Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 review

Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-LX3 was widely regarded as one of the best compact cameras at any price. We were so impressed with it that we gave it our highly coveted Ultimate award. The company recently launched its replacement, the Lumix DMC-LX5, and we’ve been eager to see how it would compare.

One quick look at the LX5’s specifications and features confirms that, like the LX3, the new model is aimed at photography enthusiasts rather than beginners. There was little wrong with the LX3, but Panasonic hasn’t rested on its laurels and has attempted to make improvements where possible.

The LX5 has a newly designed 3.8x (24-90mm f/2.0-3.3) optical zoom Leica DC Vario-Summicron lens, an upgraded 10-megapixel sensor, a brand new processing engine and a number of interface changes designed to make the camera easier to use. It’s no surprise, then, that the Lumix DMC-LX5 is now Panasonic’s highest-specified compact camera.

At a first glance, the LX5’s body looks almost identical to the LX3 – the most visible change is the thicker hand grip that makes the camera slightly easier to hold. There are some subtle differences to the button layout, with the most noticeable being the introduction of a clickable jog dial, which replaces the Q.Menu joystick.

A consequence of this is that the small thumb grip on the LX3 is no more and your thumb now naturally rests directly on the jog dial. It makes the camera slightly less comfortable to hold, but it means it’s far quicker to change camera settings.

The other major changes are the introduction of a direct movie recording button – something you’re likely to use as the LX5 has great video quality. Meanwhile, the LX3’s dedicated review mode switch has been replaced with an image review button. The LX5 can record 720p HD video at 30fps using the AVCHD Lite codec with mono audio, which compares favourably to the LX3’s 720p Motion JPEG recording at 24fps with mono audio.

Panasonic says that the redesigned 10.1 megapixel 1/1.63in CCD sensor has better low-light performance than the LX3’s sensor. Combined with the new image processor, Panasonic has been able to increase the sensor’s maximum sensitivity from ISO 3200 to an impressive ISO 12800. However, this does come at a cost: resolution is reduced to just 3 megapixels at ISO 6400 and ISO 12800.

Unfortunately, from our testing, the new high sensitivity modes are essentially unusable. There’s no option to shoot RAW at these settings and so it’s left up to the camera to keep noise at bay. The LX5 does an fair job at processing JPEGs in camera, but it’s by no means brilliant – you’ll get better results by shooting in RAW and making small tweaks yourself.

At both ISO 6400 and ISO 12800, there’s a lot of colour shifting, loss of detail and overall blotchiness to images. At lower sensitivities, things are better because the RAW mode is available. The LX5’s built-in JPEG noise reduction is a little too aggressive for our liking, but in RAW mode, quality manages to outclass the LX3 by at least a stop – if not more.

While images shot at ISO 800 and above are undoubtedly noisy if you don’t apply any noise reduction during processing, they are still bright, full of detail and don’t suffer from the usual problems normally associated with compact cameras. It’s not until ISO 1600 that hints of banding start to appear in fine gradations and finer details start to fall by the wayside. Even then, they’re not noticeable if you’re going to be making relatively small prints or using the images online.

The new lens isn’t bad either. It retains roughly the same maximum aperture at the same zoom setting as the LX3’s 24-60mm f/2.0-2.8 lens, but it expands the zoom range to a 35mm-equivalent 90mm focal length at an aperture of f/3.3, which helps to make the LX5 a more versatile camera than the LX3. The lens-based image stabilisation, based on our tests, is still good for around two stops so doesn’t appear to have undergone any major updates.

There’s a fair amount of barrel distortion at the wide end of the range, but there’s little evidence of any major distortion at the telephoto end. Throughout the focal range, chromatic aberrations are very well controlled and corner sharpness is sufficient, but not perfect. Softness in the corners of the frame seems to be at its worst at wider angles, but it’s by no means bad.

Video quality is also very good, as we’ve already alluded to, but the audio quality did let things down a little. The gain was set too high, meaning background noise was quite obvious in a quiet environment and you could just about hear the zoom motor. Auto-focus continued to work while recording and the focus motor wasn’t audible. It’s disappointing, though, to find only a mono microphone.

Panasonic has done an excellent job with the Lumix DMC-LX5 and has done well to surpass the high benchmark it set with the LX3. It replaces its older sibling as the ultimate enthusiast’s compact camera, but whether it’s enough of an update to tempt current LX3 owners is another matter entirely.

If the LX5’s significantly better high ISO performance, improved video quality or the more versatile focal range solve problems that you had with the LX3 then it’s a natural upgrade, but if those things aren’t important then it’s worth hanging onto your existing compact for the time being.

What’s more, the LX5’s title as the ultimate enthusiast’s compact does come at a price. Panasonic’s recommended retail price for the LX5 is £480, and after a quick search around the usual suspects, we found it listed for anywhere between £350 and £500. Annoyingly, most of these retailers had no stock, so it’s hard to gauge what the ‘real’ street price will be. We’d advise waiting for things to settle down a little.

However, if you do that, you may find yourself in a similar situation to the one when the LX3 launched – it was almost impossible to get hold of, with waiting lists stretching into months. If you’ve decided that the LX5 is the camera for you, our advice is to buy one as soon as you see it in stock at the right price. If retailers hike the prices to around £400, the LX3 is still a great alternative for under £315.