just bought my own LX5 a couple of days ago from TK Foto. AFAIK, this camera has gotten some pretty rave reviews online since it's launch in Nov 2010. normally, i am not a big fan of compact cameras. but, just like everyone else, when it comes to portability and ease of use, everyone invariably will own one.
prior to the LX5, i was using the Canon S90 and Sony NEX3 (ok... technically, NEX3 is not a compact camera). both were excellent cameras in their own right, with excellent out-of-the-cam JPGs. however, niggly things (S90's extremely short battery life and NEX3's menu diving) drove me nuts.
after using the LX5 for a couple of days, my initial impressions are that it is somewhere in between these 2 - quite decent battery life so far (after 100+ shots and a 2min HD video, and not a drop in the batt life) and a fair balance of menu diving with on-hand buttons to change settings. out-of-cam pics were, for no better word, 'accurate' (or as dpreview puts it - 'cool'). definitely not as punchy as canon or sony without tweaking the film settings (more of this later) or in photoshop. but, if you want accurate colours, the LX5 certainly delivers.
i bought a colour chart from SGCamerstore a couple of days ago for all the product testing (plus it has a handy grey card and white balancing tool). this is shot using my product tent, with a 5000K-rated fluorescent lighting. i used custom white balance within the camera. straight out of camera, except resizing in PSE8. all the settings within the camera has been reset to neutral.
as i see it, compared to the real life chart, the colours a little less saturated on screen.
prior to the LX5, i was using the Canon S90 and Sony NEX3 (ok... technically, NEX3 is not a compact camera). both were excellent cameras in their own right, with excellent out-of-the-cam JPGs. however, niggly things (S90's extremely short battery life and NEX3's menu diving) drove me nuts.
after using the LX5 for a couple of days, my initial impressions are that it is somewhere in between these 2 - quite decent battery life so far (after 100+ shots and a 2min HD video, and not a drop in the batt life) and a fair balance of menu diving with on-hand buttons to change settings. out-of-cam pics were, for no better word, 'accurate' (or as dpreview puts it - 'cool'). definitely not as punchy as canon or sony without tweaking the film settings (more of this later) or in photoshop. but, if you want accurate colours, the LX5 certainly delivers.
i bought a colour chart from SGCamerstore a couple of days ago for all the product testing (plus it has a handy grey card and white balancing tool). this is shot using my product tent, with a 5000K-rated fluorescent lighting. i used custom white balance within the camera. straight out of camera, except resizing in PSE8. all the settings within the camera has been reset to neutral.
as i see it, compared to the real life chart, the colours a little less saturated on screen.
