Hi, just returned a new Dlux 4 after playing with it for 2 days, being somewhat disappointed. Features are ok and plentyful, probably a bit overload. Nothing you couldn't better do in Lightroom afterwards. If you like scene modes fine, but test the scene modes (8 or 12) and then add the different flavor of film modes (5 or 6 plus your own), plus aperture and exposure, then try to figure out which settings to use in which situation (and I'm not a newcomer to photography).
Problems:
What was disappointing was the image quality of even the RAW shots. I'm not sure if I expected too much, but a 'Leica' lens look it ain't. Wide open, on slow exposure, portraits were slightly soft in areas (I'm aware of the shallow DOF). Busy patterns (a wool knit sweater, eyebrow hairs) did not have as much clarity as I had wished for. My much older Digilux 2 and some M lenses produce far superior pics (and yes they are larger and costlier, but still). I probably expected too much. It really is a fancy point and shoot for your shirt pocket, but then the Panasonic does the trick. (BTW I had upgraded to the latest firm ware).
PS: I should probably add that I shot in my studio near a big daylight window with an overcast sky. I know that these are not ideal conditions, but then every camera takes nice pics with sunshine and 6:00 PM light so I wanted to test specifically under more challenging conditions. Every shot looked better stopped down 1/3. The LCD is very good, and almost a bit deceiving versus what it looked on the (yes) color corrected monitor.
Problems:
What was disappointing was the image quality of even the RAW shots. I'm not sure if I expected too much, but a 'Leica' lens look it ain't. Wide open, on slow exposure, portraits were slightly soft in areas (I'm aware of the shallow DOF). Busy patterns (a wool knit sweater, eyebrow hairs) did not have as much clarity as I had wished for. My much older Digilux 2 and some M lenses produce far superior pics (and yes they are larger and costlier, but still). I probably expected too much. It really is a fancy point and shoot for your shirt pocket, but then the Panasonic does the trick. (BTW I had upgraded to the latest firm ware).
PS: I should probably add that I shot in my studio near a big daylight window with an overcast sky. I know that these are not ideal conditions, but then every camera takes nice pics with sunshine and 6:00 PM light so I wanted to test specifically under more challenging conditions. Every shot looked better stopped down 1/3. The LCD is very good, and almost a bit deceiving versus what it looked on the (yes) color corrected monitor.