I'm not a landscape or nature photographer, but after a particularly big lunch I needed to go for a walk, so I brought along my Panasonic LX3 to try a few nature/macro snapshots. This little thing continues to surprise me!  All the shots below are pretty much straight from the camera jpegs, with just a little sharpening. The color images were shot using the "vibrant" mode and the b&w image using "dynamic b&w".

Many of the shots were at ISO 400. They all look pretty clean to me, with plenty of detail and not too objectionable shadow noise, unless you're someone that really, really, likes to do in-depth pixel peeping. (In which case you, um, probably didn't have a date to the prom...)

1. ISO 200, f4.0, 1/250 sec, 60mm equivalent

2. ISO 400, f2.7, 1/60 sec, 52mm equivalent

3. ISO 200, f2.0, 1/400 sec, 24mm equivalent

4. ISO 400, f2.8, 1/640 sec, 60mm equivalent

5. ISO 100, f2.0, 1/20 sec, 24mm equivalent

6. ISO 400, f2.5, 1/13 sec, 41mm equivalent. I couldn't take this shot with my 5D. 1/13th sec hand-held!!

7. ISO 400, f2.0, 1/30 sec, 24mm equivalent

8.  ISO 400, f2.0, 1/30 sec, 24mm equivalent

9.  ISO 400, f2.5, 1/2000 sec, 41mm equivalent

I certainly believe this. But my one quibble with the article is that he seems to put too much emphasis on the G10 itself - stating that it's crossed some sort of image-quality threshold - when in fact he could have substituted the G10 with almost any good point-n-shoot and the results would have been about the same. If you shoot static subjects in decent light, you might as well save yourself $39,500 and get a good point-n-shoot.

In fact, for certain subjects such as landscapes, nature and fine art, a good point-n-shoot like the LX3 could be the best tool for the job, sometimes even better than a DSLR or a $40k medium-format DSLR.

Why?

• Would you rather schlepp around 20 pounds of gear (camera, lenses, tripod, ballhead, etc.) or a 9 ounce camera that you put in a pouch on your belt?
  

• No need to change lenses. Really handy for a day like yesterday, when I was taking pictures on a rainy day on a muddy trail.

• The combination of built-in image stabilization + greater depth of field you get with a small sensor means that a tripod is not required. No tripod means more creativity, as you can get yourself in more positions and are less likely to remained anchored in a few spots.

• Greater depth of field means no need to stop down to tiny apertures like f16 which soften images due to diffraction.

• Shooting with bigger apertures also means faster shutter speeds, which = sharper images.

• Fixed lens means no dust spots on the sensor.

• No mirror slap means the camera doesn't vibrate = sharper pictures, even if you're using use mirror lockup.

• Overall image quality will be just as good as a DSLR (if not better) because of all the reasons listed above.

On the other hand, if you want to shoot anything that moves, is in very low light,  with a shallow depth of field, or that requires long telephoto lenses (e.g. wildlife, sports, or weddings) you'll need a DSLR. Horses for courses.

A final surprising conclusion about the Panasonic LX3:

Since Adobe has not yet updated their software, I've been shooting the LX3 exclusively in jpeg. For color images I've been using the "vibrant" setting, for b&w the "dynamic b&w" setting and for people the "nostalgic" setting.

As a professional photographer, I've never even considered using these "dummy modes" before. My thought was to just always shoot raw and then tweak the image in post to get it the way I want it. But you know what? These jpegs look so good straight out of the camera that I think I'll stick with jpeg on this puppy, even after Adobe supports the LX3 raw files. Technology has evolved so why fight it?

I've also learned to not even fiddle with exposure compensation. Using matrix metering and aperture priority mode, all of my images were within 1/3 stop of perfect so with this camera I haven't even bothered using exposure compensation. The metering is far more intelligent on the LX3 than on my 5D.

I do have 2 complaints with the camera, though: the door that covers the SD card/battery is shockingly flimsy - paper thin. It'll be interesting to see how long it actually lasts. Second, the mode dial on the top of the camera moves really easily, so you need to check it nearly with every shot.

The bottom line - I rarely shoot anything other than people. But when I find myself motivated to shoot landscapes, nature or fine art, the LX3 is the best tool in my arsenal. My 5D and L lenses will stay home and pout.

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