Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 Review
Review Date: October 10th 2005
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 10M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around
4Mb - 5Mb.
Noise
There are 5 ISO settings available on the Panasonic Lumix
DMC-LX2 which you can select at any time if the camera is
in any of the manual exposure modes. Here are some 100% crops
which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
There is virtually no discernible noise at the slowest setting
of ISO 100. Some noise starts to appear at ISO 200, but it's
still a usable speed. At ISO 400 image quality has deterioated
quite a lot as the camera blurs detail to try and hide the
noise, with ISO 800 even worse. You should avoid using ISO
1600 if at all possible.
High Sensitivity Mode
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 has a High Sensitivity scene
mode which promises to reduce blurry images, particularly
of moving subjects indoors, by raising the ISO speed to a
maximum of 3200 and therefore allowing for a faster shutter
speed. This mode allows you to handhold the camera without
using the flash and get more natural results, whilst at the
same time freezing subject movement more successfully. There
are some obvious drawbacks with this special scene mode, notably
a significant reduction in resolution - Panasonic state that
"The picture quality is good enough for printing at the
ordinary 4" x 6" (10 x 15 cm) size". You also
need to select the scene mode and therefore have some idea
about when it is applicable to your subject. Here are some
100% crops which show the noise levels:
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High Sensitivity Mode (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
soft at the default sharpening setting of Standard and benefit
from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
Alternatively you can increase the in-camera sharpening by
choosing the High option.
File Quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 has 2 different JPEG image quality
settings, with 10M Fine being the highest quality option.
There's also a RAW option. Here are some 100% Crops which
show the quality of the various options, with the file size
shown in brackets.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 handled chromatic aberrations
quite well during the review, with some purple fringing present
around the edges of objects in very high-contrast situations
(particularly with trees against a bright white sky).
Macro
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 offers a Macro setting that allows
you to focus on a subject that is 5cms away from the camera.
The first image shows how close you can get to the subject
(in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a
100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 are Auto,
Red-eye Reduction, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro.
and Red-eye Reduction + Slow Synchro. These shots of a magnolia
coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto Flash - Telephoto (112mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, both
the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Reduction option caused
a tiny amount of red-eye (or to be more accurate, purple-eye).
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Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 maximum shutter speed is 60 seconds
in the Manual exposure mode, which is great news if you're
seriously interested in night photography. The shot below
was taken using a shutter speed of 30 seconds, aperture of
f/8 at ISO 80. I've included a 100% Crop of the image to show
what the quality is like. Unfortunately, as you can see, the
results even at the slowest ISO 100 are very noisy with a
lot of detail lost.
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Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 has an anti-shake mechanism,
which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds
than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld
shots of the same subject with the lens set to the same focal
length, aperture and ISO speed. The first shot was taken with
anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here
is a 100% Crop of the image to show the results.
As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are
much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature
really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing
a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
Aspect Ratios
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 offers 3 different aspect ratios;
the following images give you an idea of exactly what is captured
at each setting.
Overall Image Quality
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 produced images of average quality
during the review period. The 10 megapixel images were a little
soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting
of Standard and either require some further sharpening in
an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should set the
in-camera sharpening to High. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2's
dealt quite well with chromatic aberrations, with limited
purple fringing effects appearing only in very high contrast
situations. Macro performance is average, allowing you to
focus as close as 5 cms away from the subject. The built-in
flash worked OK indoors, with little red-eye and good exposure.
The night photograph was poor, with the maximum shutter speed
of 60 seconds allowing you to capture plenty of light, but
images that didn't have much detail due to lots of noise.
Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its
competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding
the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto
end of the zoom range. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2's main
drawback in terms of image quality, however, is noise. The
10 megapixel sensor used in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2 may
result in larger images, but it comes at the cost of noisy
images even at the slower ISO settings. ISO 100 looks fine,
but there's already some noise evident at ISO 200, which isn't
exactly a quick speed, and by ISO 400 details is blurred as
the camera tries to hide the noise. ISO 800 and 1600 are both
something of a last resort.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2
have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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