There is no optical viewfinder on the LX2; all viewing is done with the wide LCD screen, which boasts 100 percent coverage of the recorded frame.

The LCD screen is a large, bright model that is in a 16:9 aspect ratio, in order to fully display the photos taken in the native widescreen mode. However, at 207k pixels, it is not especially high resolution, and the pictures look a little grainy. Details are also a little hard to discern, although you can zoom in up to 16x to check the focus of details. This situation is further exacerbated when shooting in the 3:2 or the conventional 4:3 mode: in these, black bars are added to the sides of the screen. This further reduces the effective resolution of the screen. But, to be fair, pictures don’t look bad and you can see enough to check things like focus and color. It’s just that other cameras have higher resolution screens that look more attractive. For maximum use of the space, the camera allows you to turn the display of information such as shutter speed, etc off by pressing the display button. The polycrystalline TFT LCD screen has a Power LCD mode that adds contrast for shooting in bright lighting and a High Angle LCD mode for shooting above the head.

The small flash pops up with a reassuring thud when you flip the flash button, and fits cleanly into the case when not in use. Panasonic claims a flash range of just under 2 feet to just over 16 feet, and we didn’t see any reason to dispute this in our (very basic) tests. The following flash modes are available: Auto, Auto with Red-Eye Reduction, Forced On, Forced On with red eye reduction, Slow Sync with Red-Eye Reduction and Forced Off. The power level of the flash can also be controlled up and down two stops in one third increments.

The lens is a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit model with a focal range of 6.3 - 25.2mm, which translates to a 4x zoom 35mm equivalent of 28 - 112mm. That range is pleasingly wide at the bottom end, making it easier to take close group shots. It’s also not bad at the telephoto end: while it won’t be enough to photograph vicious animals, it’s long enough for general use. It is possible to extend the length of this lens to a 5.5x magnification by using what Panasonic calls Extra Optical Zoom, where only the center of the sensor is used, then the image is enlarged. The restriction on this is that the maximum image size is 5 megapixels. An additional 4X digital zoom can also be applied to this, but there is a serious price to pay in terms of image quality.

 

The Leica 4x lens is constructed with 9 elements in 8 groups with 3 aspherical elements. To complement the lens, there is an optical image stabilization system with two modes to work continuously or only when recording. The system includes a moving platform with the image sensor on it that shifts to compensate for slight movements of the camera – like when hands naturally shake. We weren’t able to do an extensive test of this feature, but there was a definite improvement in the sharpness of images when it was enabled.