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This is a worthy successor to the DMC-LX3, offering a powerful sensor and image processor and a great lens at a reasonable price. It just falls short of being a five star best buy though.
We liked:
The lens is really good. It's sharp, fast and bright and the maximum aperture, and offers reasonable telephoto reach (just watch out for some building distortion when shooting widescreen ). The Lumix DMC-LX5 is very easy to use, but also has some very useful extras, such as aspect-ratio adjustment via the lens, easy HD video recording and high ISO flexibility,
We disliked:
There's no electronic viewfinder as standard, and the fact that the fixed rear LCD can't be swivelled rubs salt into the wounds. The aspect-ratio adjuster we praised a moment ago is also annoyingly easy to activate by mistake, and changing exposure compensation should be more idiot-proof. Telephoto reach is a bit limited, too.
Verdict:
If you don't need long telephoto reach, full 1080p HD video recording and a swivel screen, the Lumix DMC-LX5 is definitely worth considering. It's well made, generally well-thought-out and has a great lens. A great family camera or SLR replacement in other words, but hardly an impulse buy at £360 - so while its downsides are not huge, they do need to be weighed up.
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