greencastle1
Member
Hi all,
I've been using a DSLR (first Olympus E300 then E1 -- unbelievable bargain these days, I doubt I'll ever own a better camera) for a while, but like many here wanted something smaller to carry around all the time. Was tempted by the LX1 last year, but gave in to the temptation to the LX2 this year. Have only had it for two days, so not much to report yet. Three initial impressions.
First, I'm really impressed with the metering and colors. Very nice camera, quick (even shooting raw, my e300 wasn't much faster processing raw shots) takes great shots.
Second, the much discussed issue regarding the blurring of low-contrast detail seems like the real deal. I find myself taking close ups of backlit subjects fairly frequently, I like the way the light becomes the subject of the picture as much as the nominal subject. So here's an example where (I think anyway) it's easy to see the fall-off in detail in low contrast areas -- shadows right next to in focus and lighted areas. The exposure is fine for the shadow areas (again, the camera does a good job at this as far as I can tell so far), but the detail really takes a nose dive. Here's the original photo resized for the web:
And here's a 100% crop showing shadow areas next to in focus areas:
The second thing I see so far is that, to put it politely, the bokeh going to take some getting used to. Again, I do a fair number of close up shots, and have really come to love the surreal background effects possible with a DSLRs, a good lens, and small aperatures. First impressions are that I'm not going to be tempted to aim for those kinds of shots with the LX2. Nice lens, but I'm not impressed with the bokeh thus far. Perhaps I just haven't found out how to play to its strengths yet, I don't know. Here's an example resized for the web:
There are a few more examples at http://www.flickr.com/photos/afrjc/ and these include a couple more 100% crops.
All photos shot raw, converted to dng, unapologetically post processed in Lightroom with wildly varying settings, then converted to jpg and resized.
Overall, nit picking aside, I'm enjoying the camera so far and look forward to getting to know it better. No regrets yet, should be a fun carry around camera and I imagine it won't take long to accumulate keeper shots that I would have missed entirely without it.
r
I've been using a DSLR (first Olympus E300 then E1 -- unbelievable bargain these days, I doubt I'll ever own a better camera) for a while, but like many here wanted something smaller to carry around all the time. Was tempted by the LX1 last year, but gave in to the temptation to the LX2 this year. Have only had it for two days, so not much to report yet. Three initial impressions.
First, I'm really impressed with the metering and colors. Very nice camera, quick (even shooting raw, my e300 wasn't much faster processing raw shots) takes great shots.
Second, the much discussed issue regarding the blurring of low-contrast detail seems like the real deal. I find myself taking close ups of backlit subjects fairly frequently, I like the way the light becomes the subject of the picture as much as the nominal subject. So here's an example where (I think anyway) it's easy to see the fall-off in detail in low contrast areas -- shadows right next to in focus and lighted areas. The exposure is fine for the shadow areas (again, the camera does a good job at this as far as I can tell so far), but the detail really takes a nose dive. Here's the original photo resized for the web:
And here's a 100% crop showing shadow areas next to in focus areas:
The second thing I see so far is that, to put it politely, the bokeh going to take some getting used to. Again, I do a fair number of close up shots, and have really come to love the surreal background effects possible with a DSLRs, a good lens, and small aperatures. First impressions are that I'm not going to be tempted to aim for those kinds of shots with the LX2. Nice lens, but I'm not impressed with the bokeh thus far. Perhaps I just haven't found out how to play to its strengths yet, I don't know. Here's an example resized for the web:
There are a few more examples at http://www.flickr.com/photos/afrjc/ and these include a couple more 100% crops.
All photos shot raw, converted to dng, unapologetically post processed in Lightroom with wildly varying settings, then converted to jpg and resized.
Overall, nit picking aside, I'm enjoying the camera so far and look forward to getting to know it better. No regrets yet, should be a fun carry around camera and I imagine it won't take long to accumulate keeper shots that I would have missed entirely without it.
r
