Panasonic DMC-LX2

Reviewed September 2006

Interface & Software

Interface

Using a 16:9 aspect ratio LCD monitor that measures 2.8 inches diagonally and is composed of 207,000 pixels, the Lumix DMC-LX2 has more space to display information unobtrusively than other cameras. Indeed, camera settings are displayed clearly, in a mix of text and icons that are mostly aligned at the top of the screen, while a few icons are superimposed on the right and left sides, and at the bottom. Interestingly, when the LX2's aspect ratio is set to 3:2 or 4:3, the camera continues using the entire 16:9 screen, superimposing the camera settings on the black bands that appear on the left and right sides of the monitor.

The same is true for the menus of the LX2, which are also designed to occupy the full 16:9 screen. The greater horizontal space of the monitor result in menus that are more legible and with fewer abbreviations. Menus are likewise clearly organized, and easily understood. Menus always include an access to the Setup options, usually through a second tab, with one exception, the Scene menu which is composed of three sections, the first section being devoted to the selection of the specific scene mode. The Setup menu is at its most complete when the camera is set to the Playback mode:

• Clock Set: allows setting the time and date on the LX2.
• World Time: allows setting a local time and a travel destination time, which then can be used while travelling as the local time can be recorded on the lower part of the frame, instead of the home time.
• Monitor: serves to adjust the brightness of the monitor over 7 steps (± 3 values and the default).
• Guide Line: serves to select whether the camera displays capture information, a histogram, or a more complex guideline overlay than horizontal and vertical lines.
• Travel Date On or Off, serves to select whether the Travel destination time is shown on images or the Home time.
• Auto Review: to choose whether or not the image is displayed immediately post-capture, and for how long (Off, 1 or 3 seconds, or Zoom). When Zoom is selected the image appears full-screen for 1 second, and then zoomed to 4X for an additional 1 second so that its sharpness can be checked. The option is not available with images captured with the Burst or Bracketing modes, or that contain audio.
• Power Save: selects the time delay after which the camera turns off if it is unused (1, 2, 5, 10 minutes or Off).
• MF Assist: decides whether or not the centre portion of the image is magnified as a help during manual focusing, and whether the magnified section occupies only the centre part of the image (MF1), or fills the monitor (MF2).
• Economy: saves battery life by turning off the monitor when the camera is not used for 15 seconds (Level 1), or turns off the monitor after 15 seconds when the camera is not being used for more than 15 seconds, or approximately 5 seconds after taking a picture (Level 2).

• Beep: serves to adjust volume of the sounds the camera produces during operations (Off, Soft or Loud).
• AF Beep: Controls the volume of the sound produced when the camera has auto focused.
• Shutter: serves to set the volume of the shutter sound (Soft, Loud or Off).
• Volume: serves to adjust the playback volume for audio recordings or movies over a range of 7 steps.
• No. Reset: selects whether photo files will be incremented, or reset to 1, when the card is formatted or a new card is inserted.

• Reset: returns all menu options, with the exception of the Date and Time, the Folder Name, the Baby 1 and 2 settings, Travel Date and World Time, all other settings of the SETUP and REC. menus are returned to their original factory settings.
• Highlight: decides whether or not potentially overexposed areas of an image are displayed as blinking when the camera is in Playback mode, or Review mode.
• Video Out (Playback mode only) decides the video out signal: NTSC or PAL.
• TV Aspect (Playback mode only): allows setting the output aspect to either 4:3 or 16:9, depending on the TV to which the camera is connected.
• MF m/ft: selects whether distances are shown in metres or feet when the camera is set to manual focus.
• Scene Menu: decides whether or not the scene menu is shown automatically when the Mode dial is turned to the SCN position, or whether the MENU button must be pressed first.
• Language serves to select the interface language: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, or Simplified Chinese.

Software

In North America the Panasonic DMC-LX2 is supplied with a single CD containing Lumix Simple Viewer, PHOTOfunSTUDIO Viewer, QuickTime, Adobe Acrobat Reader, the USB drivers for older operating systems, ArcSoft's PhotoImpression 5, Panorama Maker 3 and of course SilkyPix's Developer Studio 2.0 SE, which is designed to 'develop' RAW images taken with the LX2.

Lumix Simple Viewer is, as its name indicates, primarily an image viewer and does not allow any image editing. The program starts by presenting a menu which offers options to Acquire Images to PC, View, Print, or Send by E-mail. To view images, these must be "registered" with the program first, a process that involves either importing photos from a memory card or the camera while it is connected to the computer, or from the hard disk. Once imported, images can be viewed easily, either in the presentation shown above, or in a slide show-like mode that even allows seeing the image at 100% scale.

PHOTOfunStudio Viewer (shown at left) is a somewhat more advanced version of the Lumix Simple Viewer.

Still, this is a program that does not allow for editing — aside from resizing, format conversion, batch renaming, and changing the recording date — and which is unable to show Lumix RAW files, leaving the thumbnail areas blank in its display.

SilkyPix's Developer Studio 2.0 SE is a treat when it comes to RAW processing software. While most camera manufacturers tend to be minimalist when it comes to the RAW image processing software, Panasonic supplies a powerful tool.

SilkyPix is ideal to make users discover the power of the RAW format, and the control — using good software such as this — the format offers the user. Developer Studio 2.0 provides a very complete set of tools to process the LX2's RAW images. The tools can be arranged around the work window and moved around as necessary. These tools include controls over exposure, white balance (including a tool to manually select the white or grey point), sharpness, tone, colour, noise reduction, and even correct optical flaws such as vignetting, distortion and chromatic aberration.

Any change or modification made to the image is immediately visible, and a particular set of corrections can be saved so it can be re-applied later. Processed images can then be saved as JPEG with a variable compression level, or as 8 or 16-bit TIFF files.

PhotoImpression 5 starts out by informing the user that a newer version, PhotoImpression 6, is available. Nevertheless, version 5 allows retouching photos (JPEG as well as RAW) using tools to sharpen, brighten images, or change their contrast, saturation, or colour tone. The program can also be used to resize images, or add frames and text, and is capable of performing automatic red-eye correction. Finally it can also be used to create photo albums, and offers a wide range of templates. Still, when it comes to RAW image editing, PhotoImpression 5 does not compare to SilkyPix's Developer Studio 2.0 SE.

PanoramaMaker 3 is designed to stitch together a series of contiguous photos so they can be assembled into a single large image horizontally, vertically or as a mosaic.

QuickTime is to view the video clips recorded with the DMC-LX2.