda just have to live with. The external viewfinders are interesting but I will not be getting one. For me personally, I obviously prefer the big bright viewfinders of my 1D Mk3 and 5D, but I have no problems composing on an LCD screen. I actually prefer it for some situations when being discrete is an advantage (certain occasions of street photography), etc.
The LX3 is slow as molasses when it comes to framing and focusing. It has no value whatsoever for grab shots which are the essence of street photgraphy. The new Canon G10, on the other hand has an optical viewfinder with almost no parallax and for the first time, the shutter lag is almost minimal. It is better than the G9, and puts the LX3 to shame. The fastest street photography digicam point and shoot is still the 4mp Leica Digilux 1. The new Canon G10 is a close second.
Here are 2 samples- both available light- both done by raising the digicam and shooting in one motion, using the optical viewfinder.
http://vroger. smugmug.com/ gallery/6266518_ Ftbgi/1/39554281 2_VwxrF#39552124 2_aqJph-L- LB
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>> http://vroger. smugmug.com/ gallery/6266518_ Ftbgi/1/39552124 2_aqJph#39556121 1_HMxAq-L- LB
Forgive my lack of knowledge here. I am thinking about getting this camera and your review has nearly clinched it. My questions is does the standard burst mode cause any loss of picture quality?
A note. If you use the lx-3 with the "auto pre-focus mode" set to "On" it significantly increase your framing and focusing. With it "Off" the camera does not focus until half shutter, however with it "On" it operates more like a video camera, focusing while you frame the picture and thus is incredibly fast to shoot when you do shoot. For instance, I captured numerous shots from moving vehicles of street scenes in Indonesia. Nearly as fast as the G10.
Frank, thanks for the note. never tried but I think I like that function.
Hello,
Excellent reviews and articles. Could you please briefly explain to me the functionality of the live histogram?
Thanks!
Hi Fred – the histogram basically shows you how well exposed your image is… There are plenty of write ups online that go into more detail – here is an example http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/guides/digital/histogram_101/index.html
Have a quick read of that and let me know if you have any questions.
Not a bad idea for a post topic btw – I’ll see about writing up my own perspective over the next week or so. Cheers, Lawrence
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