First impressions of my Panasonic LX3

Keys, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I got today my Panasonic LX3 camera - finally but also a bit surprisingly, as it was supposed to be shipped today. I feel both happy and worried. Happy that I have a nice new camera to try out. Worried that there seems to be so much to learn.

The construction is robust (the slim battery cover doesn't matter too much). The buttons are small but metallic and will probably survive even rougher handling. And the black color was a good choice, even though fingerprints may be quite visible.

The 24 mm lens is really wide. I didn't really expect this, as I'm mainly used to the 36 mm on my Ixus 400 (and earlier to the 50 mm on my Minolta XG-1). The wider lens will require getting used to - I have to get much closer to the subject when taking photos. I feel that for landscapes the wide lens will definitely bring a new perspective, so I'm eagerly waiting to try it out.

There is some noise at ISO 400, and increasingly at ISO 800. Thus a LX3 is by no means a substitute to a DSL with a much bigger sensor.

But I haven't yet tried out the settings, so I'm not quite sure what is the best quality you can get with this camera. There is so much to try out, it will take some time.

This photo was taken with Panasonic LX3 of the iMac keyboard (which apparently has a lot of dirt on it). The wide lens and relatively shallow depth of field is quite visible. This was at night in artificial lighting, not an easy task for a camera.