Sunday, February 26, 2012

Panasonic LX-2: Second Outing

Metropolitan United Church
Metropolitan United Church -- Panasonic LX-2

Took the LX-2 with me yesterday and shot around the Queen & Church area.  I really like the size of the camera, though I would like more if it's slightly larger.  The lens on it has pretty good resolution.  When processed through Lightroom 3 (which I couldn't resist the good deal that B&H had on sale for $69 about a week ago), the quality at ISO 100 is quite good.  I am now shooting at the 16:9 aspect ratio to maximize the solution of the sensor, though I don't really like it for still pictures.  To me, it's not as natural as 3:2.

In terms of image quality, there is really no comparison  to APS-C or even M43 sensors.  Even on base ISO 100, noise is visible and that DC look is staring you at the face at 100%.  I believe in print, up to 13x19, quality will be just fine.

It's a matter of time, the low end small sensor DCs will be history in a few years, replaced by cell phones, and most new DCs will sport larger sensors with much better image quality.  I do believe Nikon will have a upper hand on this, as the one inch sensor in the J1/V1 is perfect for digicams.  It's such a great balance between image quality and size/cost.  APS-C is a bit too large, as lenses that covers this size of sensor will have been be much bigger.

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