LX1 Rocks!!!

[singdude]

Thank you for the link, Tao bro. Merry Xmas n Happy New Year

 

[weekh]

I've grown so fond of the LX1 that my DSLR is now collecting dust even though I've recently acquired some new L zoom and exotic CZ lenses.....

 

[eow]

oooo...think it abt time i sold off my a510 liao..
nice capture of the ambient..what setting was used?

 

[zcf]

you really make use of the 16:9 ratio well :thumbsup: . Good framing.

 

[weekh]

oooo...think it abt time i sold off my a510 liao..
nice capture of the ambient..what setting was used?

My cam is set at Auto WB but I'll normally bring it back to about 5000K.
I find that the LX1 daylight is a little too warm at daylight 5500k. Nevertheless, for this case, I prefer it to be warm and so I set it at 5500k. The cam actually records it at 3200k.

 

[maddog]

Just got it a couple of days back. Was disappointed with the noise level even at ISO 80. Can't really tell IS is at work. But other than that everything is great. I use NeatImage to remove noise. Anything better than this?

 

[weekh]

Just got it a couple of days back. Was disappointed with the noise level even at ISO 80. Can't really tell IS is at work. But other than that everything is great. I use NeatImage to remove noise. Anything better than this?

I'm using Noise Ninja and mostly using it at its default setting. There's a lot of control in Noise Ninja but I don't really know how to use them nor optimise the use though.
Heard that in order to optimise the use, u got to shoot a blank piece of white paper to set it as the profile for your camera.

Actually I'm not really concerned with noise at ISO 80 and 100. But I'll not hesitate to shoot at ISO400 either.

 

[maddog]

Is the LX1 better than Canon's s80? Given s80 has lower noise (almost all cameras have), would it be a better buy?

 

[Parchiao]

Only if you are a master at Photoshop with some other noise reduction software and love to use Raw and know how maximise the use of ISO 80 & 100 with OIS at low light and don't mind having fuzzy images i.e. where shutter speeds lower than 1/60s cannot freeze movements. :bsmilie:

 

[unseen]

Is the LX1 better than Canon's s80? Given s80 has lower noise (almost all cameras have), would it be a better buy?

Er... I don't see what noise have to do with the quality of images from the camera.
Anything above 3MP, If you downsize it for 4R Or view it at 100% on your screen, you're unlikely to see any noise. hey come on.. your 1280x1024 screen is only 1.31 mega pixels. Don't tell me you take 5MP photos to look at 20% of the image only?
Better not mention about cropping.. If you need to keep cropping, then the problem lies with your framing skills, better improve it than get a better camera.

I suppose the only way to get better noise improvement is go dSLR. hey come on.. weekh is famed for his boatloads of CZ lenses and his wonderful shots.. There has got to be a reason most of the people with the camera and actually uses it likes it.

Last I looked at a judging criteria for some national wide photography competition, noise wasn't one of the criteria.
And if noise was a criteria, a PnS wouldn't have won canon's photomarathon last year.


btw Weekh, wonderful shots. Must say, I was stunned. I'm not even sure if I can produce equivilant shots on my dslr. :embrass:
the colours are v v nice.. is this what they call the Leica glow? The images are just different from normal camera lens!!

 

[weekh]

Fortune teller says I'll be receiving the LX1 underwater housing within 2 weeks.

 

[djork]

Very nice use of the 16:9 Function

i'm so absorbed i didn't even notice it's 16:9!

 

[nova_nebula]

Fortune teller says I'll be receiving the LX1 underwater housing within 2 weeks.

so are you the one in grey, cream or orange-green?? :sweatsm:

 

[kahheng]

Is the LX1 better than Canon's s80? Given s80 has lower noise (almost all cameras have), would it be a better buy?

Frankly, from a personal perspective, I rate Panasonic's in-camera jpeg picture quality currently the highest around. (Look, this is my subjective opinion, so if you want to yell at me, feel free to do so ). Whilst the colours may not generally be as immediately attractive as Fuji or Oly (for most I'd guess), the quality of the jpegs from their better models is astoundingly good. There's something special about them that the other brands seem to lack.

From the FX-3 onwards, I have noticed that their in-camera picture processing algorithms have been yielding some of the most film-like pictures around with incredibly rich tones. The current Venus II Engine is pretty amazing. If you compare shots taken with consumer cameras from all the major brands, after a while, you'd see that there's something (special) about the Panasonic pictures that a lot of the other brands lack.

Noise is often a variable that a lot of people tend to get overly hung up on. An excessive amount of it is understandably bad, but too little of it often means too little micro detail (the Fuji F11 seems to be quite the exception to this) For me, what's more important is that the noise pattern does not look objectionable. Frankly, I think sometimes, pictures that look too clean tend to lack soul. The LX1, FX9 and the FZ5 seem to capture pictures that have a lot of soul. I like Panasonics's balance of 'soul' and noise. One of the other salient attributes of the Panasonic picture quality is that I seem to be able to discern micro detail that many other camera brand's processing algorithms turn into mush - e.g., fine grass detail.

IMO, the S80 is frankly nothing extraordinary in terms of picture quality. It's good but not a standout, if you know what I mean. For me, the S60 gave much better pictures, though that model had other issues that I couldn't live with. Frankly, if you're after a Canon, the IXUS 750 seems to be yielding better looking pictures (to me) than the S80. Of course we're just talking about picture quality alone - the S80 is a genuine enthusiast compact with a lot more advanced features than the 750.

Keng Hor is of course an excellent photographer on his own right with a very keen eye.

ps. you can download some full size samples from the Lumix site and pixel peep if you like.

 

[maddog]

Frankly, from a personal perspective, I rate Panasonic's in-camera jpeg picture quality currently the highest around. (Look, this is my subjective opinion, so if you want to yell at me, feel free to do so ). Whilst the colours may not generally be as immediately attractive as Fuji or Oly (for most I'd guess), the quality of the jpegs from their better models is astoundingly good. There's something special about them that the other brands seem to lack.

From the FX-3 onwards, I have noticed that their in-camera picture processing algorithms have been yielding some of the most film-like pictures around with incredibly rich tones. The current Venus II Engine is pretty amazing. If you compare shots taken with consumer cameras from all the major brands, after a while, you'd see that there's something (special) about the Panasonic pictures that a lot of the other brands lack.

Noise is often a variable that a lot of people tend to get overly hung up on. An excessive amount of it is understandably bad, but too little of it often means too little micro detail (the Fuji F11 seems to be quite the exception to this) For me, what's more important is that the noise pattern does not look objectionable. Frankly, I think sometimes, pictures that look too clean tend to lack soul. The LX1, FX9 and the FZ5 seem to capture pictures that have a lot of soul. I like Panasonics's balance of 'soul' and noise. One of the other salient attributes of the Panasonic picture quality is that I seem to be to discern micro detail that many other camera brand's processing algorithms turn into mush - e.g., fine grass detail.

IMO, the S80 is frankly nothing extraordinary in terms of picture quality. It's good but not a standout, if you know what I mean. For me, the S60 gave much better pictures, though that model had other issues that I couldn't live with. Frankly, if you're after a Canon, the IXUS 750 seems to be yielding better looking pictures (to me) than the S80. Of course we're just talking about picture quality alone - the S80 is a genuine enthusiast compact with a lot more advanced features than the 750.

Keng Hor is of course an excellent photographer on his own right with a very keen eye.

ps. you can download some full size samples from the Lumix site and pixel peep if you like.

hey thanks for the in-depth personal comments. i feel much better now getting this camera.

 

[kahheng]

hey thanks for the in-depth personal comments. i feel much better now getting this camera.

I think what you might want to do is to choose a couple of your favourite shots taken with the LX1 and get them printed out.

I'd bet you that with properly captured shots, printed with an LED printer, you will be able to get very nice 19"x11" prints from the camera. Give Fotohub a go. They use a nice Kodak LED printer that needs only 200ppi to deliver really good results.

Personally, I often prefer to retain the noise pattern with cameras that have 'good-looking' noise and remove the objectionable RGB colours in the noise pattern instead. Try something like Quantum Mechanic instead of noise 'elimination' programs like Neatimage.

 

[maddog]

I think what you might want to do is to make a couple of prints from your favourite shots taken with the LX1 and get them printed out.

I'd bet you that with properly captured shots, printed with an LED printer, you will be able to get very nice 19"x11" prints from the camera. Give Fotohub a go. They use a nice Kodak LED printer that needs only 200ppi to deliver really good results.

Personally, I often prefer to retain the noise pattern with cameras that have 'good-looking' noise and remove the objectionable RGB colours in the noise pattern instead. Try something like Quantum Mechanic instead of noise 'elimination' programs like Neatimage.

Envisioning 19x11 posters littering my hallway.......

 

[weekh]

I share the same sentiment as Kah Heng regarding the noise attribute from LX1.
Sometimes I prefer to leave the noise there instead of removing it. After Noise Ninja, the image may become too smooth and unreal and some details may also be removed as well. The only exception is at ISO400 where the noise is unacceptable.

So far I'm only using the default setting in Noise Ninja. I've downloaded a chart from the Noise Ninja website but am too lazy to set the correct profile for the camera. With the correct profile, I guess the software will be more effective in removing the RGB noise instead of some of the details.

But if u guys managed to set the profile first, I would like to get it from u instead.

 

[maddog]

I share the same sentiment as Kah Heng regarding the noise attribute from LX1.
Sometimes I prefer to leave the noise there instead of removing it. After Noise Ninja, the image may become too smooth and unreal and some details may also be removed as well. The only exception is at ISO400 where the noise is unacceptable.

So far I'm only using the default setting in Noise Ninja. I've downloaded a chart from the Noise Ninja website but am too lazy to set the correct profile for the camera. With the correct profile, I guess the software will be more effective in removing the RGB noise instead of some of the details.

But if u guys managed to set the profile first, I would like to get it from u instead.

Tried Noise Ninja. Quite bad. Neat Image is better. I like film grain more than digital noise.

 

[lyrrad]

Fortune teller says I'll be receiving the LX1 underwater housing within 2 weeks.

Hey weekh,
where are u getting ur underwater housing from? Customized from...? If you're willing to share.

BTW, flickr has a LX1 group here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/62448469@N00