PANASONIC LUMIX LX10 :: THE ULTIMATE COMPACT?

So I have a camera that I want to share with you guys today. This is the latest from Panasonic that came out this week. This is the Panasonic Lumix LX10, which is designed to compete in the high-end compact point-and-shoot category. So it's designed to compete with things like the Sony RX100 series. It is considerably less expensive, which is nice and features a lot of the same stuff that you're going to see on the RX100 series. It can also be viewed as a younger sibling to the LX100, which is a slightly larger looking version of the same idea. And one of the key features on here is that it has a physical aperture ring. And so when you're in aperture priority mode or if you're in manual mode, it makes it kind of nice because you're going to actually dial in your aperture that way. And with compact cameras, especially sometimes because of the physical restrictions, there's only so many knobs and dials that you can get on a camera. And so it is nice to be able to physically turn the aperture to dial it in. Another feature that a lot of people are really excited about is it does feature a 180 degree tilt screen. So ideally, this would make a very interesting vlogging camera. And I'll come back to that in a minute. But first, let's dive in and look at some of the features of the LX10. The Lumix LX10 features a 24mm to 72mm equivalent f1.4 to 2.8 Leica VarioSumilux. And the reason I put an asterisk there is because that is an equivalent to 35mm, except when you're recording in 4K, which is a slight caveat. The LX10 does feature cropping when it's shooting in 4K. So on the widest angle, it's probably more like a 37mm. The camera features a 1-inch sensor, which is capable of shooting 20.1 megapixel still images and shoots both 1080 and 4K video. It uses an optical digital hybrid 5-axis image stabilization. And the usual Panasonic features are found here, such as 4K photo mode, post-focus and focus stacking. Image quality on the LX10 is quite good. Now, low light performance is better than average, especially when you consider it's only a 1-inch sensor. However, having a really fast lens at 1.4 certainly helps in low light conditions. Usability and layout are exceptional on the LX10. And this is something that is very evident in most Panasonic cameras. They give you a ton of custom function buttons that you can assign to whatever you want. There are three physical buttons on the camera and there are five additional that are accessible via the touchscreen. As expected, the touchscreen is exceptional on here as well. Everything is easy to use, easy to navigate, and probably the best feature is just being able to touch to focus an object in your scene. Another interesting feature that Panasonic has introduced with this camera is the way it handles high frame rate burst mode shooting. So, the frame rate on here, you can shoot RAW and JPEG images at a high burst rate, which is kind of the standard burst rate, and it allows you to do 10 frames a second. Now, unfortunately, the buffer fills up after 12 images, so that's just a little over a second of shooting, but you do get a full resolution RAW and JPEG files. Alternatively, there is a super high frame rate burst mode on here, which allows you to shoot up to 50 frames a second. The caveat here is at 60 frames a second it fills up, so again, a little longer than a second, and this is JPEG only at 5 megapixels. Probably the best option if you really want to do some high speed shooting to capture a specific moment is to go ahead and use the 4K video option or the 4K photo option, which essentially takes a 4K video, which is 8 megapixels, and this allows you to shoot at 30 frames a second, you get a slightly longer buffer. So, it's interesting that you're seeing Panasonic move into this direction, but the buffer seems to be the bottleneck on this camera, and you really have to get good at picking your moments wisely with something like this. The LX10 does not have an electronic viewfinder, however, there is a pop-up flash and it is tiltable. Now, it's not tiltable a full 45 degree angle, but if you want to use a bounce flash, it is possible with this camera. Now, the LX10 is a compact camera, however, it is quite large for a compact camera. Just to give you a size comparison, here it is next to a Canon G9X, and you can see it is considerably larger. And if we compare that to the RX100 V, you can see that they're about the same thickness, however, the LX100 is slightly longer and slightly taller. So, let's talk video for just a second. Right now, as a point of comparison, I am filming with the Sony RX100 V, so that's what you're looking at, and we are filming in 4K. And so, what I'm going to do is I'm going to switch this out to the Lumix so you can see the difference, and we're going to do that right here. Now, the first thing you're going to notice is that this has cropped in on me a lot, and that has to do with the fact that we are recording in 4K, and I'm just going to scoot back just a little bit. And basically, the camera crops in on the sensor when it's recording 4K. It does that for multiple reasons, mainly out of efficiency, but that's what you're stuck with. It does not do that in 1080, just 4K. And the only reason I'm a point out of this is because a 24-millimeter equivalent on its widest end when you're shooting 4K is more like in the ballpark of 36, 37 millimeters. And if you want to use this camera for 4K vlogging, just know that it's going to have to be held way out away from you. Otherwise, it's just too close. In fact, for most people, I think that's going to be further than arm's distance, so you're going to need one of the little pixie tripods or a GorillaPod or something like that to make that happen. However, the video quality is nice. It records 4K great. And one thing that this has over the Sony is that this will do 4K without overheating after five minutes, which is quite nice to have as well. So I feel like with both these cameras, there's a bit of a trade-off when it comes to video. And the Sony, it's weird because Sony have made some major improvements in recent years to things like their sensor where you're The most recent iteration of the RX100 V features face detection autofocus, and so it's a lot more consistent. It has a larger buffer, but it's asking it to do more than the processor can handle. And so that's why you have an overheating problem. You get the same recording quality. It's an MP4 file at a hundred megabytes per second on the LX100. However, you don't have the limit of the five minutes recording time, mainly because it seems to have a stronger processor in it, but it all depends on what you want to do, what the look is you want to get. And I think also importantly, the ergonomics of it and what you're getting it for. And if you're getting it for vlogging and you want to do 4K, just know that hand-holding is going to be a little bit of a problem at times. So somebody always asked me this question. Was I using the built-in microphones on the camera in that last clip? The answer is no. What I was using is this, and I did a video on this recently. This is a little rig that I put together that I affectionately call the Sparrow Mach 1. I name all my stuff after birds. But anyway, really all it is, it's very simple. It's a mounting plate and I've got it mounted to the Manfrotto BeFree right now, but it's a mounting plate that has room for a compact camera. In this case, it's the RX100 V, which I replaced with the Lumix LX10 a second ago. So if you don't have an input jack on your camera, you can use something like this. And what I use is a Zoom H1 that I just use for recording audio, and I actually use a Rode VideoMicro, which is going into the input there. So basically, I'm recording my audio here. I'm recording it here too, but I'm not going to use this. And then when I go into Final Cut, I merge the clips together and it uses the audio from here, not the camera. The reason I'm saying that, the reason I did not use it on here is really, I have never seen a camera, particularly one that was designed to do stills in video, that had decent microphones in it. It's just part of the deal. I mean, right now, this rig I'm recording on, I'm using a Rode VideoMic Pro on here. You need to find a way to do external audio. And unfortunately, there is no audio input on here. There's not one on the RX100 either. I mean, this is kind of standard for compact cameras. And when I did a video on here, and I'll link that up if you were interested in seeing it, but a couple of people had said, well, you just kind of defeated the purpose because it's no longer a pocketable camera. Well, what is your intention and what are you trying to do with it? So when I use the RX100 or the LX10, for that matter, if I'm just shooting B-roll that I'm going to put music over, I'm not really concerned about the dialogue being recorded, then yeah, I throw that in my pocket and I go and I record stuff that way. But if I'm doing a vlog or something, maybe an interview with somebody where I want to capture decent audio, these microphones just don't cut it. In fact, and I hate to bash on Panasonic in this case, but like the other two reviews that I did this year on the G7 and the GX85, it's like Panasonic go out of their way to find the worst microphones they possibly can on here. And unfortunately, audio is a big part of doing video. And so this is just a solution that I've developed. So I don't have to worry about it on any of these cameras, no matter what I'm using. You can put any point and shoot on here. It's still really lightweight. I have a mounting plate and sitting on the Befree right now, but I could take this off and just hold it by hand. There's no weight to it. It's really pretty easy to use and pretty awesome. So anyway, into conclusion, I will do a more in-depth review coming soon on the Panasonic Lumix LX10. So far, this is just my first impressions. It's not bad. It's weird because I was interested in this camera because the RX105 is amazing as the image quality is on here, particularly for 4K video. It has shortcomings, the five-minute recording limit, the image stabilization. It has built-in image stabilization, but it's not great. A lot of people refer to it as the Sony micro jitters. If you're hand-holding, it's sort of stable, but it just kind of, you see these jitters that come in and it's quite annoying and distracting and it kind of defeats the purpose. The LX10 has a five-axis, it's a hybrid optical digital image stabilization, but it is there. It's not great either, especially in 4K because you're not really getting the maximum potential out of it, but it is better than nothing and I don't seem to be getting the micro jitters on this. You do still have to work on your technique and being really still. You know, so I'm just, I'm not completely sure yet what I think of this, but so far, I'm pretty impressed. Now, here's the deal. This camera is $300 less than that camera and so if $300 is a big deal to you and you don't need things like the ability to shoot at 24 frames a second, RAW and JPEG files, or you don't need some of the other things that the Sony offers, for instance, phase detection, autofocus, the extended buffer. If you don't need those things, then this is probably the camera for you, but if you want the electronic viewfinder and you want those options, it's probably worth $300 to upgrade to the Sony RX100 Mark V. But anyway, I will do another video on this later and I will get more into the specifics of these, but anyway, I thought you guys would want to see that. I've been having a lot of fun the last couple of days with this and there will be more to come. So anyway, if you guys enjoyed this episode, please remember to like it, share it, and subscribe to The Art of Photography so you'll always be up to date on all the latest and greatest things that we do here. Until the next video, I'll see you guys then. Later.