Panasonic LX3
It thought you had a 300D, why do you need another camera?
I love my Canon 300d to bits. With the battery-grip on it, it feels nice in the hand and with my Tamron 28-75 f2.8 lens (which never comes off it) I get sharp clear pictures with smooth tones.
Since Vi was born (and before that, when Rof came on the scene) I’ve barely taken the 300d out. It just feels big and heavy. Sure, it’s an SLR, I should expect that, but trying to juggle the 300d controlling my dependents was hard work. What I needed was a quality compact that could fit in a pocket. Something that let me manually control the camera without the bulk. Enter the LX3.
First impressions
The LX3 is a good looking camera. The retro styling just looks pimp. In camera reviews, people whinge about things like battery flaps and connector covers and lens caps. Coming from a 300d, everything feels incredibly solid and well put together. I’ve used insulating tape to ‘stealth up’ my camera which hides some of the bling — this makes me feel less self-conscious when shooting with it.
Performance
I’m still learning the features of the camera, but by default it’ll try to select the best ISO for you. Instead of instantly turning this off, I’ve left it on with the upper limit set to ISO 800. I’m figuring that it’d be better to get a noisy picture than miss it altogether.
Although at 100% crops the LX3 appears noisier than the 300D, the LX3 is a very flexible camera. I find myself taking pictures (or more accurately being able to take pictures) in environments where the 300D couldn’t cope without expensive lenses. Pretty big deal.
Personal references
I’d heard good things about the camera from @newvibes. Also it turns out @wilfreeborn picked one up after he traded in his Ricoh GR1. Both liked it. I also really like mine.
Ploblems?
Not having a viewfinder built in sucks for me — coming from an SLR it’s difficult to frame shots without putting your eye up to the camera. Sure I could buy one, but they are expensive. The cheapest I’ve found is the Ricoh GV-1, which I may take a punt on.