Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Digital Camera Review

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

Digital Camera Review

Sep 18, 2008 - By Tim Barribeau
2.3 The Lumix DMC-LX3 is Panasonic's newest high-end point-and-shoot camera. Marked by an eye-catching retro aesthetic, the LX3 is designed with photo enthusiasts and professionals firmly in mind. Priced at $500, the camera is armed with the new 1/1.63” CCD sensor, and is meant to deliver lower noise and better low light results. Did it manage to live up to this goal? How did it perform on the rest of our rigorous testing? Read on and find out...  
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Review

Speed/Timing
You want a camera that's quick to start up, can shoot photos rapidly, and with minimal processing delays. To this end, we time a number of functions on the camera to make sure their performance is up to speed. We use a high speed SDHC card to minimize data transfer bottlenecks.
 
Startup to First Shot (7.16)
The Lumix DMC-LX3 had a fairly normal startup time, about what you would expect from a modern point-and-shoot camera. It took, on average, 2.8 seconds from being turned on to taking the first shot. With a start-up time below three seconds, you won't be likely to miss any important shots in the time it takes to power up. Just remember to remove the lens cap.

Shot-to-Shot (9.47)
The LX3 offers two burst modes. There's unlimited burst, which Panasonic claims can take two frames per second, a number we verified in our lab. The other mode captures 2.5 frames per second, but will only take four images at highest quality JPEG. A nice touch is that if you use burst mode with the self-timer, it will take three pictures after the two- or ten-second timer is up.

Shutter-Shot (10.00)
In older generations of digital cameras, there used to be a significant problem with delay between pressing the shutter button, and the shot actually being taken. We still measure this, just to make sure that the  camera has the responsiveness we expect. The LX3 produced such a minute delay between pressing the button and the action occurring, that it was actually too fast to be accurately measured. When you press the shutter, your picture gets taken. End of story.

Processing (7.72)
 
This is a measure of how long it takes the camera to process the photograph you just took, and put a version on the LCD. The LX3 took, on average, a sliver over one second to bring up the preview, which is one of the faster times we've seen, and better than the Canon PowerShot G9, Nikon Coolpix P5100 and Samsung NV40.


 

 

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