Hey, LX5 users, where are you?
Meanwhile a comment from an LX3 user.
Let's ignore the reviewers and get the camera working properly.
With any camera for jpegs it is best to set Sharpness at the very minimum setting, usually -2. That gives less noise and eliminates edge halos. Sharpening is always best done in post process to suit the display method or print size.
Next is to set any noise filter (NR in the LX3/5 film settings) to minimum -2 (or off in some cameras). That stops dreaded detail smearing. Now the results are starting to look like what the RAWs deliver.
After that it's personal taste to maybe set the saturation and contrast to lower levels than default which gives a safer jpeg to later work on to get the result you like to look at. I use my LX3 with Standard film with contrast -1, sharpness -2, saturation -1, noise reduction -2. That gives me a possibly slightly flat looking jpeg with realistic colours that can easily be boosted a bit in post process if needed. Skin usually looks OK with that setup.
Auto white balance can be trimmed and mine is set at left 1 and down 1 from the centre, but it may change. It's easy to fine tune white balance most times in post process.
Auto ISO works fine but setting the upper limit is a good idea, for LX3 I don't go over ISO 200, for LX5 probably over 400 would be a bad idea. Unless you use B&W only and you like grain/noise.
The free Silkypix SE is definitely worth getting used to. It has always most easily provided the best looking results from RAW or jpeg.
http://www.isl.co.jp/SILKYPIX/english/p/ Ages ago in a long winded effort to prove to myself about which RAW converter was best for prints, I found Silkypix SE was the best, even though Adobe ACR conversions gave a bit more pixel peeping detail, that difference was entirely lost even on an A2 print (about 20 inch wide). It was easiest to get the best looking colours from Silkypix conversions. I use Qimage for all printing.
Naturally I carried it a bit further and compared that RAW conversion print to the companion out of camera jpeg, run through Silkypix to make it look a bit better and printed to the same size.... it was the best looking by a tiny whisker. So much for RAW. I guess the LX5 would behave much the same.
So the summary about using jpegs is not to leave the camera at default settings, it must be tuned.
As for LX5 firmware, so sign of anything yet on the update page.
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/download/index.html
Some possibly useful LX5 links on my page...
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/panasonic/05-links.html#lx5
Regards...... Guy
Hello everybody,
i am strongly leaning towards to present a DMC-LX5 to my friend, who is a jpeg-shooter. As many reviews show this camera is one of the best you can get, but one weak point of the 2010 firmware is substandard in-camera JPEG processing ( e. g. Thom Hogan). Running the raw files, acuity pops up and you get rid of the green cast of autoWB at higher ISO.
I read in a german fotomag (Colorfoto 8/2011) the DMC-LX5 is delivered with new firmware since a couple of weeks. According to this review the impressive IQ gets even better (higher DR, less noise).
Can anybody, who has bought a DMC-LX5 lately, confirm the firmware-upgrade? Is a DMC-LX5 suitable for jpeg-shooters?
Any advice is appreciated!
Thank you
Wolf
