The Panasonic DMC-LX2
is the update of last year's DMC-LX1, the first camera designed
to take advantage of the 16:9 format that is gradually replacing
the standard 4:3 we'd been used to with televisions and monitors.
Panasonic gives the LX2 an increase in resolution to 10.2
megapixel, and a 2.8-inch LCD monitor with a 16:9 ratio.
The exterior of the DMC-LX2 is metallic, thin, and feels both solid and luxurious.
The camera is available in a silver finish (DMC-LX2S), or
in black (DMC-LX2K) in many countries. Worth noting, only
the black version of the LX2 will be imported into Canada.
The stubby lens barrel dominates the front of the camera,
and when the LX2 is powered On, the 4X zoom deploys in approximately
1 second, extending 3 cm (1.17 in.) past the lens barrel.
The top right of the camera supports no less than 5 controls.
Starting on the right:
The power switch.
The Mega OIS button, the LX2's optical image stabilizer,
identified by ,
and which offers two modes:
Mode 1, which stabilizes the image continuously.
Mode 2, which is the most effective, stabilizing
the image only at the moment of capture.
The shutter release, a standard 2-stage release
that activates the auto focus and locks it if maintained
at the halfway point.
The zoom control that rings the shutter release.
As usual, with the LX2 in Playback, when the control is
pressed towards the W,
it will present captured images with either 9 thumbnails
per screen, or 25, or as a calendar view that shows the
dates on which photos were captured. And when pulled to
the T
side, it allows zooming into an image displayed on the monitor
up to 16x.
Next is the Mode Dial,
which has 9 positions, starting with the Scene modes:
Provides access to the
LX2's 18 Scene Modes. The Scene modes are selected
using the Menu button (see further), which displays
a list of all the scene modes, and as each icon representing
a mode is highlighted by the cursor it becomes animated:
Portrait
Soft Skin
Scenery
Sports
Night Portrait
Night Scenery
Self Portrait
Food
Party
Candle Light
Fireworks
Starry Sky
Beach
Aerial Photo
Snow
High Sensitivity
Baby 1
Baby 2
Auto Mode is an entirely
automatic shooting mode — a point-and-shoot mode
— that gives the user control over the image size
and quality, the use of the digital zoom, but leaves all
other options to the camera's programs.
Playback displays the
photo, or the first frame of a video that was last captured.
Program AE lets the
camera select the aperture and shutter speed, but allows
the user to modify it with the joystick (see further)
by selecting another combination of aperture and shutter
speed that would result in a correctly exposed image.
Aperture Priority AE
offers control over the aperture (from f2.8 to f8 at the
wide angle end and f4.9 to f8 at the telephoto end) while
the camera matches it to a shutter speed.
Shutter Priority AE
provides a range that covers from 1/2000 second to 8 seconds
when the zoom is at the wide angle end and 1/1300 second
to 8 seconds at the telephoto end, while the camera matches
the selection to an aperture.
Manual Exposure Mode
provides control over both the shutter speed and the aperture,
and offers shutter speeds that range from as fast as 1/1000
second to as long as 60 seconds, whatever the zoom position,
and an aperture range that is the same as the Aperture
Priority mode.
Motion Picture Mode
allows capturing video clips with sound (mono). Two
image aspect ratios (see further) are available:
4:3 Aspect (compatible with traditional
televisions) captures video clips at:
VGA (640 x 480 pixels) at either 30
or 15 frames per second, and requires the use
of an SD memory card.
QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) also at either
30 frames per second or 10 frames per second,
but can be saved using the internal memory.
16:9 Aspect (HDTV) requires the use of an
SD card, and captures any one of three movie formats:
1280 x 720 pixels at 15 frames per second.
848 x 480 pixels at 30 frames per second.
848 480 pixels at 10 frames per second.
During recording, the zoom, focus and aperture are
fixed at the first frame.
Print Mode serves to
connect the camera directly to a PictBridge compliant
printer and print images without the need of a computer.
Just like the LX1, the LX2
is designed to capture an image with the same proportions
as HDTV, the upcoming standard, instead of the traditional
4:3 aspect ratio that is common to older televisions and monitors.
As noted above, the CCD used in the LX2 has a 16:9 ratio,
and therefore that is its primary image ratio, and all other
ratios cause the appearance of black bands on either side
of the monitor. Nevertheless, it is able to crop the sides
of the image to match the proportions of either 4:3 displays
or of common photographic printing papers, themselves evolved
from the 35 mm film format, a 3:2 format.
The format selector is placed on
top of the lens barrel, making the selection of the aspect ratio
extremely simple, and checked at a glance.
On the left side of the lens
barrel, another selector, the Focus Switch, is dedicated
to the Focus Mode. It has three settings:
AF: standard auto focus mode, which allows the
camera to focus over a range of 50 cm (1.64 ft) to infinity
when the zoom is at the wide angle end, and 120 cm (3.94
ft) to infinity at maximum telephoto.
AF Macro: allows the camera to focus on a subject
as close as 5 cm (2 in.) when the zoom is a the widest angle,
and from 30 cm (1 ft) onwards when the zoom is at the telephoto
end.
MF: Manual Focus, which offers the same broad focusing
range as the macro mode. The camera displays the focus distances
(in either meters or feet) on the right side of the monitor,
and magnifies the central portion of the image to help the
user focus.
On the left side of the LX2's
top, a simple mechanical switch controls the release of the
pop-up flash. The DMC-LX2's flash release is entirely manual,
and the flash will not operate — even in the Scene modes:
a message is displayed on the monitor that says "Please
open the flash" — until it has been opened.
The LX2's built-in flash has a range that starts at 60 cm
and extends to 4.1 m (from 1.97 to 13.5 ft) when the CCD sensitivity
is set to Auto and the zoom is at the wide end. While at the
telephoto end, the range extends from 30 cm to 2.3 m (1 to
7.55 ft).
The rest of the external controls
are on the back of the camera, on the right side of the 2.8-inch
16:9 aspect ratio LCD monitor composed of 207,000 pixels.
The uppermost button is the
AF/AE Lock, which by default locks both exposure and
focus when pressed once, and release them when pressed again.
And, if desired, an option of the capture menu allows setting
the AF/AE Lock to lock only the focus, or only the exposure
(see the Characteristics section of the review).
The DMC-LX2's Joystick is next. The joystick serves
to modify parameters such as aperture and shutter speed when
the camera is set to S, A, or M, and
combinations of shutter speed and aperture when it is set
to P. In addition it is used to adjust the focus point
with some focus modes, or adjust the exposure compensation,
or set the focus distance when the camera is set to Manual
Focus, and even go from one image to another in Playback.
Finally, the joystick also
offers a direct access to a shortcut menu when it is pressed
in straight for more than a second. The menu, displayed superimposed
across the top of the image, allows making changes to:
AF mode,
metering mode,
white balance,
sensitivity,
image size,
image type.
(see the Characteristics section of the review
for details about these settings).
Next down is what the camera's
manual refers to as the Cursor buttons, which is a
group of four curving buttons with one at the centre. The
buttons are labelled with an arrow, and on their surface,
an icon indicating their additional function, which for three
of them displays a short menu from which the setting is selected.
The one at the centre labelled MENU and SET
displays the menu that corresponds to the current mode, and
also serves to confirm changes.
Starting with the up arrow, it offers four additional
functions, each selected by a press of the up arrow button.
The functions available are:
Exposure Compensation over a range of ±
2 EV in 1/3 EV increments.
Auto Bracketing which captures 3 frames,
one at the evaluated exposure, one underexposed by
the selected amount, and one overexposed by the same
amount, selected from a range of ± 1 EV in
1/3 EV increments.
Flash Exposure Compensation also over a range
of ± 2EV
Backlight Compensation, which only operates
when the camera is set to the Auto shooting
mode.
The right arrow
serves to select the Flash mode, but only if
it has been manually opened: Auto, Auto with Red-eye
Reduction, Forced On, Slow Sync. with Red-eye Reduction.
Forced off is assumed if the flash is closed.
The down arrow starts
the Review mode, which displays the last captured
image for 10 seconds. And in this mode, while it is
possible to magnify an image up to 8X, the Playback
menu cannot be accessed.
The left arrow displays
the Self-timer options: a 10-second self-timer,
or a 2-second self-timer.
The last two external controls
of the DMC-LX2 are those located below the Cursors. The button
on the left DISPLAY controls the information superimposed
on the monitor, either in the capture modes or in playback,
and the brightness of the monitor itself:
With the camera set to a capture mode, the button
cycles through the default display which indicates all the
basic camera settings; then adds a real-time histogram;
then removes most of the superimposed information, replacing
it by a composition grid; then removes the grid leaving
only the indication for the AF area; finally returning to
the default display.
And with the LX2 set to the playback mode, the default
display shows basic information about the photo under review
(file number, resolution, image type, battery state and
shot date/time). Pressing the button once adds the image's
histogram along with shooting data (aperture, shutter speed,
ISO and flash mode). Pressing the button again clears all
superimposed information from the image.
The same button also controls the LCD Mode, if it
is held pressed for more than 1 second. Three modes are available:
Off, the default.
Power LCD, which increases the brightness of the
LCD so it can easily be seen outdoors.
High Angle, which further increases the brightness
of the monitor, making it possible to see it clearly while
it is held at arms length above head; useful to take pictures
over obstructions.
The button on the right is only identified by icons:
When the camera is set
to a capture mode, the button displays a short
menu from which the Burst mode can be selected:
High Speed captures
5 images at the highest JPEG image quality and the
highest resolution at 3 frames per second.
Low Speed captures
5 images at the highest JPEG image quality and the
highest resolution at 2 frames per second.
Unlimited captures
JPEG images at 2 frames per second for as
long as there is space on the memory card.
And when the DMC-LX2 is set
to the Playback or the Review modes, the
button serves to delete images, either one at a time,
or those that were selected using the Index (thumbnail)
view.
Aside from a higher resolution,
and an LCD monitor that has the same aspect ratio as the CCD,
the differences between the earlier DMC-LX1 and the LX2 are
minute. Changing settings on this new model is more practical
than it was with the LX1, simply by the use of short menus
for settings such as the flash, self-timer, and burst mode,
as the range of options appear immediately when the button
is pressed instead of having to press the button repeatedly
until the correct setting is shown on the monitor. Similarly,
the joystick is clearly more responsive than it was on the
LX1.
Introduction
,
and which offers two modes:
,
it will present captured images with either 9 thumbnails
per screen, or 25, or as a calendar view that shows the
dates on which photos were captured. And when pulled to
the T
side, it allows zooming into an image displayed on the monitor
up to 16x.
