Panasonic Lumix LX100 Review - The Lumix LX100 arrives in a highly competitive premium compact market and promises to challenge the current reigning champions with an impressive specification and stylish looks
Panasonic Lumix LX100 Review
Panasonic Lumix LX100 Review – Image Quality
Colour and white balance
It’s worth noting that colour rendition hasn’t always been a highlight of Panasonic’s compact camera performance. The LX100 changes this, however, with a pleasing palette on display which renders natural skin tones and attractive blues well suited to landscape photography.
The auto white balance system meanwhile is generally reliable, and if you do have any issues with the white balance which you want correcting you can quite easily make changes utilising the in-camera Raw editing tool.
Exposure and Dynamic range
The general metering performance offered by the LX100 is both reliable and effective, with very little need in terms of intervention.
The sensor also delivers a solid dynamic range, especially when you consider that it is in essence a compact camera with a fixed lens.
Resolution
Despite the headline megapixel count, the LX100 delivers a true resolution of 12.8MP at its standard aspect ratio.
As a result, its renders less detail than competing cameras which, despite their smaller physical sensors, boast higher megapixel counts. That being said, the resolution and amount of detail captured means that A3+ prints are still possible, although there is a lack of flexibility as a result when it comes to cropping.
Noise
While the LX100 might fall away a touch when it comes to resolving fine detail, the large sensor has real benefits when it comes to handling noise at higher ISO settings.
There’s very little negative to report in terms of image quality right up to ISO 1600, and while at ISO 3200 noise and noise artefacts do become evident, ISO 6400 is still eminently useable. It is worth preserving ISO 12,800 and 25,600 emergencies, however.