Panasonic LUMIX LX10 4K Digital Camera, 20.1 Megapixel 1-Inch Sensor, 3X LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMILUX Lens, F1.4-2.8 Aperture, POWER O.I.S. Stabilization, 3-Inch LCD, DMC-LX10K (Black)

I shoot primarily with a DSLR (the Nikon D7100 is my weapon of choice), but for some time now I have felt the need to have a compact camera capable of taking high quality pictures that I can carry conveniently, particularly on my business travels. In my hunt for a compact camera that I could use during my business travels, I had the following criteria: 1. Compact - ideally a camera that I could carry in my pocket - the LX7 fits comfortably into a larger pocket of a cargo trouser or a jacket pocket, but is not compact enough to fit into a formal trouser or even a pair of jeans. The camera is light, and carrying it around in one hand is very convenient. 2. Picture quality - I wanted a camera that is capable of producing good quality, publishable results. When on business travels, I like taking pictures in my free time as I walk around town, and getting pictures that capture the feel of a place without sacrificing quality is an important consideration. The LX7 scores very high in this respect. In good light conditions, at ISO 80, the image quality is really good. 3. Controls - I wanted a camera where I have complete control over the image making process in a way that is as easy as a DSLR. This means the ability to change aperture, ISO, White Balance, Focus Mode etc. easily. The LX7 exceeded my expectations in this regard - the controls to change image parameters are available via buttons (rather than being buried deep inside a menu hierarchy), which makes changing image parameters fairly quick and easy. The one exception to this is that changing the autofocus spot is a little tedious. The other main strengths of the LX7 are: 1. Fast lens - a maximum aperture of 1.4 allows one to use the lower ISO's consistently, which result in higher quality images. 2. Quick focusing (once you select the autofocus spot - although selecting the spot is a little tedious). 3. Changing from autofocus to manual focus is as easy as flicking a switch. 4. Good battery life. 5. Has a level indicator to keep the horizon level - this is a very useful feature for shooting landscapes. I thought that the main drawbacks of the LX7, after using the camera for a few weeks now, are: 1. Changing the autofocus spot is tedious - in situations where one if looking for a quick candid shot, this is a definite drawback. 2. Noise creeps in at higher ISO's, but this is to be expected. 3. No built-in viewfinder - I prefer looking into a viewfinder when composing, and the fact that I have a look at the screen gets in the way. 4. Screen is not bright enough on a bright day - when shooting in bright daylight, it is challenging to compose a picture by looking at the screen. 5. Temperature range - I was in New Hampshire recently (Oct 2015), and in the shade the temperature was probably 2-4C, and after a little bit the camera would not allow me to zoom and autofocus. After sitting in a warm car for a few minutes, the camera came back to life. When I checked the manual, it said the operating temperature range for this camera is 0C - 40C. This means that one cannot rely on this camera in even moderate weather (0C is not that cold, and 40C is hot, but common in the tropics during summer). Overall, I am very pleased with the LX7. It filled a niche that I had, as I left my DSLR behind during business trips, and my iPhone 5 camera was a poor substitute. For someone looking for a compact, high quality camera that they can carry with them most of the time, the LX7 fits the bill really well. I have included a bunch of pictures with this review (all taken with the LX7). Happy shooting!

I bought this camera while it was on sale for $299 over the Thanksgiving weekend. I had previously purchased and returned ... an Olympus XZ-1 and I was ridiculed ...and accused of being a photographically ignorant individual because I expected a camera to take relatively good pictures consistently ....while simply relying on the program or "intelligent" program modes. I mostly wanted an upgrade to the Canon IS 700 I bought my wife about 6 years ago and spent a substantial amount of time before settling on the Olympus XZ-1. In my review of that camera, I stated ...that I might have gotten a lemon..... and related the consistent underexposure which was worse with flash ...and related that I ultimately returned the camera when I could not even get consistently good pictures setting a custom mode with exposure compensation of +.7 with flash and two f stops without. I was told ....I should use the histogram ...rather than expecting the camera to get a useful photo in one of the auto modes ...... I was told to use manual mode ....like most "camera knowledgeable" purchasers of the XZ-1 would do .....I was told that the picture on the OLED was not indicative of how the picture would look printed or on screen and therefore I should only shoot in raw mode and edit the results if I expected good pictures ......and the list of "I should" went on and on... I explained that I might wait until the XZ-2 came out and hope the metering issues I experienced were resolved. I finally deleted my review because frankly the comments were becoming rather uncivil. Notwithstanding that I purchased the camera for my "point and shoot expert" wife ...I wanted a camera I could exert more control over in challenging or unique lighting situations .....I stated that I thought a good ...electronic metering digital camera should take consistently good pictures without a histogram and in fact without an OLED screen which is truly for the purpose of composing the picture. My wife took pictures on a trip to Canada with her old Canon and the Oly Xz-1 ....the Canon pictures were ...consistently good ...the XZ-1 results were consistently underexposed. I was waiting ....and watching ever since I returned the XZ-1 ...vacillating between waiting on the XZ-2 ....taking a chance on the $650 Sony RX100 ...with a 28 mm wide angle vs 24mm .....with a lens that starts at f1.8 but ends up at f4.9 ......and without a hot shoe or accessory port ...hence no aux flash or viewfinder if needed .... I was also considering the Panasonic ...but I had never owned one ...(Canons ...all the way from F1 ....A1 ...EOS3 ...to the digital I bought my wife) ....and Panasonic doesn't have a long history of building cameras.... I also considered the new SONY NEX6 ...but to match the compact size of the XZ-1 ...I would need the pancake lens and have to forego the zoom ....or haul two lenses and switch between them. Having used manual and then programmable 35mm film cameras over the years....the most attractive feature of the digital cameras ...is the spontaneity of point and shoot .....which also meant compromised picture quality...I would probably still be shooting primarily 35mm on my EOS3 with my Metz 45-CL4 if you could buy and get the film processed conveniently. But...since I married an Asian lady.....I discovered another side benefit of digital cameras ....you don't have to process and print every single picture .....that is a point that may be lost on most American men that don't have wives of Asian descent. But...I digress.....the point of the review should be the LX7 ...so here it is ... It worked perfectly out of the box ....in both iAuto mode and program mode....the colors were good ....the pictures were not underexposed .....the low light ability of the f1.4 combined with 24mm wide angle are ....amazing ....it took my wife all of about ½ hour to conclude we were keeping this one (barring any electronic or mechanical catastrophe in the next few weeks) And this is just based on her initial "point and shoot" expertise. I have only snapped a few shots using the Aperture mode at f1.4 and was equally amazed ...... To sum up....the camera is great....at $299 ...it was an absolute bargain ...I had paid $270 for the XZ-1 before the price drop and would have been thrilled if it had worked as well in person as it sounded on paper.... If you get the opportunity to buy LX7 at $299 again ...I would not hesitate...especially if you can get it from Amazon and have thirty days to try it or return it....I can pretty much assure you .....you will keep it. By the way ...this has a video mode that actually works ...versus the XZ-1 ..... I probably should have had my wife write the review instead of me....she is much less wordy ...having come to the US from the Philippines....her English is quite good but she is much less verbose than I am. In fact ...I can sum up her review ....in three words ......... "WOW" ....and "Holy Cow" ....that's all she had to say! The only ...less than desirable ....point I will note...is the zoom is slower than on other cameras....but then....some of my other choices would not have even had a zoom to match at the size and pic quality I wanted.

Fast delivery and all are good.

Great Camera.

What can I say? In looking for this camera I considered the Sony RX100, The Canon G1X, The Fuji X10, X20 and a couple of others. But this one simply had the form factor I wanted, was small enough to fit into a (decent sized) pocket and had the image quality I needed for a carry-with-me-everywhere camera. Bottom line, 10 megapixels is more than enough if you know what you are doing (plus it doesn't clog my harddrive like my 24MP raw files from other cameras). The 24mm wide is VERY useful if you know how to use wide angle properly. And the camera is infinitely more usable at the long end of its zoom at f2.3, which is a vast improvement over other point n shoots I've owned. You will not get crazy bokeh here. Buy an RX1 or an SLR if that's your end goal. But this is a tidy, sharp, functional, inconspicuous camera that doesn't draw the eye (and attention) like the Fuji X's. Highly recommend.

Ya tengo 2 cámaras grandes y compré esta cámara por que quería una portátil con las capacidades de una cámara semi profesional. Por lo que he probado en un año, está excelente. La cámara toma fotos en RAW o en JPEG, el formato RAW ya es compatible con la app Fotos de Google por lo que puedes subirlas a la nube, y también el formato es compatible con Affinity Photo incluyendo la corrección del lente. Solo en After Shot Pro 3 la corrección del lente no está bien, aunque se puede hacer una calibración manual que queda por default por lo que solo se hace una vez así que tampoco es mayor problema. Por lo tanto, con respecto al formato RAW, es completamente funcional y compatible con el software que utilizo. La cámara permite pasar por wifi las fotos RAW al celular o tablet, esto no es posible en las cámaras sony, en las nikon tiene que ser de una sola foto a la vez, pero con esta cámara puedes pasar todas las fotos RAW juntas por lo que más práctico. Yo creo que todo está muy bien, el diseño, la calidad de los diales y botones, el anillo de control de la apertura, todo se siente premium, los botones son muy personalizables para ajustarse a tus preferencias además de poder configurar botones en la pantalla touch. El desempeño con poca luz es excelente tanto en fotografía como en video por el tamaño del sensor y el lente luminoso, la calidad del video de noche es excelente, con muy poco ruido, además tiene modo de video manual, pudiendo controlar apertura, velocidad (máxima de 1/30 s) e ISO totalmente manual. Personalmente yo no uso el modo de foto 4K ni el modo de múltiple enfoque, creo que estos modos son puro marketing, nunca he tenido la necesidad de usarlos, afortunadamente esos botones son configurables, en el botón 4K configuré el ISO y en el botón del post enfoque configuré el HDR. Algo que me sorprendió es que al girar la pantalla hacia enfrente entra automáticamente a un modo portrait con buenas opciones de filtros, además aún con luz de sol puedes usar f1.4 para hacer un desenfoque del fondo bastante aceptable, esto normalmente es un problema porque puede quemarse la imagen al entrar tanta luz, pero el obturador electrónico extiende al mecánico de 1/2000 hasta 1/16000 s y esto resuelve el problema, la calidad baja notando dientes de sierra si hacemos zoom a la selfie, esto es normal con los obturadores electrónicos, aún así, las selfies con esta cámara son muy superiores a las de mi celular por la calidad general, desempeño en baja luz y efecto de desenfoque. Algo que me sorprendió es que la distancia de enfoque mínimo es de 1 cm aprox, permitiendo hacer unas fotos macro excelentes obteniendo un desenfoque hermoso por el F1.4, por lo que se pueden tomar excelentes fotos a plantas, flores, texturas, miniaturas, etc. En el máximo zoom podemos hacer fotos con desenfoque decente hasta formato medio (cabeza más torso), sin embargo ya en cuerpo completo el desenfoque del fondo es muy ligero, por lo que ya no sirve para esta aplicación. Un problema menor es que la cámara tiene una pila de solamente 680 mAhr que a mi gusto se descarga muy rápido, ya me ha pasado salir de viaje y quedarme sin pila, afortunadamente se carga rápido desde el puerto micro USB, por lo q cualquier batería portátil USB resuelve este detalle. En conclusión, 99% satisfecho, prácticamente tiene todo lo que mis cámaras grandes tienen (a6000 y d7200) en una cámara pequeña, ligera y discreta que cabe dentro de la bolsa del pantalón o la chamarra. Pros: Tiene HDR, Bracketing con un solo toque (excelente), fotos RAW, estabilizador óptico aceptable, video manual, excelente desempeño con poca luz, excelente pantalla táctil con muy buena resolución y buena calidad de colores y nivel de negros, excelente para selfies, excelente para fotos macro, aceptable para retratos con zoom máximo (no se acerca a un 35 mm 1.8 en formato APSC pero aún así las fotos son bastante decentes), incluye los modos básicos de las cámaras semi profesionales (M, S, A, Auto), detección de caras y enfoque al ojo, calibración manual de balance de blancos super fácil. Perfectamente útil para fotos macro, paisajes y retratos hasta formato medio. Contras Obviamente por las características del lente no sirve para telefoto, la velocidad máxima de video es de 1/30 s lo cual es normal en casi todas las marcas pero en las Sony sí es posible ajustar la velocidad hasta 1 s o más, las velocidades de 1/10 o 1/15 crean un efecto muy dramático en video que me hubiera gustado estuviera incluido, la pila es muy pequeña, creo que debería ser de al menos 50% de mayor capacidad aunque al menos se carga rápido por el puerto USB, finalmente algo que sí me molesta es el control de exposición, solo funciona en modo A y S, en Manual se cambia automáticamente a 0 y no hay modo de cambiarlo, esto es molesto ya que al usar ISO Auto yo suelo ajustar la exposición en 0 en ambientes bien iluminados o en el exterior en el día, pero en ambientes poco iluminados o en el exterior de noche me gusta usar la exposición de -1/3 o -2/3 o hasta -1 dependiendo de las condiciones (lo cual permite usar ISO más bajos y obtener una mejor calidad), no entiendo porque no se puede cambiar la exposición en M, solo en A y S como comenté, esto no es normal, tanto mi cámara a6000 como la d7200 me dejan ajustar la exposición en M sin problemas.

I had this camera for a while, and it takes quality pictures. I dont like to have to do a "manual" process to add the date to photos, but so far , so good.