Panasonic Lumix LX10 - Large Sensor Compact Camera - 4K Video

LUMIX LX10 - Compact large sensor 4K VIDEO - 20MP Still camera

https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-LX10K-Megapixel-24-72mm-1-4-2-8/dp/B01LZHIX13/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1498715738&sr=8-2&keywords=lumix+lx10

• Large 1”, 20 Megapixel sensor delivers brighter, more colorful photos with fewer image artifacts.
• 3x (24-72mm) F/1.4-2.8 LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMILUX optical zoom lens performance, with super bright F/1.4-2.8 aperture for impressive background defocus effects.
• 4K Ultra HD video recording plus exclusive LUMIX 4K PHOTO and 4K Post Focus and internal Focus Stacking modes.
• Premium lens-mounted control ring brings DSLR-like exposure control to a compact point-and-shoot camera body.
• Large 3.0-inch touch monitor (approx.1040k-dot) tilts upward 180 degree for easy selfie photos.

This camera (and most digital cameras) do not come with a memory card included, so you will need to purchase a memory card separately.

My Personal Notes Follow, collected from various sources:

• Most people point out the touch screen on this camera is one of it's best features and puts it a grade above most cameras in this category

• The lens on this camera is VERY FAST and one of it's main features! (Leica F/1.4)

• Image quality, ease of use, and especially the stabilization made it invaluable!

• Batteries may be hard to come by, so shop around. You may want to prefer Panasonic brand batteries, not sure.

• Autofocus tracking in video it is not that fast

• Can't screw on a filter, but electrical tape and purchased some 52mm filters I was able to make some nice slide on filters - added a 3.0 and 0.9 ND filters.

MACRO:
I previously had a LX7 and was looking to upgrade. The LX10 has many cool new features that may be of use to some people. I mostly shoot macro photos, so I'll mostly address that. You can only use the macro at the widest angle which makes it very limited to begin with. On a pixel by pixel basis, what you can achieve with the LX10 is no better and maybe slightly worse than what you can get with the LX7. Due to the additional megapixels, it is much more difficult to see what you are trying to take photos of as it is now surrounded by lots of useless pixels which shrinks down what you can actually see on the screen even with a zoomed in focus preview. Getting a comparably good photo that was easy to take on the LX7 was extremely frustrating and difficult to achieve on the LX10. There is a digital zoom feature for macro which yielded decent photos if you only wanted to view them on a small screen, but all detail is lost if you try zooming in.

I will also note that the camera felt cheap compared to the LX7. The LX7 had a nice grip. The LX10 seems like they just forgot that people might actually be holding the camera when they try to take photos. Where the LX7 had a nice solid metal door to the ports, the LX10 had a very flimsy plastic flap that probably wouldn't last long.

So, if you care about macro, don't buy this camera. It may be awesome in many other ways though. If you care about having a warranty, US cables, and actually getting the product you ordered, don't purchase from 6ave.

---------------- spent a lot of money feels cheated -----------

Most people know these little cameras are very high-powered. You can research all the bells and whistles about this camera on your own time. But I will say that it is a very slow and poor focusing mechanism no matter what settings it is on. This is... probably a deal-breaker. It should be. It's very slow and really an incompetent piece of technology for this overall design. Just unacceptable... people griped about it and I didn't listen. In almost all the reviews of this camera people complain about the focus. I don't mind it because I'm not taking a lot of sports photographs, or selfies. But honestly my phone works better. In fact almost every camera I've ever owned has a better focus than this camera. It is slow and if you move at all it loses focus and cannot regain it. It's almost completely dysfunctional.

LOL, I still love the camera though. Or I'm trying to convince myself of that since I spent so much money on it!

---

This camera is awesome in every single way! It does everything really well. Hey sony it has touch screen. The only reason I've never bought a rx100 was because of the lack of touch screen. This camera is perfect for what I need! For the dude saying about the material felling like plastic, I don't know if he really understand the diference. Sorry dude, this camera has a nice build quality.

Very nice camera with more controls than I will probably ever use. I especially like the ability to do multi-focus shots then select the focus I want and save it after taking my photos. I frequently save a number of different focal points. I also use this to avoid taking photos of people with closed eyes. I hold the button for a bit and insure that I have the shot that I need.

I give it five stars with the understanding that no camera is perfect. But it deserves five stars because it performs well within or better than expected. With the F1.4 Leica lens, it works great indoors without a flash and performs extremely well outdoors for landscape shots. It has a lot of features packed into it including 4k video, which I have no interest in. But it does shoot bursts in a way that enables the capture of sharp photos in a fast moving situation. The camera is small enough to fit in my back pocket. I use it as a back up to my Lumix FZ1000, which has the great telephoto lens.

Initial impression is excellent. My context is that this is the first camera I've purchased for personal use since the Panasonic GM1, which is a m4/3 interchangeable lens camera with a very compact body, so that is my main point of comparison. I also had a original Sony RX100, but it was lost at a conference, so needed a small every day carry camera. I do more indoor natural light shots than out, and pretty much never use a flash, so that frames my needs a bit. Based on early results, the LX10 is a great replacement for the RX100 and beats the GM1 as a travel/EDC camera. Key findings so far:

*The lens on the LX10 beats the larger m4/3 sensor + stock lens on the GM1 for everyday indoor photography. To compare, I did a quick set of shots on P(rogram) setting on both cameras in a unevenly lit room at night, just to see what the P algorithms produced when left to their own devices. The GM1 was equipped with the very nice compact zoom kit lens, 12-32mm f3.5-5.6 max aperture. P sets shutter speed, aperture, and ISO automatically. Both cameras took the shot at 1/60th s with their lenses wide open, but the ISO on the LX10 was 640 while the ISO on the GM1 was 3200. Totally to be expected given the much slower f3.5 vs. f1.4, but cameras are systems, not individual components, and the 3200 ISO on the GM1 really increased the noise, lowered the detail and hurt the color fidelity much more than in the shot from the LX10. Now, of course, I could have put a fast lens on the GM1, I certainly own plenty of m4/3 lenses including fast primes, BUT, that's the point, really, that the very fast lens on the LX10 opens up a much wider operating window compared to the kit GM1, and to match it, I'd have to give up the zoom and use a fast prime, again lowering the versatility and speed of operation for my kind of indoor/low light shooting, so that is worth something to me.

Other quick points:

Size - the retractable lens on the LX10 makes it much easier to pocket and carry the LX10 vs. the GM1, even though the body of the GM1 is a bit smaller, due to the added depth from the 12-32mm lens.
Speed of operation - the 12-32mm lens on the GM1 must be manually extended before taking the first shot, making it much tougher to capture fleeting scenes.
4K video - Not an option on the GM1. Not that I need it much just yet, but looking forward to that move in the not too distant future. I did test the 4K video on the highest data rate setting, and was able to capture and playback just fine from my very recent PNY UHS1/U3 card PNY Elite Performance 128 GB High Speed SDXC Class 10 UHS-I, U3 up to 95 MB/Sec Flash Card (P-SDX128U395-GE). I panned an indoor scene and watched the focus adjust, and, after one big focus hunt right at the beginning, the LX10 did a very nice job, pulling from 10ft focus to less than a foot at the end of the pan, and stopping right on focus of the close object without hunting. Pretty impressive.

Other points of comparison:
*LX100. I briefly owned and returned the LX100 before buying the LX10 as it was just too big for the every day carry role. Further, the effective resolution due to sensor crop on the LX100 was a disappointment in the few test images I took, and the default JPEG settings left me flat, which surprised me given my preference for Pany standard JPEGs.
*LS100. Own this camera for work, and the 10x zoom is really handy, but the slower lens shows indoors, even wide open.

There are many more features to test and that will be fun, but, net, for me, the LX10 is the better choice, given priority for indoor or low light outdoor shots. I'll continue to use my GM1 and Olympus EM5 m4/3 cameras with appropriate lenses for the more challenging shots (e.g., the 2015 All Star Game, where 300mm zoom was essential paired with the EM5), or the LS100 where I need quick access to more zoom range outdoors, but the LX10 is now my EDC camera, especially when I know I'll want a mix of indoor + outdoor, or just indoor. Highly recommended if your priorities are similar.