Testing 16:9 aspect ratio and P exposure mode in LX3

Lake Bodom, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Bodom-view, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

During the last few years I haven't felt a need for any other aspect ratio for photos than the standard 4:3 of my Ixus 400. (However, earlier I have used an SLR with a 3:2 aspect ratio and an APS compact with a wide aspect ratio.)

Now that my LX3 can produce 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9 photos (even all at the same time), there are possibilities for experiments. This view of Lake Bodom in Espoo, Finland succeeded quite nicely. It was shot as a jpeg with default settings and the P exposure mode. I also made another version, postprocessing the origical in LightZone, aiming for a brighter feeling.

During the first two evenings I used mainly the iA mode of LX3, which compares the scene to a database of different prototype scenes and selects one which it deems best fit. Occasionally the results may be quite creative, but usually the results does not differ much from normal automatic.

Today I switched to the P mode, which I found out to work quite similarly to the standard automatic exposure mode on the Ixus 400. No surprises, no disappointments either. But I feel that the LX3 works a bit better than my old Ixus 400. I didn't need to use exposure compensation at all. With Ixus I usually need to set -0.3 or -0.7 to avoid burning the highlights.