Front (8.0)
The front of the Panasonic LX1 has a fairly plain and moderately refined look to it. This brushed silver digital camera is rectangular with slightly rounded edges. The left side has a protruding finger grip that is about three-quarters of an inch high, covered in a rubber material, and framed in a more polished silver casing. Above the finger grip is the slightly textured Lumix logo. To the right of the grip is the lens with the included lens cap. The plastic cap has the Lumix logo in its center. Protected by the cap is a labeled Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens. Besides the name of the lens manufacturer, the apertures and focal lengths are printed around the edges of the lens: “1:2.8-4.9/ 6.3-25.2 Asph.” To the top left of the lens is an auto focus illuminator, and to the top right is “Mega O.I.S.” printed in red. In the bottom right corner of the front is a gold square plate with a shiny ‘L’ in it.
Back (8.0)
The back of the Lumix DMC-LX1 is in line with the simple-looking front face. The left side of the back is dominated by the large LCD screen, slightly raised, with the Panasonic logo embossed at the bottom of the platform. To the right of the screen is a series of extremely small control buttons. There is a tiny slope in the top right corner of the back that is meant to be a thumb grip, and to its left are nine bumps that give the thumb some texture to hang on to. Between these bumps and the LCD monitor is a small and circular AF/AE Lock button. Directly below it is a tiny joystick that has a circular top and snaps easily in every direction. This joystick is not labeled at all. Below it is the multi-selector, which is composed of five separate buttons visually unified on a slightly raised circular platform. Each directional button has an icon on it and the middle button simply has the Menu label above it. The top button has an exposure compensation icon, the right button has a flash icon, the bottom button reads “Rev” for reviewing pictures, and the left button has a self-timer icon. To the top left of the multi-selector is a tiny LED that flashes when the camera is recording images to the memory card. There are two buttons below the multi-selector; the Display/Power LCD button on the left and the Burst/Delete button on the right.
Left Side (7.5)
With the camera body only slightly more than an inch thick as seen from this side, it’s no surprise that there’s not much here. Only two screws grace the left side of the Lumix DMC-LX1. Also visible from this side, is the focus mode selector on the left side of the lens. A tight sliding switch moves from the normal auto focus mode at the top to the macro mode in the middle and the manual focus mode at the bottom.
Right Side (7.5)
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1 has a wrist strap eyelet at the top of the right side. Although the right side is often thicker on compact models, the LX1 retains its thickness throughout the body. To provide some sort of ergonomic grip, Panasonic included a small finger grip, which extends onto the right side very slightly. Behind this grip is a plastic door with a hinge toward the front of the LX1 and a thumb grip on the other side. The door is not labeled, but beneath it are two jacks for DC in and A/V out / USB cables.
Top (8.0)
From the top, viewers can see the aspect ratio switch on the protruding lens. The sliding switch moves between three settings – 4:3, 3:2, and 16:9. Also on the top of the camera body is the flash switch, on the left side. It opens the pop-up flash, which is housed directly in front of the button and is almost invisible when shut save for a seam in the body. To the right of the flash switch is the Panasonic logo and the DMC-LX1 model name. Above the model name are three holes that serve as both the built-in microphone and the speaker. To the right of this feature is the circular mode dial that is raised and ribbed on its sides. At the dial’s left is a tiny tag mark to show which mode is in use. The following modes are located directly on the mode dial: Movie, Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, Program AE, Automatic, Playback, Scene 1, and Scene 2. The mode dial sticks out slightly towards the back so it is easy to turn with the right thumb.
To the dial’s right is the shiny shutter release button, surrounded by a zoom toggle. The wide end of the lens can be accessed with a push to the left, and a push to the right uses the telephoto end of the lens. This toggle has a knob that sticks out in the front that in theory makes it easier to grip and push right or left. The knob is small and the toggle really doesn’t turn much, so it is actually not as comfortable as it should be. In the front right corner is a small circular button with a shaking hand icon; this button changes the optical image stabilization modes. Below this is the tiny power switch, which is raised slightly but still requires a fingernail to pry it one way or the other.
Bottom (4.5)
As with all digital cameras, the bottom isn’t terribly exciting. The left side has a door that springs open to reveal the slot for the skinny lithium-ion battery and the even skinnier SD memory card. The door is easy to open and close with the clear labels and texture that allows for easy gripping. On the right side of the bottom is the quarter-inch standard tripod mount – located off the lens mount, but almost directly under the flash?
