It was time again for a point and shoot camera. Which one? I was going forth and back between the Canon G10 and the Panasonic Lumix LX3.
They are similar in many ways and I would consider them both top of their class.
Here are my reasons for choosing the Panasonic LX3 over the G10. The most important feature to me was the capability to shoot raw as well as a full manual mode. Both can do that, same with video, however the LX3 offers a few additional features that – to me – mattered a lot:

• The LX3 can shoot HD Video – important to me for this blog
• a max. exposure time of 60 seconds – the G10 just offers 15 secs. Not enough for long exposure nocturnal photography, such as city shots at night
• a full stop faster lens (f/2) which is amazing for such a little camera – in low light situations it will make the difference between shooting ISO 200 and ISO 400 for example (and noise is a big problem with those little sensors)
• 24mm wide angle. Does not sound much different to a 28mm lens. But in the world of a landscape or architecture photographer this is a huge difference
• High quality Leica lens – as good as it gets

Initially I was really missing a viewfinder. However it seems the the viewfinder of the G10 is pretty much unusable.
So there you have it. On a trip to Italy I will test this little camera extensively and I am quite happy to leave my big guns at home for a change.

Will write about my experiences once I am back.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Gear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.