Panasonic LX3 - settings, RAW etc.

Leaf, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

I got a question about the LX3 settings I'm using, and I wrote a short reply. Here are some further thoughts.

I have been experimenting with the LX3 settings, but all the time less and less, except for certain adjustments which I'm doing when the sitution demands. I'm currently using standard film mode with nr turned down (-1 or -2) and contrast slightly up or down depending on the situation (for example, if there is snow or not). And I have almost always relied on the automatic white balance.

Sometimes I'm also using PSE in post-processing to remove the color cast, if there is such. With LX3 firmware 1.1 there is less need for that.

I have done some experiments with RAW, tuning the color temperature in Silkypix, but so far I haven't found much benefit to that in terms of color balance compared to the jpeg workflow.

But since a week or so ago I have started to shoot in RAW+jpeg instead of just jpeg, thanks to getting a 8 GB SDHC (class 6) card for the LX3. There is plenty of room for the photos from one day. Previously I was using two 2 GB cards, and one was usually enough.

I was thinking that using RAW would have some impact on the usability of the LX3, but I can shoot pretty much as previously. There is a slight impact on the preview speed. I'm using the function button for preview; it might be that the camera is now using the RAW file for generating the preview. Also, the camera shuts down slower when there is data to be saved in the buffer.

The biggest problem with my shooting style - of taking several photos of the same subject in quick succession - hasn't proved to be a problem, as the camera seems to be able to write RAW+jpeg to the card fast enough.

The photo here is from today. I overexposed this on purpose, making it even more overexposed in post-processing. This is very much non-typical for me, but I have decided to try out new things, for example deliberate over/underexposure.