Going for a thinner profile than the average prosumer camera the Panasonic DMC-LX3 is compact, looks cool and has a comfortable grip. If it weren't for its corporate black look with silver trim and huge lens, it would almost look like a standard point and shoot. At 9.3 grams it is quite lightweight and fits into most pockets with ease. The top of the camera is filled with a hot shoe, the mode dial and shutter button while other controls line the back panel. The camera is comfortable enough to use one-handed but for best results a two-handed grip is optimum.
Utilizing a 3-inch LCD screen the Panasonic DMC-LX3 does not have any optical viewfinder. It does have a 10.1 Megapixel CCD sensor with 2.5x optical zoom and 4x Digital Zoom along with 24- 60mm focal length lens at F/2.0 - 2.8. This gives it a reasonable amount of power with a slightly wider view for group photos. The camera offers 50MB worth of internal memory with expandable slots for MMC and SD memory cards. It takes still images in RAW, JPEG and RAW+JPEG file formats along with VGA and wide-screen VGA resolution Quicktime video files. The camera can also capture HD Movies at 1280 x 720p resolutions and 30 frames per second.
Most of the features and options on the Panasonic DMC-LX3 like ISO sensitivity, white balance, metering, AF mode, or intelligent exposure are automatic although some options have manual alternatives like focus and exposure. While it does have a hot shoe for external flash, it also has an integrated flash as well, which works well enough in a pinch. While there are only two custom slots on the mode dial, the camera supports four custom settings groups at a time. Controls may take some time getting used to while performance is mixed. With a wake-up to first shot time of 2 seconds, the camera is quite fast, while shot-to-shot times are about 1.9 seconds without flash. With flash this time increases to 2.5 seconds that is above average at best.
Image quality on the Panasonic DMC-LX3 is sharp and nicely saturated. The camera's new 2.5X f2.0-2.8 24-60mm-equivalent lens is faster and has a wider angle offering you more detailed close-up shots and easier to take group and landscape shots. However, it does mean that you can't zoom in from afar that is well worth the extra boost in performance speed and image clarity. This makes the Panasonic DMC-LX3 perfect for the intermediate point-and-shoot enthusiast looking for a more powerful prosumer digital camera but is just as good for a DSLR user looking for a less clunky camera to bring about.
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