Hands-on with the Panasonic DMC-LX2

It wasn't but several weeks ago that we first posted about the new Panasonic DMC-LX2 and we told you then that they'd be arriving in September. Well, here we are after Labor Day, so behold what the stork brought us today. As you probably know, this DMC-LX2, the upgrade to the LX1 sports 10.2 megapixels, ISO 3200 and a 4x optical zoom. Click ahead for more snaps.

Ah, the moment of glory awaits.

Yep, that's a Lumix all right. You can tell because it says so right there on the box in all caps.





There she is! We can't wait to take 'er for a spin!

We're real glad that it comes with a lens cap, because when your camera doesn't have one, it sucks.

We missed the aspect ratio settings on the lens at first glance, but there they are. The cam overall feels light and the lens and LCD take up a good portion of the whole body of the camera. For someone with big hands, it might be tough to grip. The LX2 of course sports 10.2 megapixel, ISO 3200 (not a full res, sadly) and has got 'dem intelligent smarts in the ISO control to adjust for sudden jerkiness. Also, there's the 4x zoom dial up top.

That's a swank 2.8-inch screen you're looking at, with our paltry Fuji Finepix S3100 staring back atcha. The rear panel has a mini-joystick button below the button labeled "AF/AE LOCK" up top, which serves as a manual selector, plus the standard five button flower arrangement below it.

The DMC-LX2 comes with a USB cable, A/V cables, proprietary battery charger and case, CD, and an instruction book. We can't figure out why they keep printing these manuals. Seriously, when was the last time anyone actually read one of these things? Couldn't they just leave a PDF of it online?

For size comparison to a Treo 650.




Colorful menus! We dig blue and green too. That said, it appears that they didn't reformat the menus for the 16:9 screen, which is sorta lame.







The LX2 ate our headphones.

The LX2 ate our headphones again, vertically this time.

We found the LX2 to be a solid little point-and-shoot camera trapped inside a understated retro-style casing -- we felt the urge to become a shutterbug once we unwrapped it. (Some of us here at Engadget, particularly this writer, would appreciate the return of the viewfinder, rather than being forced to use the LCD.) We'd like to see it come with redesigned menu screens, and ideally would like to have the lens fully retract into the body, but we understand that probably would compromise the lens quality and focal length, which gave it the 4x zoom. The images that we took were clean, crisp and quite fast. Furthermore, the 16:9 ratio made us feel like something of a filmmaker at times, with so much extra width. In short, if Panasonic wanted to trade us for that Fuji FinePix S3100 that you saw earlier, we'd gladly accept.

[Office Glen @ Sep 11th 2006 1:30PM]

The photos in this "review" are like a Maxim photo shoot where the women are wearing thick sweaters.

How about some photos with the lens cover off. Quit teasing us.

[urban bohemian @ Sep 11th 2006 3:02PM]

I agree with Office Glen! Where are the shots taken with the Lumix? And how much will it set us back to get our grubby hot digital camera luvin' hands on it?

However I disagree that women in sweaters can't be presented as extremely hot (no pun intended).

[ShredSled @ Sep 11th 2006 1:57PM]

Any word on whether this model utilizes the Lieca lens or not?

[ben @ Sep 11th 2006 2:14PM]

"Well this has been one big tease!"

-Cosmo Kramer

[JuanI @ Sep 11th 2006 2:22PM]

ShredSled: Notice the big L on the front? That means "Leica inside" ;)

[Mike @ Sep 11th 2006 2:22PM]

How about some photos that the camera takes? You know, because it's like a camera and stuff.

[lkluj @ Sep 11th 2006 2:42PM]

To Juan:
"Big L on the front" does not mean Leica inside. For cheaper cameras Panasonic is using "Lumix DC Vario" lenses, but still you get the L on the front - check out their DMC-LS2.

To ShredSled:
The answer is yes. It will get Leica lenses for sure because it is their medium model.

[JuanI @ Sep 11th 2006 3:25PM]

Ikluj: It seems you are correct, never noticed that. So probably the big L is just for "Lumix". Cheers

[Michael Locker MD @ Sep 11th 2006 4:33PM]

Good info.

michael Locker MD

[Don O'Shea @ Sep 11th 2006 3:55PM]

Amen to the lack of viewfinder!

I will NEVER buy a camera that does not have an integral viewfinder. In less than perfect light conditions the lever arm (literally!) can defeat even the best anti-shake compensation.

Optical Design Principle #1: Never use software to accomplish something that can be done by hardware.

[hangon @ Sep 12th 2006 1:34PM]

10Mpx is way TOOOOOO MUCH for such a tiny sensor....guys at luminous-landscape.com shown that the noise is bigger then its 8MPx predecessor LX1.....

always the same thing...10mpx is just a marketing thing that just made images looks worse than a 8Mpx...

to bad because panasonic is great with its 16:9 form factor sensor

[Brian @ Sep 11th 2006 4:23PM]

This is way too long of a post to fully display for an RSS feed. Could you guys please start using links for posts over 5 pictures or so. It is a royal pain to scroll past a dozen or more pics of something I am not even interested in. If I was interested, I could always click the link to get more info.

[Pavel Kudrys @ Sep 11th 2006 4:33PM]

If you guys are interested in this camera, please, visit and sign our "Panasonic FZ50/LX2 Firmware Petition" site available here..

http://www.gopetition.com/online/9523.html

The main reason of this petition is too strong in-camera noise reduction causing loss of details. This problem is visible through all ISO levels but it's especially well visible from ISO 400 and above. So please, read the petition, check the samples and don't forget to add your vote! What we need is just a simple option for turning the Noise Reduction completely OFF.

[Tobbe @ Sep 12th 2006 4:41PM]

"10Mpx is way TOOOOOO MUCH for such a tiny sensor...."

Yeah, really, why do they keep increasing the Mpx count? I think it's better they focus on making the image quality better. I don't care how big the image is if it looks like crap. I'd rather have a 3Mpx noice free photo with good colors than a 10Mpx awful photo any day!

[Steve Cary @ Sep 17th 2006 11:05AM]

I just received one yesterday, and it is going back to Panasonic Monday! Man, am I disappointed. I can't believe Panasonic didn't fix the LX1 noise problem. The photos either look way too smooth, or way too noisy. I can't even display a simple photo of clouds as a Windows background without seeing tons of off color spots (noise). It is very disappointing, to say the least. I had really looked forward to this one. My Nikon P4 beats it all to heck in the image quality department.

Also, the movies made in L, not H mode, are totally unacceptable. The entire scene is a jumble of moire patterns that will make you sick. The 16:9H mode looks OK, but it is only 15FPS, so it looks somewhat jumpy.

The unit is lighter than you would think, and with the heavy lens sticking out, it is very unbalanced and I know it would only be a matter of time before I fumbled it. My Nikon P4 is solid and well balanced. I will never look down my nose at it's plain appearance again! It (the P4) made some fantastic 13x19 prints of the Golden Gate Bridge a few weeks ago.

Oh, well. Live and learn!

[Miguel Marcos @ Sep 21st 2006 4:05AM]

"We can't figure out why they keep printing these manuals."

A paper manual is a wonderful thing to have with you when you're out and about trying the thing. It's printed in a small, manageable (potentially pocketable) size. It makes a lot of sense for a piece of equipment that is complex.

[sharoness @ Oct 12th 2006 4:43AM]

How does the Canon Powershot s80 compare to the Panasonic DMC-LX2.

The thing is, that I was going to buy the Canon Powershot s80 but the salesman told me to wait for the Panasonic DMC-LX2. I was reading on the Internet that there is a big problem with NOISE on the Panasonic, so actually I don�t know what to buy, can you guys help?
Thank

[Jungle @ Oct 26th 2006 9:39AM]

I can't understand why Engadget, a site suposedly dedicated to try new gadgets out and tell us about it, writes an article about unpacking the product and stops there. If it is a tease or a joke, I'm sorry, I don't get it.
They evidently didn't actually use it. Anybody who uses any camera (or any interesting gadget for that matter) should have more than one paragraph of comments about it. And normally some of the product characteristics would be mentioned in those comments. Yet in this case, none of that is present. Luckily there are a few reviewers out there that take their jobs seriously:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicLX2/
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_lx2-review/index.shtml
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/PanasonicLX2/