I've been hoping Panasonic would offer Active Mode in video for the LX7 as a firmware update, but no sign of it. I can see that the addition of active mode to the LX5 is offered as an update, along with some other features, but I assume you couldn't use this for the LX7. Vitaliy, is active mode a feature you could add as part of a hack? It would help with video which I note from many examples online is little more shaky than say the HX9v/Hx20v. Screwing in a pistol grip makes a difference but would love to have active mode.

Thanks for the fast reply. Active mode is offered on some Panasonic compacts, as well as camcorders. It is an extra electronic stabilisation feature. For example, it is offered with the LX5:

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/download/LX5/index.html

Also see:

http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/compact/lx5/hd_movie.html#activemode

It does make a noticeable difference to steadiness.

"I think there is something a bit flat/dead about the LX7 output then." I am confused: I thought you wanted a flat look, good for grading. The "fence" video was using a partcular flat "film" choice ('Natural') on purpose. You can choose 'Standard' or 'Vivid', the latter to get a punchy look. You can also set saturation and contrast for each 'film'. So there is not one look. I don't think you xan judge what the LX7 can do in video without trying out all the different settings - the flexibility in looks is what differentiates the LX7 from consumer camcorders.

Then have fun with your RX100.....

@ DailyFilmFix

My understanding is that the RX100 is not completely manual in video mode. And it does not have a 24p mode, right? If hacked, the LX7 might be able to do 24p native. But I've not had any problem mixing 60p with 24p in FCPX. For my show, I've been setting up the three cameras in 720p so that all will be the same frame rate. In that setting, the LX7 suffered because the datarate was so low. I'll shoot a new show again next week at the radio station. I intend to use the LX7 on the table instead of the wide angle. It should be a little better in that capacity.

On the RX100 you can either shoot movie clips in full auto, Shutter, Aperture priority or full manual control of ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. Plus some creative filters ontop of that

No 24p that is correct - which is annoying. But the PAL model can do 25p in that fake 1080 50i AVCHD (25p progressive in a 50i container), or 25p in the lower bit rate mp4 mode. 50p converts to 24p pretty easily by frame dropping, or you can slow the clip to 48fps and frame drop cleanly to 24p. I find my US model's 60p does not cleanly convert to 24p on the RX100, it looks a bit skippy if there is a lot of panning. Unless your doing 40% slo mo which works perfectly.

So I'm thinking of getting a PAL version, which is more flexible, since 50p to 30p works pretty well based on my experiments with sample original clips from the PAL model of various cameras and my GH2. You just need to set the shutter speed to 1/60 or 1/125 so the lights don't strobe.

Or 1/50, and 1/100 for me since I live in PAL land :)

@DailyFilmFix It depends on the type of footage and filming style, but I found panning and sports movements just did not conform well going from 60p to 24p. You can tell frames were dropped, a bit jumpy. Even using Twixtor to reflow the footage still didn't look like filming in native 24p.

One thing that is bugging me of the LX7, is the aliasing on hard contrasted edges. ie in your video on the speaker's right hand side shoulder against the white background.

@stonebat

Yep, cool. Almost required item for LX7.

This is a video I shot during a Rock meets Classic concert in Frankfurt, germany on monday 25-02-2013 (Jahrhunderthalle). Eric Bazilian (The Hooters - one of my main heroes) performing "Johnny B". It was brillant.

I'm not that familar using manual settings. I used MP4 mode 720p 25 (not AVCHD). No need to convert it to a format that can be used in iMovie. Just a a few adjustments in iMovie:

• exposure 82 % (default is 100%)
• brightness minus 21 % (0 %)
• contrast + 32 %
• saturation 66 %

Audio has been tweeked a little in a musical way (which made a huge difference).

Distance to the stage was about 40 m (guessed). Handheld.

All in all I'm rather satisfied with the results. But the main person is over-exposed throughout the whole video (probably due to the front lights). What is your suggestion: how can this be avoided? Smaller aperture (I guess it was rather open but I can't recall it exactly)?

Cheers Jens

THX, stonebat.

Yes, I guess it might get a bit tricky to fix this now "in the mix". Not much of a chance for this probably. I don't know but I guess there is no inverse curve in iMovie.

But your hints are very welcome. Metering on the main guy - that could have been a solution delivering better results. I don't know which metering mode I used. But I used S-mode for time priority. It was et up to 1/30. Maybe 1/60 might had been the better adjustment (or even 1/50 due the 25 fps)?!?

Hey guys;

I read on here a few days ago of a rumour that the LX7 will be in line for a possible "hack". If this is true, that'll be great... as I'm looking for something small and compact that will shoot great video along side my GH2, GH1 and maybe a GoPro. I need to replace my aging Canon HV30's... and this camera looks to be a good price/quality.

So, I guess my question is this... If the LX7 cops a hack, what can we expect? Possible 24p/25p framerates? Upped bitrate? I'm just finding it hard to see where the hack could improve this camera... unless I'm missing something.

For me HDMI / video output while filming is what I want mostly. Higher framerate full HD and possibly a better high speed frame rate with manual settings will also be fantastic. And off course the 30min maximum raised would be nice. My camera is the PAL version so settings is 25/50/100 frames. Having 30/60/120 NTSC would help in some ways so I dont care if I need to change to NTSC software ;)

@jojoen Usually it is noise which takes bandwidth in my low-light video. I use the Dynamic Noise Reduction filter in VirtualDub or Sony Vegas to knock my noise down. I can't see any motion from the pan which is likely to be really bandwidth-hogging. The video you have on Vimeo has a very low level of noise, so the question is whether it was pulled out by the codecs or by pre-processing?