[GoneToTheDogs]

All valid points. I was concerned about the lack of AEL/AF, but so far this hasn't been a big deal for me. I wish, though, there were more buttons. I've gotten pretty good at navigating the menus quickly, but then again it's still something that takes a little more time. Maybe when Olympus comes out with the XZ-2 or 10 or whatever they'll address some of those issues; then maybe I'll trade up.
All of these high-end point 'n shoots have their strengths/weakness... we pick our poison, so to speak. But what's amazing to me is how the overall technology has advanced to where the images can be impressive for the camera's size. Like the Ricoh GDX III, which was on my list as well:

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/R0010226.jpg

No matter what the flavor of compact camera, there doesn't seem to be a dog in the whole bunch!

[GregK8]

All of these high-end point 'n shoots have their strengths/weakness... we pick our poison, so to speak.

Exactly. If you told me the only camera I could have was the XZ-1 I'm sure I'd figure out to be happy with it These points I raised were important to me, for others, they might not matter, in which case the Oly is an excellent contender. Another differentiator, the fact that the XZ-1 only has one custom user setting and the LX5 has several, does not matter to me in the least because I have never saved a custom user preset, even on my K-5. For someone else, that might be important and they may not care about the multi-aspect ratio sensor. In the end, they are very similar cameras, both in function, form factor and performance, so you really can't go wrong with either.

[GoneToTheDogs]

Greg-

Please post a couple of pics from your LX5, I'd like to see them.

Who knows? The way these cameras are improving, maybe I don't need a K-5! Ooops! Never mind...

[Wormtographer]

I have the Oly ZX-1, my wife is not interested in DSLRs, so I hand this P&S to her every so-often. Like everyone else-- I looked at the LX5 and S95 and the Samsung/Nikon/other Canon offerings. I'm sure they are all excellent choices within this restrictive category, but I chose the oly for the bright lens. it certainly not a perfect solution, but it is the best P&S I've ever used.







Cheers, W.

[darrenleow]

I have the Oly ZX-1, my wife is not interested in DSLRs, so I hand this P&S to her every so-often. Like everyone else-- I looked at the LX5 and S95 and the Samsung/Nikon/other Canon offerings. I'm sure they are all excellent choices within this restrictive category, but I chose the oly for the bright lens. it certainly not a perfect solution, but it is the best P&S I've ever used.







Cheers, W.

Which optical viewfinder is this?

[Wormtographer]

Which optical viewfinder is this?

This is a Yashica Electro 35 Tele-wide optical viewfinder. Works great for outdoors in bright sun, but I often use it indoors just for shooting technique

Quite happy with it for the pocket change it cost.

-W

[Matheias]

I've had an LX5 for half a year and these are my impressions.

The good:

24mm wide angle and fast lens
Shoot in 16:9 aspect mode and it's closer to 23mm. This really helps in tight spaces but you have to be really careful about the framing cause perspective distortions appears easily and things close to the borders of the frame tends to get stretched out.
The fast apperture lets you take portraits with decent bokeh when fully zoomed in.

Good build quality
Metal and good quality plastic. The body feels sturdy and the lens doesn't wobble. Rubber grip on the front and a nice pop up flash.

RAW
Shooting in RAW at low ISOs gives some highly detailed images. Close to dslr quality.

Af speed, OIS.
It's fast. Really fast. And the stabilisation is also top notch.

Movie
High quality, manual control, silent af and zoom. Don't point the camera towards strong light sources, though, as that causes vertical banding.

52mm filters
There's an optional filter adapter that lets you mount 52mm filters to the camera.


The Bad:

User interface, menus

Dull and looks dated. Takes long to navigate through menus. Quick menu, fairly useless and not customisable. The lcd colors looks a bit washed out and is not customisable.

Camera speed and overall performance.

Jpegs look awful above iso 200, all Panasonic cameras I've used to date smears details something awful at high iso.
If you're used to dslr than the dynamic range will look awful. Highlights get easily blown out, even in RAWs.
Colors tend too look a bit flat.

Startup time feels annoyingly slow sometimes. That is if you're used to a dslr, compared to consumer P&S it's probably lightning fast.

You can change the size and location of the af point but if you change aspect ratio or turn of the camera it changes back to the default size/position. BIG FLAW! VERY ANNOYING!

While in playback reviewing images the lens will after a few seconds the lens will retract back to it's transport position forcing you to have to wait for it to extend back when you want to shoot again.
Haven't found any way to disable this. Another annoying FLAW!



Overall a decent camera but I believe I'm going to sell it soon. It just face to hard competition now that the m43 cameras keep getting smaller and smaller.

[GregK8]

The good:

So far, I agree with everything you said.

User interface, menus

Dull and looks dated. Takes long to navigate through menus. Quick menu, fairly useless and not customisable. The lcd colors looks a bit washed out and is not customisable.

One of the things I love about the K-5 is that it remembers where you were in the menus so when you go in there again you didn't have to search for the settings you are working with. I do find this annoying also.

While in playback reviewing images the lens will after a few seconds the lens will retract back to it's transport position forcing you to have to wait for it to extend back when you want to shoot again.
Haven't found any way to disable this. Another annoying FLAW!

I think this is a problem with any point and shoot camera. You can probably extend the time by changing how long it takes for the camera to go to sleep.

[GregK8]

Please post a couple of pics from your LX5, I'd like to see them.

Here are a few quick ones from today. I am very pleased on first impression.

I actually took quite a few comparison shots with my old Canon SD400, which was my first digital camera, and a Canon SD1400IS that I borrowed from my neighbor. I haven't really gone through the details yet, but damn if that 6 year old SD400 doesn't take pretty good pictures at 5 MP.

[GoneToTheDogs]

Very nice! There's a good level of detail there- sharp... colors are nice too. I especially like the last photo, it would probably look good in B&W too.

-Matt

[darrenleow]

This is a Yashica Electro 35 Tele-wide optical viewfinder. Works great for outdoors in bright sun, but I often use it indoors just for shooting technique

Quite happy with it for the pocket change it cost.

-W

Thanks for the heads up, just picked one up off ebay for my LX5

[Wormtographer]

Thanks for the heads up, just picked one up off ebay for my LX5

Cool, hope that woks-out on the LX.

I like this VF because it has 2 gold-lined frames of reference on the lens at I believe 40 (wide) and 70mm Tele), but I can frame my shots at 28mm (as wide as my Olympus goes) all the way out to 112mm. I use the "wide" and "tele" lettering to frame my shots depending at what focal length I've zoomed to.

Good luck with it.

Cheers, W.

[darrenleow]

The "Wide" lines seem to correspond to around 45mm, which isn't one of the selectable focal lengths on the LX5. I'm still deciding whether to shoot at 35mm (quite a bit wider) or 50mm (a slight bit tighter)