Panasonic The LX7 - Wow

Iansky

All-Pro
Location
Cotswolds, UK
After having a play with a friends LX5, I had the opportunity to pick up a new LX7 from London Camera Exchange in Bath last Sat, it was a display model so they knocked a lot off and threw in a free case so all in all I saved £50!

It had some juice in the battery so I took some images in Bath (shot in Raw), have to say I am amazed and delighted at the quality it delivers - razor sharp images and the exposures were spot on - a real revelation from such a small camera.

This has now become my daily pocket camera!

Some of the results below:

Autographs.jpg
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Going_down.jpg
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Thanks Tony,

I have to say I am amazed at the quality of image as well as build of this camera, great job Panasonic (must be ready for replacement soon though)
 
Great work as always Ian. The LX7 is my favorite small zoom camera ever. I don't have one any longer because zooms seem to confuse my feeble mind so I use a fixed lens Nikon A instead. There are rumors of an LX8 coming soon with a larger sensor (probably the 1" used in the RX100). If they maintain the quality and speed of the lens and the great features and controls of the camera, it should be great, even if they have to make it a bit bigger overall. But the LX7 will still be as great as it is, which is pretty special in good light and not terrible in low light.

-Ray
 
I recently bought a Panasonic LF1 to get the smaller size (fits in same case as Canon S90/S100), an EVF and WiFi. I've since gone back to the bulkier LX7 as my carry camera on beach hikes and other outings where compactness is important. Still very pleased with the handling and image quality; LX8 would really have to sparkle to unseat the LX7!
 
Thanks Ray & Chuck,

Great to see so many happy with the 7 - there are rumours that the LX8 will have a 1" sensor to match the other players that don't want to venture into micro 4/3
 
I recently bought a Panasonic LF1 to get the smaller size (fits in same case as Canon S90/S100), an EVF and WiFi. I've since gone back to the bulkier LX7 as my carry camera on beach hikes and other outings where compactness is important. Still very pleased with the handling and image quality; LX8 would really have to sparkle to unseat the LX7!

I too have the LF1 but had the LX7 and wish I still had the LX7. The LF1 is now my wife's holiday camera so I'm considering replacing it with another LX7 or RX100 Mk2 (Price will hopefully drop when the mk3 is available). Also the rumors of an LX8 are intriguing!!
 
I [url='https://www.photographerslounge.org/gallery/data/801/The_wish_list.jpg' said:
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Ive lost count of how much i've spent in there !
 
Very nice set Ian, love the b&w treatment on all...but I like this one in particular.

A friend of mine asked my advice recently wanting a really good quality compact at a good price and I had no hesitation recommending he go for the LX7...he has been loving it ever since, he only uses it in the most basic iAuto & jpeg settings and he is still consistently getting pleasing results...but as we photo nerds know, the LX7 in capable hands can produce really excellent results, like yours here.

The idea of a larger sensor LX8 is very interesting....especially if as Ray pointed it, it retains its current feature set, form factor and approximate size. If the LX8 is all of this AND Panasonic do a little further refinement of their already excellent video then it could truly be an 'all in one' compact wonder.


Iansky;186927 [url='https://www.photographerslounge.org/gallery/data/801/Going_down.jpg' said:
Going_down.jpg
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Joe, thanks for the reminder about video. I'm "all in" now with Fuji X series, but their video features are not really competitive with what's available from Panasonic, Sony and others. It would be great to have an all-in-one as you describe.
 
Ive lost count of how much i've spent in there !

Great shop, not sure when the removed the name from above the shop though, I am sure it used to have "Ace Cameras" in large letters in the area above the window certainly last year.........or am I dreaming.

I did pop in there and they had the LX7 for £315 but only had the demo model left, went down the road to LCE and picked up their last LX7 for £299 + free £20 Lowepro case for it so to me a good deal.

I used to enjoy going into the photo shop in the Podium but alas now that is all Waitrose so not sure where that shop went?

Great city for photography though.
 
Great shop, not sure when the removed the bame from above the shop though, I am sure it used to have "Ace Cameras" in large letters in the area above the window certainly last year.........or am I dreaming.

I did pop in there and they had the LX7 for £315 but only had the demo model left, went down the road to LCE and picked up their last LX7 for £299 + free £20 Lowepro case for it so to me a good deal.

I used to enjoy going into the photo shop in the Podium but alas now that is all Waitrose so not sure where that shop went?

Great city for photography though.

Not been into Bath for over 14 years. The shop has not changed . I seem to recall it being London Camera Exchange at least once in its past. The one in the podium was a jessops branch. Ace cameras was in a side street up where the RPS was.
Or perhaps I'm dreaming too .
Anyway Ian. Great images.
I had an LX5 . Loved it, but my thumb hated the jog dial .
 
After having a play with a friends LX5, I had the opportunity to pick up a new LX7 from London Camera Exchange in Bath last Sat, it was a display model so they knocked a lot off and threw in a free case so all in all I saved £50!

It had some juice in the battery so I took some images in Bath (shot in Raw), have to say I am amazed and delighted at the quality it delivers - razor sharp images and the exposures were spot on - a real revelation from such a small camera.

This has now become my daily pocket camera!

Some of the results below:

Autographs.jpg
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I love the subtlety of the top one -- monochrome with just a bit of color at the lamps. Did it naturally occur that way or is that some special in-camera or post-exposure process?

Cheers, Jock
 
Not been into Bath for over 14 years. The shop has not changed . I seem to recall it being London Camera Exchange at least once in its past. The one in the podium was a jessops branch. Ace cameras was in a side street up where the RPS was.
Or perhaps I'm dreaming too .
Anyway Ian. Great images.
I had an LX5 . Loved it, but my thumb hated the jog dial .

Ace it is. LCE is in Cheap Street. My mistake.
Last camera bought from Ace was an FE2 !
 
Congrats! The LX7 is indeed a great camera. I've been happily using mine since Christmas last year, and I'm constantly surprised at how good the images can be. It has the best overall image quality of any small sensor camera I've used over the last few years, including the GRD III and Fuji X10. The raw files play beautifully with Lightroom and the 24mm lens at 16:9 is more like 21.5mm. Not to mention great video.

The only caveats I have about it are the lack of lens cover blades, and the slightly wobbly feeling of the buttons. Raw write times will tie the camera up for a few seconds if you shoot a high speed burst, so a larger buffer would be good, too. Image quality is not as good as a modern aps-c sensor, but in some situations the processed raw output is hard to tell from the Canon 30D with 17-55mm f2.8 I used to carry all the time. That's scary.

The Gariz half case does wonders to improve the handling of the LX7, and the Acmaxx hard screen protector provides much more security for the screen. It slips into the pocket of my jacket or the Lowepro Streamline bag, and lens extension/focus/shooting is very fast and almost silent. This makes it an almost ideal 'museum camera', for when discretion is paramount.

The EVF works very well, and the 11fps burst in raw has been put to good use with marathon runners. I love how the EVF has a click-in lock button, not just something that slides in and could come loose at any time. OIS is so good that you can handhold bracketed shots which you can merge in Lightroom/Enfuse with no problems. It's just so satisfying to have all that in a camera.

The rumoured LX8 would have to retain all of this and offer more for me to want to upgrade.
 
Lovely tonalities. I was in Bath back in 2003 and remember going into a camera shop and leaving some American drool behind. London Camera Exchange sounds familiar, but I can't be sure.
 
After having a play with a friends LX5, I had the opportunity to pick up a new LX7 from London Camera Exchange in Bath last Sat, it was a display model so they knocked a lot off and threw in a free case so all in all I saved £50!

It had some juice in the battery so I took some images in Bath (shot in Raw), have to say I am amazed and delighted at the quality it delivers - razor sharp images and the exposures were spot on - a real revelation from such a small camera.

This has now become my daily pocket camera!

Really nice set, Ian. It is a pretty amazing little camera, especially with that tiny and (as so many experts always remind us) that out-of-date dinky little sensor. So how does it achieve such fantastic results? Ming Thein believes (in his review of the LX7's virtual twin, the Leica D-Lux 6) that it's all about the lens, and he may have a point. The other cool thing is that it's almost semi-pocketable - which allows one to take it many places without thinking about it.

I'm a fellow LX7 owner and devotee incidentally; I bought Ray's from him maybe a year ago, thinking that it would be a nice tiny carry-along camera when I didn't want to take anything else - but I've since discovered that its many virtues occasionally force me to shoot with it instead of other cameras.

Here's a sample of both its low-light capabilities, which I took last year inside an old Mexican cathedral near Guadalajara -

13791359625_bc50c4e8c4_c.jpg
en la Catedral by La Chachalaca Fotografía, on Flickr

Congratulations again on yours - and welcome to the LX7 fraternity!
 
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