Kevin Chiu

Panasonic DMC-LX3

On Flickr:

I ordered one from Abe’s of Maine for about $100 below retail using a coupon code from retailmenot.com. The catch? Waiting time measured in MONTHS!

I recommend getting it from Amazon. Where shipping is free, and the listing price is already 100 below retail.

Key bits from the DPreview Review:

• 24-60mm equiv lens with 2.5x optical zoom and up to 3.8x Digital Zoom
• f/2.0-2.8
• Optical Image Stabilizer
• Program, Shutter-Priority, Aperture-Priority and Manual Exposure Modes
• Hot shoe
• RAW
• 1/1.63-inch 10.1 megapixel sensor
• Retro Sexy

The LX3 is an example of a species so endangered that the we were beginning to worry it had become extinct – a compact camera that photographers can get excited about. Panasonic has included a large degree of direct control, classy styling and, more importantly, a specification that goes beyond the unthinking ‘larger screen and more megapixels’ trend.

It’s hard to tell what we’re more impressed by – the ambitious lens or the decision to sit back and spectate during this round of the megapixel race. If pixels aren’t just to become clutter on your hard drive, they must contain useful information and we’ve seen too many compact cameras that produce images that need to be down-sized to bring them up to standard. The LX3 may not have the eye-popping resolution of some of its peers but instead it’s one of the best high-ISO compact cameras we’ve seen.