Panasonic is one of the biggest proponents of the micro four thirds format, but up to now it has strictly been the reserve of interchangeable lens cameras. That changed this week at Photokina, when the company announced the Lumix LX100; the first fixed lens camera to use the larger sensor is also the company's new flagship premium compact, so we couldn't wait to find out how it stacks up against the CSCs it borrows so heavily from.
Squeezing full manual controls onto a compact camera is no mean feat, but Panasonic has done so by moving aperture control to the lens assembly and ditching the traditional mode dial. When the Aperture ring and the dedicated shutter speed and exposure compensation dials are all set to automatic, the camera will take control of all the settings, but adjust the aperture manually and it will jump into aperture priority. Adjust shutter speed as well and it will switch to full manual mode. It's very similar in practice to the Fuji X100T, also announced earlier this week, and should mean you dont have to dive into the menus for simple setting changes.
Unfortauntely we don't think the LX100 quite competes with Fuji's £1,000 premium compact in terms of build quality. We think the silver model, which uses a tan leather-effect material for the grip and EVF surround, has a classic retro appearance, although the matte finish around the lens assembly looks and feels a little plasticky for a high-end premium compact. The black version fares better, but we would have liked to see a better finish given the price.
At 115x66x61mm the LX100 is unsurprisingly larger than Sony's RX100 III, which has long been the go-to camera for anyone after a big sensor in a small body, and with the lens fully extended it's beginning to stray into the firing line of larger compacts like Canon's G1 X. However, Panasonic makes up for it with some impressive glass on the front of the camera.
Comprised of five aspherical lenses, a nine blade aperture for clearer bokeh and an aperture range stopped down in thirds, The 24-75mm f/1.7-2.8 Leica lens was designed specifically for the LX100's smaller scale compared to traditional Micro Four Thirds cameras and to accomodate the multi-aspect ratio concept last seen on the GH2. It supports 3:2, 16:9, 1:1 and 4:3 ratios, which can be selected with a switch on the lens barrel, and although none of them will use the entire 16-megapixel resolution of the sensor, it ensures it always uses the sweet spot of the lens.
You'll be able to compose your shots using the 2,764K dot live viewfinder (LVF), which has a refreshingly larger 0.7x equivalent magnification, or the 3in rear LCD. Unfortunately the screen is fixed, meaning no tilting to get those high or low shots, but more annoyingly it's not touch-sensitive. The much smaller GM5, which was also announced at Photokina manages to include a touchscreen, so its omission here is slightly puzzling - even if there are enough physical buttons to get the job done.
Image quality remains to be seen, as we weren't able to take our test shots away with us from Photokina, but with the same sensor as the excellent GX7, it should wipe the floor with smaller sensor compacts. We were impressed with its speed, which is mainly thanks to the same picture engine used in the flagship GH4. This also lets the LX100 shoot 4K video at 30 frames per second and pull full resolution stills from your footage, or shoot stills at up to 11fps - impressively fast for a compact.
You can currently pick up Sony's RX100 III for around £700, so the LX100 is very keenly priced with a £799 RRP pre-order. Expected to arrive in the UK on the 16th of October, we'll have to wait until we get a final model in for review to see whether it can rival established high-end cameras from the likes of Sony and Canon. With a viewfinder, zoom lens and significantly larger sensor, we can definitely see some promise, so we can't wait to properly put one through its paces.
