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Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1S
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More…- Spec Navigator
- Image Processor
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Image Processor
| Number of image sensor pixels | 8.61 megapixels |
| Image sensor | CCD |
| Maximum horizontal image resolution | 3840 |
| Maximum vertical image resolution | 2160 |
| Image sensor size | 0.61 inches |
| Image sensor quantity | 1 |
| Image format |
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| Number of resolution modes | 11 |
| White balance |
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Exposure Controls
| Bulb setting | No |
| ISO equivalencies |
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| Exposure settings |
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| Metering characteristics |
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| Number of scene modes | 14 |
Lens Features
| Optical zoom | 4 X |
| Maximum zoom | 16 |
| Digital zoom | 4 |
| Minimum focal length | 6.3 |
| Maximum focal length | 25.2 |
| Minimum aperture | 8 |
| Maximum aperture | 2.8 |
| Minimum focus distance | 1.96 |
| Lens mount | Fixed |
| Focus features |
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Video
| Maximum video capture resolution | 640 x 480 (VGA) pixels |
| Maximum frame rate | 30 |
| Video capture format |
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Average Megapixels For an Advanced Camera
This advanced camera has an average megapixel count for its class. You can print images from an 8- to 10-megapixel camera at sizes up to 8 by 10 inches with no loss in quality; at 13 by 19 inches, however, prints will lose a slight amount of detail. As the pixel count on an image sensor increases, so does its tendency to produce images plagued by noise--ugly speckling patterns. To avoid noise, look for a camera with the lowest pixel count that still serves your output needs.
Average-Size LCD Screen
This model's LCD screen is of average size for an advanced digital camera. It’s tempting to think that bigger is better, but there are advantages to having a modest-size screen. What you lack in big-screen bang may likely come back to you in longer battery life: Powering a big, bright LCD takes a lot of juice. When a camera's LCD screen has its only viewfinder, you need to make sure that you can see it easily in bright daylight and in very low ambient light. Use the LCD screen to judge the composition of your images but not to gauge color and exposure. For color and contrast, histograms of your images are much more reliable--and most cameras these days provide them.
Smaller-Than-Average Optical Zoom Range
The optical zoom range on this camera is rather limited, though it should certainly be adequate to handle everyday situations such as snapshots, group pictures, and typical informal photos. Telephoto power suitable for casual sports or nature photography starts at about 10X optical zoom; wider-angle options are appropriate for architectural or landscape photos. A typical camera offers a focal length range that’s roughly equivalent to 35mm to 105mm on a 35mm film camera. At the wide end (the 35mm, in this case), it shoots a bit wider than what you see with your eye. At the telephoto end (the 105mm, in this case), it can zoom in a good deal closer than you’d be able to with the naked eye--but nowhere near as close as a specialty camera designed for sports or nature photography could.
Low Continuous Shooting Speed
When a camera is in burst (or drive) mode, it will continue to shoot as long as you hold down the shutter button. How quickly a particular model takes pictures in this mode depends on its continuous shooting speed, measured in number of frames per second (fps). This camera has a relatively low continuous shooting speed. With a burst speed of less than 2 fps, a camera won't be able to record a series of subtle shifts in expression when photographing people, but its odds of capturing a desirable sports or entertainment moment aren't bad.
RAW Image Format
RAW is an uncompressed format for preserving graphics files. This camera can store images as RAW files, which are smaller than TIFF files. RAW files often permit restoration of images that have overexposed highlight areas; also, you can ensure that your camera will store the full range of color it captures. You'll need special software on your computer to deal with RAW content, and shooting in RAW format can slow down your camera. Some cameras with RAW capabilities let you choose from among several resolutions, so you can shoot RAW files at smaller pixel dimensions. That way, if you don’t need the full resolution of your camera, you can shoot RAW photos while saving space on your card.
TIFF Image Format
This camera is capable of storing images in TIFF format. Like RAW-format images (but unlike JPEG images), TIFF images remain uncompressed, which means that you don’t have to worry that the camera may throw out valuable image data. If you regularly edit your photographs, uncompressed graphics files are a better way to go. On the other hand, TIFF images are much larger than JPEG images. Consequently, you’ll need more storage for TIFF files, and your camera won't be able to store images as quickly. Your time between shots could be longer as well.
JPEG Image Format
All digital cameras can capture JPEG images. The JPEG compression process greatly reduces the amount of storage an image requires, and JPEG images transfer quickly from your camera to your computer. JPEG compression is a lossy algorithm, however, which means that saving an image in JPEG format degrades its quality. The high-quality JPEG settings on most cameras are quite good, and it's difficult to spot differences between a JPEG compressed image and a noncompressed image. Still, if you like to edit your images, you may want to upgrade to a camera that also supports a noncompressed (lossless) format, such as TIFF or RAW.
High Maximum Frame Rate for Video
The video mode on this advanced camera has a high maximum frame rate. Ideally, a camera's video mode would capture video at 30 frames per second (the frame rate of video you see on TV). At this frame rate, output would be of good quality, and you’d be able to intercut it with video from a camcorder and not see a big difference in smoothness of motion between the two clips. Movies, on the other hand, have a frame rate of 24 frames per second, and you need a rate of about 18 frames per second to record video with synchronized sound. A faster frame rate makes for smoother pans and smoother capture of fast-moving objects.
Great For Macro Photography
This model has a better-than-average minimum focus distance, meaning that it can focus on subjects very close to the lens--great for macro photography. To test the unit's minimum focus distance, position it very close to a subject, and press the shutter button halfway down to focus; if the camera never beeps to indicate that the image is in focus, you are closer than the camera’s minimum focus distance. If this happens, switch the camera to macro mode and try again. If the camera won’t focus even in macro mode, you can sometimes zoom in or out to get it to lock into focus.
Supports Center-Weight Metering
The light meter controls how long the shutter stays open and how large the aperture is--two variables that are critical to image quality. The default meter on most cameras is a matrix meter, which divides your scene into a grid, gauges the light in each cell of the grid, and then averages the results to come up with a final metering value for the shot. This model, however, uses a center-weight meter, which works like a matrix meter but pays more attention to the cells at the center of the viewfinder. This approach to metering can help greatly with backlighting complications.
Supports Spot Metering
A camera's light meter controls how long the shutter stays open and how large the aperture is--two variables that are critical to image quality. This SLR features spot metering. A spot meter gauges the necessary aperture and exposure time for a shot by measuring one spot in the scene you are photographing--usually a very small one. A spot meter is useful for dealing with backlighting complications and scenes that have a very wide dynamic range (a big variation in brightness or darkness) because it ensures that the exposure will be appropriate for certain specific details in the scene.
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
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Reviewed by: jules771
Strengths: great lens, 16:9 ratio, 3:2 ratio, fast, quiet
Weaknesses: severe noise at all ISO settings
Overall: The camera feature set is very good but the amount of noise in the images is just plainly unacceptable. In Photoshop, if you enlarge the image to even just 50% you can see quite clearly how bad this problem is. It's a shame that Panasonic didn't take more care with the CCD because the rest of the camera is quite good.
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Reviewed by: jmhamer
Strengths: Small/lightweight yet still included most features of larger SLR-imitations such as wideangle, image stabilization, 8megapixels, strong optical zoom, video, etc.
Weaknesses: None significant. No viewfinder, a few desirable functions not available in fully-automatic (beginner) mode, display not very well protected. The SD card could be larger.
Overall: I finally abandoned my 15 year old very high end SLR for a tiny camera that does 99% of what it did. I reasearched the heck out of several hundred camers before settling on this one. Far and away the best consolidation of virtually all the features you might ever want and in a very tiny package. The best wide-to-telephoto optical zoom range plus image stabilization and 8mp. If you're serious about lots of pictures or movies, buy a 1 or 2 gb SD card for it.
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Reviewed by: pcderic
Strengths: - Very quick access to manual and automatic features- Auto-replay include quick zoom (to check focus)- Awesome 16:9 photo compositions- Live Histogram
Weaknesses: - Noisy pictures at ISO 200-400 but fastest pic-to-pic speed (no time wasted with noise reduction)- No viewfinder (but LCD is clear enough)- Zooming is a bit slow (makes startup also slow)
Overall: If you buy this camera, also purchase NeatImage for 30$ (Home Ed.) or something similar such as Noise Ninja. The resulting images will be better than most camera because the software noise reduction is better than what most digicams do. The purchased version of NeatImage allows me to keep the EXIF details (from original file to cleaned-up file) and batch process the noise reduction. You can also use the NeatImage plugin (for a little more $) into Photoshop if you plan on taking pics in RAW (combined with the free Adobe Camera Raw add-on to Photoshop).
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