Panasonic LX100 Performance

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Panasonic LX100 Performance

Timing and Performance

Generally very good performance.

Startup/Play to Record
Power on to first shot	~2.0 seconds	Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.
Play to Record, first shot	~1.0 second	Time until first shot is captured.

Powerup to first shot was sluggish at about two seconds. Switching from Play to Record mode and taking a shot was faster, though, at about one second.

Shutter Response (Lag Time) Mechanical / Electronic Shutter
Full Autofocus, 1-area Center AF mode Wide-angle	0.177 / 0.223 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, ens at maximum wide-angle.
Full Autofocus, 1-area Center AF mode Telephoto	0.170 / 0.224 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, lens at maximum telephoto.
Full Autofocus, 1-area Center AF mode Medium focal length	0.196 / 0.254 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, medium focal length.
Full Autofocus, 49-area AF mode Medium focal length	0.211 / 0.259 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, medium focal length.
Full Autofocus, 1-area AF mode Medium focal length Auto flash enabled	0.621 / N.A. second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, medium focal length. Bundled flash enabled.
Manual Focus	0.054 / 0.096 second	For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".
Prefocused	0.019 / 0.060 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The Panasonic LX100 offers three Shutter Type settings: Auto (which will use the mechanical shutter when it can), Mechanical and Electronic. Note that Mechanical is actually a hybrid (first-curtain electronic shutter), starting the exposure electronically but ending it with a mechanical shutter.

Using Mechanical shutter mode, the Panasonic LX100's autofocus speeds were very good for its class, and competitive with prosumer DSLRs in our static tests. Full AF-S shutter lag ranged from a best case of 0.170 second to a worst case of 0.259 second in our tests (and up to 0.621 second with the bundled flash enabled).

When manually focused, the Panasonic LX100's lag time dropped to 0.054 second, which is very fast. The Panasonic LX100's prefocused shutter lag time was only 0.019 second which is faster than most compact cameras and much faster than DSLRs.

When using the all-electronic shutter mode, full autofocus shutter lag was a little higher, manual focus shutter lag was about 1.5x slower, and prefocused shutter lag was about 3x slower, though still pretty fast.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large/Fine JPEG	0.70 second	Time per shot, averaged over 40 shots with no signs of slowing, 1 second to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW	0.73 second	Time per shot, averaged over 40 shots with no signs of slowing, 1 second to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW + L/F JPEG	0.73 second	Time per shot, averaged over 40 shots with no signs of slowing, 9 seconds to clear*.
Early shutter penalty?	Yes	Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
High Speed Continuous mode Mechanical Shutter, Large/Fine JPEG	0.09 second (11.63 fps); 101 frames total; 7 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 101 frames, then slows to an average of 0.15s or 6.52 fps when buffer is full.
High Speed Continuous mode Mechanical Shutter, RAW	0.11 second (8.75 fps); 22 frames total; 8 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 22 frames, then slows to an average of 0.89s or 1.13 fps when buffer is full.
High Speed Continuous mode Mechanical Shutter, RAW + L/F JPEG	0.12 second (8.30 fps); 23 frames total; 17 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 23 frames, then slows to an average of 0.89s or 1.13 fps when buffer is full.
High Speed Continuous mode Electronic Shutter, Large/Fine JPEG	0.09 second (11.63 fps); 130 frames total; 9 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 130 frames, then slows to an average of 0.15s or 6.77 fps when buffer is full.
High Speed Continuous mode Electronic Shutter, RAW	0.09 second (11.35 fps); 22 frames total; 9 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 22 frames, then slows to an average of 0.45s or 2.22 fps when buffer is full.
High Speed Continuous mode Electronic Shutter, RAW + L/F JPEG	0.09 second (11.11 fps); 21 frames total; 17 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 21 frames, then slows to an average of 0.93s or 1.08 fps when buffer is full.
Super High Speed Continuous mode Electronic Shutter, 3MP JPEG only	0.03 second (40.0 fps); 60 frames total; 6 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over fixed buffer length of 60 frames, then stops.
Flash Recycling	4.5 seconds	Bundled flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Single-shot cycle time was about 0.7 second for all file types. This decreased slightly (by less than 0.1s) when using fully electronic shutter mode. This is good when compared to most compact cameras, but a bit slower than average compared to most DSLRs.

High Speed Continuous mode performance was very fast with single shot AFS mode (focus locked at the first frame of burst). With the mechanical shutter, we measured 11.6 frames per second for best quality JPEGs, but oddly, that dropped to 8.8 fps for RAW and 8.3 fps for RAW+JPEG. Switching to fully electronic shutter, there wasn't much decrease in frame rate when shooting with RAW files: we measured the same 11.6 fps for best quality JPEGs, 11.4 for RAW and 11.1 for RAW+JPEG. Note that if you enable continuous autofocus, the frame rate drops to about 6.5 frames per second according to Panasonic, but we did not confirm that in the lab. There are also Middle and Low speed modes, rated at 7 and 2 fps respectively.

A Super High Speed mode captures 3-megapixel JPEGs only, at 40 fps for 60 frames.

Buffer depths were very good, ranging from over 100 frames for best quality JPEGs, to a worst case of 21 frames for RAW+JPEG when shooting with the electronic shutter. Note, though, that our target for this test was designed to be difficult to compress, so maximum burst lengths should be even longer with typical subjects.

Buffer clearing times were pretty good, ranging from 7 seconds after a burst of best quality JPEGs, to a worst case of 17 seconds after a max-length burst of RAW+JPEG frames.

The bundled flash took 4.5 seconds on average to recycle after full power discharge. This is a bit slow.

Bottom line, apart from sluggish power-on to first shot, the Panasonic LX100's performance is good to excellent compared to most large sensored compact or mirrorless cameras.

Battery Life

Decent battery life for its class.

Operating Mode	Battery Life
Still Capture, (CIPA standard, LCD Monitor, with 50% Flash / No Flash)	300 / 350 shots
Still Capture, (CIPA standard, EVF, with 50% Flash / No Flash)	270 / 320 shots

The Panasonic LX100 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and a dedicated battery charger. The battery is CIPA-rated for 300 shots per charge when using the LCD monitor with bundled flash (50% flash shot) or 350 shots without flash. When using the electronic viewfinder, battery life drops to 270 shots with 50% flash shots, or 320 shots without flash. Battery life is pretty good for a compact camera with a relatively large sensor, but still poor compared to most DSLRs. We recommend getting a second battery for your LX100 if you plan any extended outings or shoot a lot of video.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))