Lens problems with the Panasonic LX3 - should I buy another just in case?

Red shack, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Upside down in a drop, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Tree shapes, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

My LX3 is having more and more problems. Previously, memory cards gave occasionally write errors, which were fortunately curable by reinserting the card. And since going back to shooting jpeg instead of RAW+jpeg I haven't had any problems, so this may be a software problem instead of hardware.

Also, I have noticed that the zoom is no longer smooth, there is a short of abrupt jerk somewhere in the middle of the range. This problem appeared also a couple of weeks ago.

Today new problems appeared. I was out at a playground with the chilren, and took a few photographs of the foggy landscape. But when shutting the camera, the lens didn't retract properlly all the way but instead stuck about 3 mm outside the barrel. I switched the camera on again, and then off, and the same thing happened. Then when I switched the camera on again, it didn't start at all but instead gave instructions to switch the camera off and on again. After a few cycles of this, the camera finally agreed to retract the lens.

At home, when I tried the camera again, it worked as it used to, including that small jerk in the zoom when extending the lens.

But later today I ran into another problem. When switching on the camera, the lens extended, retracted, extended again, and there was a notice on the screen: "system error (zoom)". After shutting the camera (the lens retracted ok) and switching it on again, there was a similar kind of extent-retract cycle, but then the camera started to function properly once again.

The LX3 has been showing problems almost daily now, so I'm afraid it soon needs repair. I have taken slightly under 29,000 photographs with it, so perhaps 30,000 photographs is a kind of limit in the durability. (As in cars, 3 years or 150,000 kilometers...) But fortunately I should be covered by the warranty if the camera soon breaks.

I have been thinking whether I should buy another camera to supplement the LX3. My Ixus 400 is broken (E18 error, stuck lens) and I'm not willing to start shooting film with the Minolta XG-1. And my Nokia E90 cameraphone is probably one of the worst cameras ever in terms of usability.

But what choices are there? The G10 is a possibility, but it is bigger, and there is an f/2.8 lens instead of f/2.0 and more noise that on the LX3. The new Fuji F200 EXR has an interesting sensor, but no manual focusing, and typical Fuji usability problems, such as no histogram display.

Another choice would be the Panasonic G1, but I'm not interested in bigger cameras. Also, I would need several lenses to cover my needs, and currently there are limited choices in the selection. And of course there is no lens giving the same capabilities as on the LX3, from 1 cm macro photography to 24 mm wide landscape photography.

So, buy another LX3 just in case? This seems to be the best choice at the moment, although I would need to pay more that I paid originally for the LX3. (The discount price of 399 euro was a great deal.)

The photographs are from today, showing the wet and foggy/clouded landscape.

Camera reviews - a spectator sport

Beside a church, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Today appeared the long-anticipated Dpreview missive on the Canon G10. The review caused quite a reaction by giving the camera only an Recommended rating.

For me it was quite sad to see another confirmation for the megapixel problem with the G10 - there is too much noise to make it useable over the base ISO. I would very much like to see compact cameras competing in the image quality department, but Canon at least seems to be doing a far from class-leading effort in this area.

It is sad situation indeed that the LX3 seems to be (almost) alone in that sector of the market. When mine at some point ceases to function, I sincerely hope the camera technology has progressed from the current situation, but at this moment there is not much hope for that.

The photo here was taken this evening after it stopped snowing for a while. New white snow is a beautiful thing. Currently it is snowing again - and tomorrow we will probably get rain. So it goes.

Here is for reference a list of Panasonic LX3 reviews, of which the two first are quite recent ones:

• Infosync
• Empty vessel
• Dpreview
• Laurence Kim
• Imaging Resource
• Luminous Landscape
• Digital Camera Resource
• Nargalzius
• Camera Labs
• Digital Camera Review
• DKamera review translated into English
• Let's Go Digital
• Digital Camera Info (DCI)
• LX3 ISO photos --- Imaging Resource "Comparometer"
• Burnblue
• Plemix
• Photoreview
• Pocket Lint
• DIWA labs (measurements)
• Cnet (Asia)
• ePhotozine
• Lawrence Ripsher
• Photography Blog

Would Canon SD880 IS fit my needs?

I haven't really thought about the convenience of the Canon Ixus 400 format, the ease of using an ultracompact digital camera, until now when I have been looking for an upgraded camera. But would I be happy with a camera (Panasonic LX3 or Canon G9/G10), which would not fit nicely into a pocket?

The leaked specifications for Canon SD880 IS are not so impressive, but perhaps they are better than it seems. A wide 28-112 mm 4x zoom would be nice to have, and even though the 1/2.3 inch sensor is nothing to brag about, it just might work at 10 megapixels. And if the camera indeed has a Digic 4 processor, the IQ could be in fact quite good.

Also, I would think that installing a version of the CHDK would be possible, and thus there would be opporturnities for more manual control of the camera. (For Ixus 400 there is not a version of CHDK available.) In this way (and given the quite nice Digic 4 processor), this camera could grow into a quite satisfactory tool.

As a sidenote, the price of LX3 dropped to 464 euro at Cyberphoto.fi, not a bad price, but probably it will still drop a bit here in Finland.

Still thinking about a new camera

I'm still spending time in thinking about a new camera (Panasonic LX3, Canon G10, a micro 4/3 format camera, ...). A new camera would not make a good photographer out of me, but perhaps it would provide some new opporturnities.

Of course, a camera does not make a photo, but it can make it easier (or, in some cases, possible) to take a photo. And a good camera in good hands produces excellent results.

But as I am a novice, there are tens of thousands of photos that need to be taken to learn how to use a camera properly.

Ixus 400 is good enough for me at the moment. During the last 3-4 months I have taken over 6000 photos, of which some have succeeded quite nicely. Not too bad for a 5-year old compact point-and-shoot camera.

Zero new photos for today

Lake vista, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

This was one of the typical Finnish summer days: rain. Also, I was busy at work and at home. There were a couple of times when I saw something nice to photograph, but I didn't have a camera with me then.

This photo is from the weekend trip to the Liesjärvi national park. It was a very nice place to visit, and the mushrooms we gathered there tasted very nice (fried on a pan with onions and pepper).

I'm still eagerly following camera news. Panasonic LX3 seems all the time a better choice, although a Canon G9/G10 wouldn't be bad either. It seems that the Top Shot shop in Finland ran out of LX3 cameras, but it is still on sale (immediate availability) at a couple of other shops.

Panasonic LX3 - sold out already?

One of the two shops here in Finland which was selling the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 has now a notice that it is sold out, and you have to wait for deliveries. Is this an indication of a huge demand, or (perhaps more believably) a question of initial lack of supply from the factories?

In any case, until we know more about the upcoming Canon G10, the LX3 is the best small compact on the market in terms of photo quality (if you discount the Sigma DP1, which really is not in the same class of cameras). And I don't have much hope that Canon really has invested in high-ISO performance on the G10.

Shadow of Canon G10 press release

Canon G10 announced - the press release was later pulled, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Popphoto.com had available a press release on Canon G10 including some specifications, but the document was soon pulled. It still was available at the RSS feed, however. I'm not completely convinced that this is real, but it may well be. Interesting development in any case. I wonder what size the sensor is. If it is 2/3 inch, the noise could be in control. Otherwise, may not be such a hot camera (or, actually, a bit too hot in terms of noise).

See also: the leaked Canon G10 specifications.

Canon G10 specifications leaked?

Perhaps this is wishful thinking, but a discussion at Dpreview claims that Popphoto.com released and then pulled Canon G10 press release. The key points were:

• 14.7 megapixels, Digic 4 processor
  
• ISO up to 1600, lower-resolution to 3200
  
• 5x wide zoom, 28-140 mm
  
• 3-inch 460,000 pixel LCD
  
• RAW support
  

It remains to be seen whether this was the real thing or just a mistake (or misinformation). But if true, certainly an interesting camera.

Enough water

Ducks, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Despite the cloudy and cool weather in Finland this summer, I have managed to shoot about 4500 photos so far. In fact, I almost doubled the number of photos taken with my Ixus 400, and in addition I shot over 100 photos with my Nokia E90 phone. Quite a change compared to the usual rate. In any case, I have enjoyed photography a lot. And there is also a silver lining to the rainy weather - there has been a lot of nice clouds to photograph.

Now, it remains to seen whether I'll invest in a new camera. Previously I was undecided between Panasonic LX3 and the mythical Canon G10, but I just read a review of Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28, which made me really interested. A superzoom has not been on my list of cameras, but perhaps I should consider such a one. And FZ28 seems to be the best there is, especially as the noise issue has improved compared to FZ18.

Waiting for Canon

If Canon obeys the same schedule as last year, they should announce a bunch of compact cameras within 1-2 weeks. Last year the Canon announcement was August 20th. So far Canon has only announced printers and camcorders, so we'll have to see what is coming.

Perhaps thre will be a G10, perhaps something completely new.

The recent Nikon push in the high-end doesn't challenge Canon in the advanced compacts category, and LX3 is a bit marginal from this perspective also. Micro four thirds (4/3) may generate some challenge, but not until some products are announced, and perhaps not even then.

Thinking about cameras - Panasonic LX3, Nikon P6000, Olympus/Panasonic micro 4/3 standard

It seems that this autumn will be hot for serious compact cameras, the so-called RAWsumers. First was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 announcement, then Olympus and Panasonic annouced the micro 4/3 format, and then Nikon announced the Coolpix P6000 camera. Now we are waiting how Canon responds...

About Panasonic LX3: This camera seems to be promising. However, I'm having second thoughs about the zoom range. Perhaps Canon G9/G10 with the zoom range 35-210 mm would fit me best. However, G9 is quite big, and the sensor is a bit noisy.

About the micro 4/3 (mFT) standard: It is definetely interesting that sensor technology ("flat" NMOS sensors) mostly removed the telecentricity requirement, at least it seems to be so. In a way this shows that Olympus et al. made a misjudgement, but on the other hand this open up possibilities for the micro 4/3 standard.

Perhaps we shouldn't expect too much from the first generation mFT cameras, though? However, having an interchangeable lens camera in the Canon G9 size category (or even smaller) is definetely attractive.

About Nikon P6000: A lot of megapixels in a small sensor. I wonder how Nikon can cope with the sensor noise. Perhaps they can. However, there are two additional drawbacks: short battery life (260 shots) and Windows Vista based RAW format. What was Nikon thinking?

Thinking about new camera equipment

I'm getting a bit tired about missed photo opporturnities due to the my current camera, Canon Digital Ixus 400. It is over five years old, a quite basic point and shoot with a couple of more advanced features thrown in. The biggest drawbacks are 1) slow speed, 2) problems with focusing, 3) no real control over focus, exposure etc.

But what are the choices? I have been pondering Canon 450D, Nikon D60, Olympus E-520, and Sony A200 as the most attractive low-end digital SLRs. None of these really attract, mainly due to the size and complexity. The other candidates are basically Panasonic DMC-LX3, Canon PowerShot G9 (or G10, if it is soon released), and the rumoured Nikon Coolpix P6000. I would like to have a compact-sized camera with moderate zoom (starting at 24-28 mm), manual controls, effective image stabilization, and good low-light performace. And speed where it matters: fast focusing and minimal shutter lag.

Unfortunately such cameras don't really exist currently. Perhaps they would eat too much into the profitable market of entry-level SLRs. But I think this is about to change, the prices in SLRs have gone down considerably so that a more demanding users' compact probably will be a good market for manufacturers.