Photographer’s Guide to the Panasonic Lumix LX100

http://whiteknightpress.com/photographers-guide-to-the-panasonic-lumix-lx100/

HI there, any plan to hack the HDMI out on this little marvellous babe? :)

Awesome footage @deedive

Wasn't it advertised by Panasonic that this camera was manufactured at their Yamagata Plant? How come it is still made in China? Funny that my FZ1000 is made in Japan and not this..nor the GH4 for that matter..

Must only be the optics manufactured in Japan...? I maybe completely wrong about all of this!

Also concerning batteries, I've found that GF3 batteries (DMW-BLE9PP) work with this camera, though the voltage rating is 6.8Wh and not 7.4Wh output, plus they are 940mAh instead of 1025mAh.

Might not be ideal, but can work if you have the older batteries lying around and need spares. Might be better than 3rd party batteries.

I recorded some of the New Year's activities in Sao Miguel, Azores. Here's part 1 that shows some of the things happening before the main fireworks event.

Main fireworks event.

Part 3 will be online some other time.

Basically I was sort of using the camera as if it was a camcorder and hardly did much editing since I wanted the videos to go up sooner than later. You can check my settings in the description area of part 1.

Ooops. Sorry. Just ignore everything I said about the GH3! I just assumed they had the same controls. Bad assumption!

I don't have a LX100. I have a GH3. But, when I hear you say "hit the record button" I think I know the problem? The constant preview works in M mode FOR STILLS. But, if you want the same ability to preview the exposure for Video, switch to "Creative Movie Mode" instead of "M" on the mode dial.

For the constant preview to work in Creative Movie Mode, you need to have first used the movie setup menus to set the Exposure mode to "M" in Creative Movie mode.

If you do this, and shoot in Creative Movie mode, then you will not see an exposure change when you begin to record.

Note..the entire comment above ASSUMES that the LX100 works like the GH3.

@gameb It seams like you probably have the same problem I had at first. If you do, that can be fixed.

Go into the menu and choose the icon that has a wrench and a C, go to page 5/9 and put the "Constant Preview" to on. This will allow you to see how your shots will look before you hit record.

Just got my LX 100. I got some wrong setting, I guess. Camera is in "M" mode. After hitting record, why does the exposer/light changes? How can I get the real exposer/light on the viewer?

I actually did get to figure out a problem I had about constantly being able to see my adjustments happening live without hitting record. Go into the menu and choose the icon that has a wrench and a C, go to page 5/9 and put the "Constant Preview" to on. That's good because it stunk having to only view my adjustments after I hit record. I'd like to view them before I hit record.

Anyway, here's a quick clip I shot at Revere Beach and then uploaded directly from the card/

Vimeo version for people who wants to download it. vimeo.com/115613544

It was shot in 3840x2160p30. I did not use an ND filter so the shutter might have been either 125 or 250, the Aperture was around f/5.6 or f/6.3, ISO was set to 200.

The camera was on top of one of the side walls that people sits on which is why you see a bit of a shake when I decide to zoom out.

@karl: Thanks for this very useful advice. I am coming from the era of classic video cameras like JVC and Canon. So it's quite a mind shift to use this new type of cameras for video. I am not sure if the lens will strong enough to capture a pygmee seahorse in close up. I asked Nauticam and they gave me the following answer: "We have a macro flip holder developped to mount on the port for wet lens attachment"

@danz: Did you use continous autofocus for underwater videography in the past? My experiences with the GH2 underwater was that this was simply not feasible - way too often, the GH2 did spontaneously hunt for focus, ruining shots. So I always shot with "AFS" underwater, only refocusing by explicitely pressing the trigger half way.

The LX100 is a lot better than the GH2 with regards to how quick and under what lighting conditions the auto-focus works, but I would still be surprised if taking underwater video with continous autofocus works well. Just imagine how a tiny, semi-transparent jelly fish 1m away can ruin your shot of a whale shark 4m away just because the camera has the sudden idea to re-focus on the jelly fish... not good. But I'll sure give "AFC" a try when I get my new underwater housing, just out of curiousity.

The new "AFF" ("Auto Focus Flexible") mode might be more suitable than "AFS" for underwater shooting, so I'll try that, too. I toyed around with that along with the "tracking focus" mode on dry land, and this combination seems to be somewhat good at refocusing on a moving subject only when necessary. But I'm still not sure it is usable under water, just because the probability of something drifting between your camera and the object of interest is so much higher underwater.

Regarding the GH4: There's no known reason to believe that the GH4 (with whatever lens) is better at focusing than the LX100. With many lenses, focusing will take longer than with the one built into the LX100. But the killer argument in favor of the LX100 and against the GH4 (apart from the size) for me is the LX100's ability to focus down to 3cm - so no need to switch between macro and other lenses.