Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5: A Point-and-Shoot With Strong Manual Controls

Priced at $400 as of January 3, 2011, the Lumix LX5 resembles a miniaturized, fixed-lens version of Panasonic's interchangeable-lens Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, right down to the boxy, classic-looking frame, the pop-up flash, and the stand-alone lens cap. The LX5 is a larger-than-average point-and-shoot camera and won't fit in your pants pocket, but it's compact enough to slip into a jacket pocket or a purse.

Fast autofocus has become Panasonic's specialty over the past few years, and the LX5 continues the trend. You can power up the camera and snap a sharp shot within 1 second (assuming that you remember to remove the lens cap), and the camera rarely searches in and out as it locks focus on a subject.

A simple switch on the side of the lens lets you move quickly between autofocus, macro focus, and manual focus controls, and the LX5 offers stunning macro performance. With a minimum focus distance of 0.4 inch, this camera shines at extreme close-ups; you can practically touch the lens to your subject and get a crisp shot with a dramatically shallow depth of field.

You'll be glad you have so many manual options to choose from, because the LX5 isn't a great performer when it's set to Intelligent Auto mode. In PCWorld Labs' evaluations of image and video quality, which involved appraisals of test shots taken in Intelligent Auto mode, the Lumix LX5 turned in disappointing results in all four image-quality categories--exposure, color accuracy, sharpness, and distortion. The LX5 earned an overall image-quality rating of Fair, as most shots looked underexposed in comparison with the other cameras in our roundup of five advanced point-and-shoot cameras. The LX5 did much better when we adjusted and used manual settings.

Video quality, on the other hand, was excellent at the camera's automated settings. Indeed, the LX5 was among the best video shooters we saw in 2010. Our test footage captured in bright light looked sharp and smooth, and audio snagged by the LX5's on-board mono mic sounded crisp. Low-light video was less impressive at the camera's automated settings, but the LX5 does have adjustable ISO, white balance, and shutter settings to help you capture better footage in low-light situations. Overall, the LX5's video quality was judged superior, and the in-camera adjustments that it supports for shooting video are a significant step beyond anything else in its class.

Battery life is another strong suit. The Lumix LX5 has a CIPA rating of 400 shots per charge of its battery, the best number in our roundup (not counting shooting with the screen turned off on the Canon PowerShot G12 or the Nikon Coolpix P7000).

Like the Coolpix P7000, the Lumix LX5 uses a lot of physical buttons to provide instant access to controls. Two sliding switches reside on the ring of the lens itself: the autofocus/macro/manual focus selector, and a slider on top for changing the aspect ratio (options are 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, and 1:1).

The top right of the camera hosts a ten-selection mode dial, where your choices include Intelligent Auto mode, color filters, scene modes, video mode, manual mode, aperture priority mode, shutter priority mode, program auto mode, and two user-defined custom settings. The shutter button, zoom controls, a dedicated record button, and a physical on/off toggle switch round out the controls on the top of the camera.

On the back, you get a thumb-operated scroll wheel, an autofocus/auto-exposure lock button, a playback button, and the standard display, menu, and directional-pad buttons. Somehow, despite so many buttons, the layout feels uncluttered and well spaced.

For pure manual operation without the intimidation factor of the Nikon Coolpix P7000, the Lumix LX5 is tops. Its fine-tunable settings, macro mode, focus features, video options, strong low-light performance, and classic aesthetics are sure to make photography geeks freak (in a very good way).