Carmen picked up our new Panasonic Lumix LX5 today (+1 for Alan). We had the LX3, but Ada took it out of our hands so we can try out this new baby. LX5 improves upon the already near perfect LX3 by increasing (one of my major complaints) the optical zoom from 2.0x to 3.8x. The other major thing they changed was they increased the ISO to a monster 12,800, from the original 3,200. One can never have too much ISO!
We got the camera at SIG Electronics at a great price. It’s selling for $499 at Amazon.com, but we were able to get it at $469, and then another $10 off per camera since we got 2. The SIG guy said the LX3 was the strangest camera they had ever seen…it was out for 2 full years and the price practically never dropped for it, which is an extreme rarity for a piece of electronic. Even long after they sold out on it there had never been a shortage of people asking them for one. As I’m going on Craigslist now, I see people still selling used LX3′s for $350!
I guess it’s coz of the retro form factor, the beautiful out-of-the-box vibrancy of the pics, and the fact that Leica’s selling the exact same camera under a different brand for twice the retail price. It was a sure win for a camera like the LX3!
So we are happy to get an LX5. Carmen has another toy to use when she takes pics at her weddings. I still have my relatively new GF1 I got at Heathrow Airport on the way back from our wedding trip (at a really cheap price!) So everyone’s happy. I’m just hoping to see the long 100-300mm lens for the GF1 soon. Stella is waiting for my 45-200mm.
Also, I just got rid of my 100-400L for my Canon (finally). I was kind of lazy selling it, since it was the only long lens I had left. But I wanted to sell it coz I found that I really don’t shoot that long that often (I rather use the 100-300mm for the GF1 when I get it), and I need the money to get the 24L Mark 2. Now the cash is in my hand, off I’m going to search for the 24L!
by ProjectMoonlightCafe
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