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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX150

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Don,

For $600 this is a camera with f2.8 at the widest end of 28mm. The diffraction limit is easily exceeded for this 1/1.72" tiny sensor with tinier sensels. It goes from f 2.8 to f 9.0 in just "two stops". Does not sound good! The tele is from f 5.6 to f18. Why? Again I see two stops. F18 is way too small an aperture for this camera!

It seems this camera is designed to High Def enthusiasts and has the capability to adjust for many different backlit or poorly lit conditions. This capability is in the new Venus IV imaging engine common to their new cameras. I'd have preferred 24 mm as the wider end and less pixels but I bet this is still a very smart and easy to use camera. I'd be suspicious of Sony claims of ISO 1600. Still, this camera seems to have a lot going for it.

There's other candidates: the now "old in the tooth" Canon G9 who's lens is probably not as good, (CA at the wide end) but it's a proven system that uses all the Canon speedlights! There's also a new LX3 comes with manual controls, F2.0-F2.8 24-60mm (35mm equivalent) Leica DC Vario-Summicron lens, a somewhat larger 1/1.63-inch CCD sensor with 10.1 million effective pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio of the sensor and LCD. I like that! It also has a x0.75 WA accessor lens which would then give the widest focal length of 18mm! There's also an accessory viewfinder.

The Lumix DMC-LX3 price tag in the U.K is £399.99 compares £299 for the DMC-FX150 and commensurate with that it's 10% bigger in every direction! 265g v 179 gm a 30% greater weight too!

However, I have the feeling that the DMC-LX3 will be of more use to the photographer who knows what they are doing. 24 mm is a good wide end for street scenes and vacation as well as indoors. It zooms to 75 mm so that covers people and short tele, HA, Ha!

That's thee one I'd like!

The other camera, with f18 aperture and nearly 15MP is off in fantasy land! Still, if the images were taken with the higher pixel level camera and the image reduced to 10MP, doubtless there would be little difference in 8x10 prints for images using f5.6 apertures.

I'd love to see both cameras!

Asher
 

Don Shreve

pro member
Thanks, Asher-
I missed the fact that there were only 2 available apertures.
I think you're right about the LX3.
 
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