Panasonic has released a new version of the firmware for for the Panasonic LX3. The description for version 2.20 is short and cryptic: "Optimization of software processing. Change in software version has no effect on camera performance."
Well, I upgraded from 2.10 to 2.20 with no noticeable differences in camera operation or image quality.
One hiccup: In my custom mode C1 I have turned off the automatic preview of images. After the upgrade to 2.20 the camera was set to 2 second preview. I changed the C1 setting back to no preview, and the camera works as I want again. This same hiccup has happened previously with another firmware version.
There are some conspiracy theories about the firmware upgrade, for example that it will "downgrade" image quality to make LX5 look good, and that it will enforce using Panasonic (chipped) batteries instead of third party parts.
Well, image quality seems to have survived intact. And my 3rd party battery works as usual, no need to worry on this front.
One further point about the Panasonic LX5. It appears that the price for the camera will be 500 euro here in Finland (well, the cheapest offer is 499). This is yet to be confirmed, as the camera is not yet available for delivery. But you can get the LX3 for 370 euro, which is quite a good price. If my LX3 would break at some point soon, I would be very much tempted to get the LX3 instead of the LX5.
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St. Johns River at Mandarin
6 hours ago
7 comments:
I absolutely love #1. It's incredibly well balanced. Astounding how far you got with the square in such a short time. Hmm ... you shoot squarish, do you? I mean, you see the square while composing, right?
Andreas, yes, that's a fine feature of the LX3 - you can switch to square and really see what you do.
I do admit I can't in the normal 3:2 aspect ration DSLR viewfinder.
Re. #1 - I second that. Just fabulous! And I never wanted to go back to a small sensor camera because of the lack of shallow-DoF possibilities. Juha proves that this is just a preconception.
hi, i have a question for you:
i have an lx3 too, i came from a DSLR (canon eos 350d+stock 18-55) and i wanted a pocket camera that make me able to don't miss a shot, i'm overall satisfied with the lx3 especially with the b/w modes but when it comes to colours i'm a little disappointed. what settings are you using in your photos? are you shooting in raw and postprocessing every shot?
thanks,
fabio
@Andreas and Markus: Indeed, you can see the 1:1 image on the LCD and compose it there. However, in strong light it is sometimes a struggle to see what is on the screen, sometimes you can only see general features and not much details. But #1 was taken from inside a forest, so no trouble there.
The LX5 has the 1:1 aspect ratio directly on the switch on the lens barrel, on the LX3 you need to use the menu to switch to the format. I have stored it as one of the custom settings.
@Anonymous: I don't shoot raw, I use direct jpegs from the camera, usually no post-processing at all. (However, I sometimes shoot a bit "to the right" to get the darker shades exposed well and then decrease the exposure a bit in iPhoto.) I used to do quite a lot more postprocessing in LightZone and Photoshop, but no longer.
Currently I'm using for color images the "STD" film mode with noise reduction at -2. (Sometimes I set saturation to +1.) For black-and-white images I use the dynamic black and white mode.
Originally I was attracted to his subject because of the "autumn colors" (caused by the heat the the drought), but then I noticed some possibilities in using the field behind as a nice uniform background.
One more note about the square: I remember reading on Mark Hobson's site that he learned the square by taping a square on the LCD on his camera, until not needing the help any more, but didn't find this information on his site although I did quite a few searcher. Maybe I'm mistaken.
Got this from the upgrade site itself, Step 1
"The firmware update is not necessary if the current firmware version on your camera is Version 2.1."
Hmmm, what gives?
@Anonymous: I think versio 2.20 has identical functionality than 2.10, what it contains is some internal cleanup and code optimization, which probably is not visible to the user.
Apparently Panasonic has been shipping firmware version 2.20 in the new LX3s for some time already.
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