Panasonic LX5 - A Compact Worthy Of Pro Photographers

The Panasonic Lumix LX5 is an awesome picture making machine. And while the Panasonic folks have not been able budge Canon and Nikon off the mountaintop in the digital SLR market, they sure have a huge slice of the market in compact cameras.The LX5 could be their very best camera in that market.Just what is it that makes this digital compact so special?To answer that, you must look at more than one element of the camera. Beginning with the lens, there is a wide aperture f/2.0 Leica lens in front of the 10.1-megapixel CCD image sensor. That sounds somewhat techy, but photographers know the value of Leica. That company has a respected name in the industry.Speaking of "only" 10.1 megapixels, Panasonic has been a leader with regard to adding quality rather than quantity to the pixels in their sensors. We are finally getting the message that the number of pixels is not as important as the quality of those pixels. And experts have been proclaiming the excellence of this Panasonic sensor since the LX3 made its mark with pro photo shooters.Also adding to the quality package is the ability to take those low-light shots without  all the noise that is a common mark of compact digitals. Compacts have been moving toward jpeg processing in the form of shooting modes that can be easily programmed with a button or dial, and, yes, the Panasonic LX5 has those, but for the pros, there is the ability to process RAW images so that post processing is so much more powerful.Video has been taken up another notch, too, with a handy button that changes to video mode without having to interrupt the work flow of the photographer.There is just so much control and power that has been built into this little pocket camera, that you owe it to yourself to check out the full review and comparison at www.digital-photographic-resources.com.