A friend was asking about the Lumix LX7 I named in my camera roundup the other day and earlier this year. I keep the LX7 in the list because of my experience with it’s predecessor a couple generations earlier: the Lumix LX3. He asked how it performs, but I struggled at first to find photos demonstrating it. I began to wonder if my memory of the LX3 was a little more glowing than the reality. I was anxious to figure out the truth of the matter, though, so I continued my search and here’s what I found:
Cat, interior window light:
Dogs
Wide open with fill flash in bright sunlight:
Food photo under mixed interior lighting:
Macro food photo under halogen lights:
Exterior natural light:
Interior, natural light portraits:
Inside a helicopter:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maisonbisson/8250771095/in/datetaken/
Exterior night:
Dark interiors, no flash:
Only after going through my Flickr feed manually for quite a while did I figure out how to manipulate the URL to get a search of all my photos with that camera.
My experience is that dark scenes are this camera’s Achilles heel, but I’m saying that in comparison to my Canon Rebel XTi. Relative to smartphone cameras or other compacts, it performs pretty well. My 2012 iPhone 5 and 2009 LX3 are pretty comparable in low light. This September 2012 review even says the Lumix LX line of cameras is “well known for its low light ability.” I haven’t used the LX7, but the sample images at DPReview look pretty good and exploring the 100% crops in the high ISO section of the review confirms the LX7 is worlds better than the LX3 and a strong contender against larger sensor cameras of previous generations. But the camera can’t escape the physics that benefit the current generation of big sensor cameras.
All this looking around has me thinking the LX7 is a good little camera to add to my kit. Small, light, convenient, and good looking pics. It’s a nice package.