The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 is a compact camera with loads of difference from the regular compact point-and-shoot.

It has an elegantly simple design with a 3-inch LCD at the back and a 2.5x zoom lens, equivalent to a 24-60mm on a 35mm camera.  The aperture is a bright f/2 on the wide-angle and 2.8 at 60mm telephoto.  The camera can shoot in RAW format only, or RAW and a choice of two JPEG setting.  This gives the photographer more than enough choices with the choice of picture formats.

Framing the shot is done via the 3-inch LCD screen.  It’s clear, bright and has a legible menu system.  You don’t need to bring your eyes close to the camera see what’s being shot.

The cameras manual controls are accessed with a joystick, which allow you to set apertures, shutter speeds, manual focusing and to access the quick menu.

However, this is not a PHD (”press here dummy”) camera.  It has too many buttons buttons and switches controlling most everything, that the regular casual photographer would be hard-pressed to understand any of the button usage.  This is definitely one of those cameras where you have to read the manual.  There are almost twenty buttons to control this camera.  This adds a layer of complexity to the learning curve.  Added to this is the depth of the menu systems for setup and record. For a non-techie, this just means that he’d be enjoying the camera without using the more advanced features.  Nonetheless, the manual is easy to follow, just in case you want to understand how to use this thing.

Speaking of reading the manual before using it, shooting in high-definition has a bit more to set up than other cameras.  You have to set the lens to shoot in 16:9 format first, and then select the picture mode on the menu before you start shooting in HD.  The camera does not automatically crop to widescreen for the HD video.  The LX-3 shoots HD in 1280×720 pixels at 24fps.  At 24fps, the television playback will be a bit choppy due to the difference in frame rate between the video and the TV.

To help with handheld shakes the camera has a High Sensitivity mode which effectively raises the ISO from 1600 to a maximum of 6400.  This allows for slower shutter speed, and it allows the photographer to take the relatively low-light shots without need of a flash.  Or alternatively, it can freeze fast movements more effectively.

The onboard software is quite comprehensive as it allows for cropping, resizing, leveling, organizing, change aspect ratio, sort images, insert text, delete, protect, add a sound clip, and do a side-by-side comparison.  The leveling option is particularly good for pictures which are a bit skewed or leaning to the left or right, rotating the image to straighten it and crops the edges.

Though not being marketed as a bridge camera, this particular model has enough advanced features to go head to head with other more established and more expensive brands.  Lumix as a brand has always had a different approach to marketing.  This is one camera which again would follow its predecessors with a full feature set (and more) and will be a pleasant surprise to any photographer.