Shooting with a 4K pocket camera - the exceptional Panasonic LX100

[ita149]

Yes better low light and better IQ.

[ntblowz]

One good thing about LX100 vs GH4/FZ1000 is you can record 4K in any mode, on other two you have to use video mode to get 4K recording option, really annoying for casual shooting.

[KurtAugust]

I'm now grading my first job with the LX100. Theatre show. Captured with Canon 600D, Canon 5D mk3 and Panasonic LX100. Color wise, it seems to fall in between the 600D and the 5D. I'm noticing that the reds tend to shift hue when they are bright and saturated. The Canon renders them pink and the Panasonic turns them into strong orange. I'm not really keen on that. Is this regular Panasonic behaviour? Apart from that, it did a really good job.

[Inazuma]

I'm now grading my first job with the LX100. Theatre show. Captured with Canon 600D, Canon 5D mk3 and Panasonic LX100. Color wise, it seems to fall in between the 600D and the 5D. I'm noticing that the reds tend to shift hue when they are bright and saturated. The Canon renders them pink and the Panasonic turns them into strong orange. I'm not really keen on that. Is this regular Panasonic behaviour? Apart from that, it did a really good job.

My GX7 shifts strong reds to oranges too. I have created a few LUTs that fix that and other colour issues if you're interested

[KurtAugust]

I had already seen them, but it only hits me now that they were intended for this. For now I corrected it by hand in Resolve (there was some nasty orange clipping depending on the lighting) but I will certainly use them in less extreme situations. 

[Inazuma]

I actually have one I've not mentioned before that JUST corrects the red shift issue

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1094036/Panasonic%20Orange%20to%20Red%202.cube

[KurtAugust]

Nice! Downloaded.

Another general note on the LX100: rolling shutter at full tele is quite horrible.

Christmas update: still going back and forth between extreme happiness for it being such a good travel camera and outrage for the skin tones it spits out, being purple and yellow. Without having tools available on the road for color correction, I can hardly share any pictures with people because I see too much stuff I want to fix. 

I even ordered a color chart from DSC labs for when I come home. I never felt this need using Canon or  Nikon bodies.

[serafko]

Picture profiles for stills and video aren't separate despite both having their own menu option - set the video to a low contrast and you'll get the same for Jpegs. Obviously shooting RAW removes this issue but I found it was a shame; I often like to shoot high contrast jpeg b+w's (hence the Ricoh GR!) and it'd be a chore to have to unpick any settings for when I wanted to shoot video.

 

The LCD and EVF are sufficient but not great. The LCD has a colour shift towards blue I think and the EVF is pretty small and, whilst useful as a compositional aid, isn't especially clear for critical work. Again, it's all fine but it's not great.

You can make separate profiles for still and video, if you save different settings to custom profiles C1, C2, C3, and assign changing the profiles to one of the fn button.

You can also change settings for color, brightness, contrast... for LCD and EVF in different ways. (site 44 in operating instructions for advanced features).

Emil

[KurtAugust]

If anyone wants to see how the LX100 performs in a theater setting:

 

Trailer for a theater piece for kids and grown up kids.

First shot is cropped from 4K, shot square for the purpose of the shot. All the wide shots are LX100, punched in a bit here and there. Lots of different color temperatures. Intercut with Canon 5D and Canon 600D.

(Colours crushed in post)

-Andrew, let me know if such posts are unwanted-

[KurtAugust]

I don't use the LX100 that often for stills, but I just noticed Adobe Raw now supports the LX100. Good!

(too bad it doesn't have a 25fps burst mode...)

[serafko]

I don't use the LX100 that often for stills, but I just noticed Adobe Raw now supports the LX100. Good!

(too bad it doesn't have a 25fps burst mode...)

​LX100 have 4KPhoto mode, actually I think, that is 25fps burst mode.

[KurtAugust]

Oh yeah, I forgot their silly naming of 4k video.  

I meant 25fps RAW. Although, now that I think of it. I don't think I want to handle 4k raw data right now. But 10bit would be nice. (Oh, shut up, he thinks, you have got no reason for whining with this camera)

 

 

 

 

[sekl]

Just found that 58mm Opteka lens conversion adapter tube for G7 fits lx100. If there is an appropriate ND filter or macro lense they can be attached to the camera without load to the moving part of the lx100 lense.

[1tkman]

Just found that 58mm Opteka lens conversion adapter tube for G7 fits lx100. If there is an appropriate ND filter or macro lense they can be attached to the camera without load to the moving part of the lx100 lense.

In what way would this adapter help? Looking online, this is what it says about the adapter, but I am not sure if I understand what all this means:

The Opteka Step-Up Adapter Tube allows you to use lenses and filters on cameras which require a tube adapter to accommodate the zoom barrel. All adapters are made of aluminum. Size, weight & color vary by model.

 

 

[Cinegain]

By the looks of it it basicly is a lens accessory mount -> 58mm step up ring. Instead of mounting a ring at the end of the barrel, this tube attaches to the camera body (keeping weight of a filter set-up from the lens). It has a fixed position for the filter, the lens barrel should be able to move (zoom) freely within.

The LX100 has a 43mm thread on the lens (it has one, so you'd think it's meant to be used, right?). There are 43mm filters and set-up rings availlable out there. This would do the same, but not be attached to the lens. I'm worried though, the closer you have your filter to your lens the better. This might generate some ghosting/flares and on wide angle vignetting? Not sure what your end game is here. If it's adding a clip-on matte box, then yeah, you don't want to attach it to the lens directly! Otherwise... a simple filter, even with a ring in between, can't do that much harm, can it? With the LX7 I even used fish eye and tele converter lens modules attached to the lens (37mm).

[ntblowz]

Good thing about that is it wont put strain on the motor, I had stuck lens on my LX100 until I take off the step up filter.

[sekl]

Good thing about that is it wont put strain on the motor, I had stuck lens on my LX100 until I take off the step up filter.

Exactly. The moving part of the lx100 lens is seems to be the most vulnerable part of the camera (apart from SD card slot). I had warnings to re-power lx100 a couple of timestimes because of the lens gotten stuck. That is why I will use the heavy closeup filter only with the tube (I already have it).

I also have variaty of 77mm ND filters left from Canon lens with an appropriate step up ring.

Note. This opteka G7 tube is too short for the lx100 in full zoom.

 

[ade towell]

good deal for UK buyers at the moment, £449 with £50 cashback & 5 year warranty - ends at midnight

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-DMC-LX100EBK-Digital-f1-7-2-8-VARIO-SUMMILUX-Black/dp/B00NLFJ2KU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427363511&sr=8-1&keywords=panasonic+lumix+dmc-lx100

[Andrew Reid]

Bargain!!

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

The LX100 is a great camera!!!