Panasonic LX10 Review

Overview

There’s a new entrant in the highly competitive 1" sensor travel camera market, the Panasonic LX10 (also known as the LX15 in some regions and LX9 in Japan). This premium compact camera combines a 20.1-megapixel 1"-type sensor with a Leica-branded 24-72mm equivalent lens that has an impressive f/1.4-2.8 maximum aperture.

Panasonic LX10 offers a seamless, premium body and clean design

Panasonic has placed an emphasis on creating a compact camera with a premium feel and high-quality construction and design. Aimed at enthusiasts, the LX10 has a relatively large aperture control ring around the lens. There’s also a control ring which can serve as a focus ring. On the top deck of the camera body is a rear dial. Both the control ring and rear dial’s default functions change depending on the shooting mode of the camera but can be customized to provide control over settings such as zoom, ISO, Photo Style and more.

The body itself is described as a “seamless metal body” and its rings and dials are constructed of knurled aluminum. To ensure the seamless construction, the top panel is actually a part of the camera’s front panel, which in addition to providing a cleaner look also makes the camera stronger. (As an interesting aside, despite its complex shape, the LX10 front/top panel is press forged rather than injection molded, which is unusual.) The camera is quite small with dimensions of 4.15 x 2.36 x 1.65 inches (105.5 x 60 x 42 mm) which makes it slightly smaller than the Canon G7X II and slightly larger than the Sony RX100 IV. With a battery and memory card installed, the LX10 weighs in at a light 10.9 ounces (310 grams).

The top deck of the camera has a clean, well-organized layout. On the left is a manual pop-up flash and on the right is the mode dial, shutter release, zoom lever, movie record button and the rear command dial. The mode dial has intelligent auto, program, aperture priority, shutter speed priority, manual, movie, and custom modes in addition to a few more creative options, such as panorama, scene and creative control modes. Like the Canon G7X II and Sony RX100 V, there's no flash hot shoe. And unlike the RX100 V there's no built-in EVF, with no provision for an external viewfinder.

The rear of the camera is dominated by the LX10's 3-inch tilting LCD monitor. The 180-degree tilting display has 1,040K dots and touchscreen functionality. To the right of the display there are ten buttons, including five for navigation (four directional buttons and a central 'set' button). Around the outside of the directional buttons are four circular buttons including playback and Quick Menu buttons. There's a 4K Photo button located on the top right of the camera's back. The four directional buttons also serve as focus mode, exposure compensation, white balance and drive mode.

Fast built-in lens hopes to separate the LX10 from the competition

The built-in optic has an actual focal length of 8.8-26.4mm which provides a 35mm equivalent focal length of 24-72mm. This is as wide as the RX100 V and slightly longer while it’s shorter at the telephoto end than the G7X II. The lens has a very fast f/1.4 aperture when shooting at 24mm and a still good f/2.8 maximum aperture at 72mm.

The LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMILUX-branded zoom lens is in a six-component configuration which Panasonic has designed to be compact despite the f/1.4 max aperture. Constructed with 11 elements in 9 groups, the 24-72mm equivalent lens has four dual-sided aspherical elements, two dual-sided aspherical ED elements and one UHR (Ultra High Refractive) element to help control chromatic aberration even when wide open.

One of the main features of the Lumix LX10 is its emphasis on creating high-quality bokeh. The bokeh results are stated to be achieved via a "unique lens mold technology." Compact camera lenses can struggle with creating smooth bokeh, with out of focus areas often displaying lines and sharp edges. The Panasonic LX10 attempts to better replicate the soft bokeh most often seen in larger interchangeable camera lenses.

The lens' iris is a 9-blade design with a minimum aperture of f/11 across the zoom range and while there is no built-in ND filter, at least the LX10 has an electronic shutter with a top speed of 1/16,000 second (the mechanical shutter tops out at 1/4,000 second).

Macro shooters will be interested to hear that the Panasonic LX10 can focus as close as 3 centimeters (~1.2") at the wide end of the lens, compared to 5cm for the RX100 V and G7X II.

The Lumix LX10 features what Panasonic calls 5-axis Hybrid OIS+ which combines sensor-shift image stabilization with optical image stabilization. When recording 4K and high-speed video, the lens provides the only stabilization.

Overall this is a very interesting built-in lens due to its fast f/1.4 aperture at 24mm and Panasonic’s design philosophy of creating a lens that is both sharp and capable of rendering pleasing out of focus areas in an image.

20.1 megapixel 1-inch sensor continues to be a sensor of choice

The 20.1-megapixel 1-inch sensor is a Live MOS sensor. Compared to the 1/1.7-inch sensor found in the LX7, the LX10 doubles the megapixels, has about three times larger effective image area, 1.6 times larger pixels and an additional stop of high ISO sensitivity. Speaking of ISO sensitivity, the Panasonic LX10's native ISO range is 125-12,800 and it can be extended to 80-25,600.

LX offers Lightspeed AF and post focus feature

Autofocus is provided by Panasonic’s Lightspeed-branded AF system which incorporates the company’s depth from defocus (DFD) technology. The DFD tech calculates focus areas from a maximum of 49 areas. In addition to the 49-area autofocus mode, the LX10 also offers face/eye detection, tracking, custom multi, 1-area and pinpoint focus modes. You can also utilize the LX10’s touchscreen display for selecting the focus area. Additional focus features include focus peaking, low light AF and Starlight AF.

In addition to its standard assortment of autofocus features, the Panasonic LX10 offers post focus and focus stacking as part of the camera's 4K Photo features. For those unfamiliar with 4K Photo, it leverages the 4K-capable performance of a Panasonic camera and produces 4K still images (8 megapixels) from 4K video shot at 30 frames per second. Post focus is a neat feature which allows you to select the focus area after shooting a burst of images with a shifting focus distance. After shooting, you select the desired focus area and thereby select a single frame from the burst. On the other hand, focus peaking combines the 4K Photo frames into a single image with greater depth of field.

Panasonic hopes the LX10 is user-friendly yet powerful enough for enthusiasts

The Panasonic LX10 comes with a standard assortment of shooting modes, including both fully automatic and fully manual shooting modes. Exposure metering is provided via Intelligent Multiple, center-weighted and spot metering options and exposure compensation of up to +/-5 EVs is available. There is also AE bracketing available with a max of +/- 3 EVs with 3, 5 and 7 shot options. In addition to exposure bracketing, there is also aperture, focus and white balance bracketing available.

Photo Styles include standard, vivid, natural, monochrome, scenery, portrait and custom varieties. For adding a bit more creativity to your images, you can also utilize Creative Control. Creative Control provides users with a variety of filters that can be applied to images, such as expressive, retro, old days, silky monochrome and much more. In total there are 22 creative control mode filters.

I already touched on some of the focusing features available via 4K Photo, but you can also shoot 4K Photos in an assortment of burst modes. 4K Burst lets you capture 4K Photo frames (8 megapixel images) at 30fps for a maximum of 15 minutes. 4K Burst S/S is similar but starts and stops when you press the shutter release. Finally, there's 4K Pre-Burst which constantly records but saves only the 30 frames preceding and following your shutter press.

Speaking of burst modes, the Panasonic LX10 can shoot full-resolution 20-megapixel frames at up 10 frames per second with single-shot AF, and at up to 6 fps with continuous AF. Buffer depth is quite generous when shooting best quality JPEGs at 80 frames according to our tests, but when shooting RAW or RAW+JPEG frames, the buffer depth drops to 14 and 13 frames respectively. A Super High-speed mode shoots 50 fps using the electronic shutter, but at a much lower 5-megapixel resolution. See our Performance page for details.

4K video, live cropping and more provide a strong features list for LX10

4K video is a big part of Panasonic's offerings with the LX10. In addition to standard 4K UHD video recording at 30fps, the camera also provides users with 4K Live Cropping. By utilizing the full 3840 x 2160 4K UHD frame, you can pan and zoom a Full HD crop around the 4K frame. While the camera is in a fixed position, you can use touch to move the 1080p frame around the 4K frame, creating a 1080p video file with smooth panning or zooming.

Full HD video has additional features besides Live Cropping including slow motion video and 5-axis image stabilization with tilt correction. You can record Full HD video at 120 frames per second. 5-axis Hybrid OIS+ compensates for five types of movement – of course – but the LX10 can also automatically keep your video footage level by utilizing its built-in sensor that detects if the camera is tilted.

4K videos are recorded at 30p or 24p in MP4 format and have a 15 minute time limit per recording. Full HD video is available at 60p, 24p or 60i in AVCHD format and at 60p or 30p in MP4 format, and HD is available at 30p in MP4. AVCHD has a time limit of 29:59 but MP4 format at Full HD or HD resolution is not time limited (other than by card capacity or by internal temperature). High-speed Full HD videos are recorded at 120p and play back at 30p, in MP4 format.

The best of the rest: Assorted features, ports and battery life

Other features of the LX10 include Panasonic's distinct Live Composite mode. This mode allows you to combine multiple exposures into a single frame, such as consecutive shots of fireworks, by automatically superimposing the brightest parts of up to 40 selected frames. There is also range merging. This mode allows you to easily shoot light painting by superimposing the brightest parts of frames in between selected first and last frames.

If you’d rather artificially light your night scenes, the LX10 has a built-in flash that is rated with a nearly 40-foot range (12.1m) at the wide end of the lens and a roughly 20-foot (6m) range at the telephoto end with Auto ISO. The LX10 also includes Clear Retouch, in-camera RAW processing and built-in Wi-Fi functionality.

The Panasonc LX10 relies on SD/SDHC/SDXC cards for recording images and videos with support for UHS-I types. The camera includes a built-in stereo microphone and a mono speaker. Ports include Micro-HDMI Type-D and USB 2.0 Micro-B. You can utilize the USB port to charge the camera, meaning you don’t need to remove the Li-ion battery pack to charge it. The Lumix LX10's battery is rated for 260 shots (CIPA standard) per charge.

Pricing and availability

The Panasonic Lumix LX10 began shipping in mid-November 2016 for a suggested retail price just under US$700.

In the Box

The Panasonic LX10 retail package contains the following items:

• Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 digital camera
• DMW-BLH7 7.2V 680mAh lithium-ion battery pack
• AC/USB adapter
• USB cable
• Hand strap
• One-year limited warranty

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. We recommend at least 32GB capacity, with a minimum UHS Speed Class 3 rating for recording 4K video.
• Extra battery pack for extended outings (~US$45)
• Small camera case

Optics

Lens Test Results

Zoom
A very fast, 3x wide-angle zoom with good far-field performance.

The Panasonic LX10 is equipped with a 8.8-26.4mm lens, offering an optical zoom ratio of 3x, translating to a 35mm-equivalent focal range of about 24-72mm. That's a fairly limited range for a fixed-lens camera but actually a bit longer than a close rival, the Sony RX100 IV or V at 70mm. The lens is very fast (bright), with a maximum aperture ranging from f/1.4 at wide angle to f/2.8 at telephoto. That's 2/3rds of a stop faster than the Sonys at the wide end and the same at telephoto. The following table reflects the maximum and minimum apertures as reported by the LX10:

Focal length (eq.)	24mm	25mm	26mm	27mm	29mm	32-72mm
Max. aperture	f/1.4	f/1.5	f/2.0	f/2.2	f/2.5	f/2.8
Min. aperture	f/11 at all focal lengths

At maximum wide angle, sharpness and contrast are quite good across the frame at f/5.6, though there's some slight softening and coma distortion in the corners. Chromatic aberration is well-controlled though some flare can be see around very bright objects. Performance at medium focal length (50mm eq.) is commendable with very good sharpness and contrast across the frame at f/5.6. Far-field performance at full telephoto also appears to be quite good at f/5.6 across the frame.

The Panasonic LX10 also offers up to 4x digital zoom at full image size, though it suffers from the usual loss in image quality at that magnification due to interpolation artifacts and more visible noise. The LX10 also offers a 2x iZoom mode with better image quality than 4x, as well as Extended Optical Zoom which just crops the image when Medium or Small Picture Size is selected for a maximum of 6x total "optical zoom" at 5 megapixels.

It's difficult to judge lens performance using such a deep and high-contrast scene (this series is meant mainly to convey zoom range), so see below for lab results on corner versus center sharpness, geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, macro performance, etc.

Macro
A slightly smaller than average minimum coverage area, with very good performance. Flash throttled down well at minimum focus.

The Panasonic LX10's macro mode captured a slightly smaller than average sized minimum area measuring 2.12 x 1.41 inches (54 x 36 millimeters), which is quite good, especially compared to competing 1-inch sensor models. Sharpness over much of the frame is good, however extreme corners show some minor blurring even at f/8 (most lenses show some softening in the corners at macro distances, so this is typical). Exposure with the flash was not too bad for such a close distance, though exposure was uneven because of the location of the flash relative to the lens, overexposing the top left and underexposing the bottom right of the frame.

Geometric Distortion
Very low distortion in camera JPEGs, but very high in uncorrected RAW files at wide angle.

Camera JPEGs

Barrel distortion at wide angle is about 0.3%

Barrel distortion at telephoto is about 0.1%

Thanks to in-camera distortion correction, there's low geometric distortion in the LX10's JPEG files at wide angle. At full wide angle, we measured just under 0.3% barrel distortion which is pretty low but still visible. At full telephoto, distortion is very low at just over 0.1% barrel distortion, instead of the usual pincushion we normally see at telephoto. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto).

Uncorrected RAW

Barrel distortion at wide angle is about 3.6%

Barrel distortion at telephoto is about 0.4%

To see how much correction is taking place in the camera, we converted RAW files from the above shots with dcraw which ignores embedded lens correction profiles. As you can see at wide angle, barrel distortion is very high at about 3.6%, while telephoto shows about 0.4% of barrel distortion.

We expect to see fairly significant distortion in uncorrected RAW files in fast, compact lenses, as allowing this gives the lens designers greater flexibility in optimizing center sharpness as well as in reducing cost, size, and weight. The downside is that the distortion correction contributes to additional blurring in the corners of the frame where pixels are "stretched" during correction and where lenses are usually already a bit soft. Note that RAW converters that officially support the LX10's RW2 files will apply distortion corrections automatically, as specified by Panasonic in the lens profile built into the RAW files.

Chromatic Aberration and Corner Sharpness
Moderate to very low chromatic aberration in JPEGs. The lens produces some slightly soft corners at both wide angle and telephoto ends when wide open.

Aperture: maximum
Wide at f/1.4: Upper right C.A.: Moderate Softness: Soft	Wide at f/1.4: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Very sharp
Tele at f/2.8: Lower left C.A.: Moderately low Softness: Slightly soft	Tele at f/2.8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp

Chromatic Aberration. The LX10's lens exhibits moderate lateral CA in the corners wide open at wide angle, and moderately low lateral CA in the corners wide open at telephoto in JPEGs. However, there are clear signs that CA is being suppressed, especially at telephoto where you can see soft and desaturated edges. As expected, uncorrected RAW files (see below) show much more CA than seen above.

Corner Softness. Wide open at full wide angle, the LX10's lens is very sharp in the center, but all four corners are somewhat soft, with some softness extending deep into the frame. Much of the softness is due to the strong distortion correction, and you can also notice some interpolation artifacts in the form of rough edges in the USAF target. Still, a very good performance for the aperture and focal length. Wide open at full telephoto, corners are slightly soft and exhibit a loss of contrast and the aforementioned desaturated edges. The center shows good sharpness wide open, but is not quite as sharp as wide angle.

Vignetting. There's some vignetting (corner shading), with a little more at wide angle than at full telephoto, though it's fairly minor.

Aperture: f/5.6
Wide at f/5.6: Upper right C.A.: Moderate Softness: Slightly soft	Wide at f/5.6: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Quite sharp
Tele at f/5.6: Lower left C.A.: Low Softness: Sharp	Tele at f/5.6: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Quite Sharp

F5.6: At max wide angle, corner sharpness and chromatic aberration didn't improve much when stopped down to f/5.6, remaining somewhat soft, though contrast is a bit better. This isn't a surprise given the amount of correction applied, though. Sharpness in the center did however degrade slightly when stopped down, due to diffraction (a shot at f/4 showed minor improvement over wide open). At full telephoto, corners improved quite a bit, becoming almost as sharp as the center with much better contrast and without the desaturated edges. Sharpness in the center improved slightly over wide open, and vignetting was not detectable at either end.

Chromatic Aberration Correction

Camera JPEGs	Uncorrected RAW
Wide (f/1.4): Upper left CA: Moderate	Wide (f/1.4): Upper left CA: High
Tele (f/2.8): Upper left CA: Moderately low	Tele: (f/2.8): Upper left CA: Moderately high

As you can see in the crops from uncorrected RAW images on the right (taken from RW2 files converted with dcraw), the LX10's lens produces high and very bright lateral chromatic aberration at wide angle, and what we'd call moderately high CA at full telephoto. So the LX10's processor does a great job suppressing lateral chromatic aberration in camera JPEGs (crops on the left). Note that most RAW converters should also automatically suppress CA when converting the LX10's RW2 files, in addition to correcting geometric distortion.

Overall, pretty good performance from the LX10's lens considering its size, speed and the camera's price.

Viewfinder Test Results

Coverage
Excellent accuracy from the LCD monitor.

The Panasonic LX10's LCD monitor provided just under 100% coverage at wide angle and just over 99% at full telephoto in our tests. This is excellent performance, especially considering the amount of geometric distortion correction taking place at wide angle.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Below average mean saturation but with very good mean hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
125	200	400
800	1600	3200
6400	12800	25600
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links to compare results at different ISOs, and click on the links for larger images.

Saturation. Overall, mean saturation levels are lower than average from the Panasonic LX10 using default settings, at only 3% oversaturated at base ISO (most cameras oversaturate by about 10% to make colors more vibrant than real life). The LX10 pushes dark blues the most, but not by as much as most cameras, and only oversaturates red, orange and dark green by very small amounts, while it undersaturates yellow, light green and aqua tones. Mean saturation also slowly declines as sensitivity rises, to a minimum of only 91.3% (or 8.7% undersaturated) at ISO 25,600. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Here, the Panasonic LX10 did fairly well, producing reasonably natural-looking Caucasian skin tones, but they were a bit warm and yellow with both manual and auto white balance settings under simulated daylight. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Panasonic LX10 shifts cyan toward blue by quite a bit, but most other shifts like red toward orange, orange toward yellow, and yellow toward green are small. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) The LX10's handling of yellows is one of its weaknesses, though, and is typical of Panasonics: Yellows are undersaturated, and shifted slightly toward green which can make them look a bit dingy. With a mean "delta-C" color error of 3.85 after correction for saturation, overall hue accuracy is however very good at base ISO, but as usual, hue error does increase as ISO rises, though not dramatically so. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
The Auto white balance setting produced warm results and Incandescent was quite warm. Manual was pretty accurate, just slightly cool. Average exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was a bit warm with the Auto white balance setting, while results with the Incandescent setting were very warm and orange. The Manual setting was by far the most accurate, just slightly on the cool side. (Note: The LX10 also has a Kelvin Temperature White Balance option, however we did not test that mode.) The Panasonic LX10 required +0.3 EV exposure compensation which is about average for this scene. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Decent color and exposure accuracy under harsh lighting, though with high contrast.

Outdoors, the Panasonic LX10 performed fairly well for its class. +0.7 EV exposure compensation was required to keep the mannequin's face reasonably bright in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, which is about average among cameras we've tested. However default contrast is a quite high and the camera ended up clipping some highlights in the white shirt and flowers, and also produced some very dark, discolored shadows as well, though they are fairly clean. Auto color balance performed well in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, though skin tones are just a touch yellow. Manual and Daylight white balance produced slightly warmer skin tones. The Far-field shot with Auto white balance looks a bit cool, and default exposure is slightly underexposed producing some very deep shadows that are noisy and discolored, however almost no highlights were blown as a result.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
~2,500 to ~2550 lines of strong detail.

An in-camera JPEG of our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns up to about 2,500 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and to about 2,550 lines per picture height in the vertical direction. Some may argue for more, but lines begin to merge at that point. Complete extinction of the pattern didn't occur until about 3,000 lines. An Adobe Camera Raw conversion produced similar results, but complete extinction of the pattern was extended to about 3,200 lines and color moiré is more visible. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See thumbnails of all test images

Sharpness & Detail
Slightly soft images but with good detail; some sharpening artifacts are visible. Moderate noise reduction at base ISO.

Sharpness. The LX10 produces slightly soft-looking images at base ISO, however obvious sharpening halos can still be seen around high contrast transitions, such as the lines and text in the crop above left. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows good detail for the class of camera, with moderate levels noise suppression in the darkest areas of the mannequins's hair, and almost no chroma noise. Some individual strands are smudged together in areas of low contrast at base ISO, but performance here is actually quite good considering the size and resolution of the sensor. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above the Panasonic LX10 produces slightly soft images with noticeable sharpening halos. Let's see how an Adobe Camera Raw conversion at base ISO compares.

Base ISO (125)
Camera JPEG, defaults	RAW via Adobe Camera Raw

In the table above, we compare an in-camera JPEG taken at base ISO using default noise reduction and sharpening (on the left) to a matching RAW file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 9.1 via DNG Converter 9.8 using default noise reduction, then sharpened in Photoshop.

As you can see, ACR produced additional detail that isn't present in the JPEG from the camera. Perhaps the most dramatic increase in detail is in the fabric crop, where ACR was able to resolve much of the thread pattern in the red-leaf swatch which the camera's JPEG engine presumably treats as noise. ACR also did a bit better reproducing fine detail in the pink fabric, as well as producing more accurate color. But as is usually the case, much higher levels of luminance noise can be seen in the RAW conversion particularly in flat areas as shown in the bottle crop, thanks to ACR's light default noise reduction and the relatively strong sharpening required to keep the somewhat soft RAW images crisp-looking (we used 300% USM with a radius of 0.5 pixels and a threshold of 0). You can of course apply stronger noise reduction (default ACR NR used here) to arrive at your ideal noise versus detail tradeoff. Bottom line: As is almost always the case, you can do noticeably better than the camera with a good RAW converter, provided you're willing to apply your own noise reduction and sharpening to taste.

ISO & Noise Performance
Good high ISO performance for its class.

Default High ISO Noise Reduction
ISO 80	ISO 100	ISO 125
ISO 200	ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200	ISO 6400
ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600

ISOs 80 through 200 produce similar results, with detailed images containing low levels of fine-grained luma noise and almost no chroma noise. ISO 400 shows a more noticeable drop in image quality as noise reduction ramps, but fine detail is still quite good. ISO 800 shows another step down in image quality with additional blurring of fine detail and stronger luminance noise, but is still pretty good. ISO 1600 is noticeably softer thanks to much stronger noise reduction and more visible luma noise, but chroma noise is still fairly low. At ISO 3200, image quality takes a larger hit with higher noise, both luma and chroma, and the camera's processing starts to produce images with a somewhat crystalline look. Image quality drops off very quickly from here, with ISOs 6400 through 25,600 being quite noisy with strong luma noise and chroma blotching.

Overall, though, high ISO performance is pretty good for its class, but the LX10's default noise reduction is a bit heavy-handed at higher ISOs. We're of course pixel-peeping to an extraordinary extent here, since 1:1 images on an LCD screen often have little to do with how those same images will appear when printed. See the Print Quality section below for our evaluation of maximum print sizes at each ISO setting.

Note: We used to shoot this series at f/4 because of the relatively low light, but we now shoot it at f/5.6 or f/8 for 1"-type and larger sensors, as lens performance well away from center where we take the above crops is often not optimal at wider apertures. The added depth of field for a scene with this depth is also a better compromise than the potentially slightly sharper but shallower focus depth that a larger aperture would produce.

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
Decent dynamic range for its class in JPEGs. Excellent low-light performance, capable of capturing bright images and focusing in near darkness.

Sunlight. The Panasonic LX10 fared fairly well under the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above. To keep facial tones reasonably bright, +0.7V compensation was required, which led to some clipped highlights in the mannequin's shirt and flowers, though not as many as we often see in this shot. Detail is quite good in moderate shadows at +0.7 EV, though very deep shadows are noisy and discolored.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

Face Detection
Aperture Priority, f/5.6, 0 EV Face Detection Off	Aperture Priority, f/5.6, 0 EV, Face Detection On	iAuto, f/2.8, 0 EV

Face Detection. Like most cameras these days, the Panasonic LX10 has the ability to detect faces (up to 15 in a scene), and adjust exposure and focus accordingly. As you can see from the examples above, face detection improved exposure in both Aperture Priority at f/5.6, and in iAuto mode where the camera had control over aperture, choosing f/2.8.

Far-field Highlight/Shadow Examples
Standard	Lower Contrast	Higher Contrast	Boost Shadows

Highlight/Shadow Adjustment
The above shots are examples of Panasonic's Highlight/Shadow adjustment at work on our high-contrast Far-field subject, with no exposure compensation. There are four settings: Standard (default), Higher Contrast, Lower Contrast and Boost Shadows, along with 3 Custom settings which allow you to modify and recall custom tone curves. As you can see, it's a nice feature that offers much more control over highlights, midtones and shadows than the camera's basic contrast settings.

Far-field Intelligent D-Range Examples
Off	Auto	Low	Standard	High

Intelligent Dynamic Range
The above shots are examples of Panasonic's Intelligent Dynamic Range Control (or iD-Range) at work, with no exposure compensation. Note that the camera does not take multiple shots and merge them as HDR mode does (see below). It's a system that adjusts local contrast and exposure more akin to Nikon's Active D-lighting, Canon's Automatic Lighting Optimization or Sony's Dynamic Range Optimization.

There are three levels of iD-Range available on the Panasonic LX10: Low, Standard and High, plus Auto and Off. It's automatically invoked in iAuto and some scene modes and manually selectable in PASM modes. As you can see, manual levels of iD-Range progressively attenuated highlights without impacting shadows and midtones, however the Auto setting produced very little change.

Far-field HDR Examples
Off	Auto	+/-1 EV	+/-2 EV	+/-3 EV

HDR mode
Here, you can see the Panasonic LX10's High Dynamic Range mode at work with our Far-field shot. HDR mode takes three images at different exposures and combines them to increase dynamic range. Mouse over the links, and click on them the view the full resolution files.

Auto mode chose +/-1 EV for this scene according to EXIF, however results don't match to +/-1 EV manual setting. +/-1 and +/2 EV produced very similar results, while +/-3 dimmed the entire image. Oddly, the +/-1 and +/-3 settings show more noise than the +/-2 and Auto settings. There were very few blown highlights to begin with, though, so this isn't the best subject to test HDR mode. Notice the double images and ghosting of the flag or people moving between frames, something to be aware of. Also notice the angle of view is narrower in the HDR images, likely because the images have been cropped and upsized during the optional auto alignment process.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16 fc No NR
ISO 125	1.6s, f2.8	25s, f2.8	25s, f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15s, f2.8	1s, f2.8	1s, f2.8
ISO 12800	1/60s, f2.8	1/4s, f2.8	1/4s, f2.8

Low Light. The Panasonic LX10 performed well in our low-light tests thanks to its fast lens coupled to a 1"-type sensor, capturing bright images at the lowest light level (1/16 foot-candle), even at the lowest native sensitivity setting (ISO 125) and at f/2.8 (please accept our apologies as we normally take this series wide-open for fixed-lens cameras). As expected for a 1"-type sensor, luma noise is a little high at ISO 3200, but fairly fine-grained, while chroma noise is well-controlled. The LX10's highest native ISO of 12,800 is quite grainy with noticeable noise reduction artifacts, but that's no surprise.

Color balance is quite good with Panasonic LX10's Auto white balance setting, just a touch cool. We didn't notice any significant issues with pattern noise or heat blooming, however a few bright pixels can be seen at base ISO even with long exposure noise reduction active; high ISO noise reduction takes care of them at the higher ISOs.

Low-light AF: The camera's AF system was able to focus on our low-contrast and high-contrast AF targets unassisted down to an incredible -8.0 EV light level at wide angle, which is outstanding thanks to its fast aperture, though it does take a while to focus in such dim conditions. And with the AF assist lamp enabled, the LX10 can focus in complete darkness. Performance with the AF assist lamp of course will vary with subject and distance, though.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) For such applications, you may have better luck with a digital SLR camera, but even there, you'll likely need to set the focus manually. For information and reviews on digital SLRs, refer to our SLR review index page.

Output Quality

Print Quality

Nice, large 24 x 36 inch prints up to ISO 200; Pleasing mid-range ISO prints up to 13 x 19 inches until ISO 800; Usable 5 x 7 inch prints up to ISO 6400.

ISO 80 prints look very nice up to an impressive 24 x 36 inches, with a lot of fine detail and pleasing colors. Upon close inspection, you can see some minor pixelation since we're pushing the limits of a 20-megapixel sensor here. However, it's very minor, and at the typical viewing distance for a print of this size, it doesn't affect the overall print quality.

ISO 100 images, much like ISO 80, look nice up to 24 x 36 inches. We couldn't see much discernible difference in print quality between this and the lower ISO level.

ISO 125 prints look practically identical to ISO 80. There's a very, very subtle increase in shadow noise, but it's so minor that it has no impact on print quality. Prints up to 24 x 36 are therefore very good at this base ISO, with prints showing lots of detail and nice colors.

ISO 200 images are, again, very similar to the previous ISO, yet with just the faintest hint of increased shadow noise. Still, prints look great up to 24 x 36 inches.

ISO 400 prints top out at 20 x 30 inches. Background and shadow noise are a bit stronger now, and we see a slight drop in overall fine detail. Prints up to this maximum size, however, are crisp with lots of detail and noise is well-controlled.

ISO 800 images start to display a more noticeable drop in detail due to noise and noise reduction processing. While 16 x 20-inch prints might work for less critical applications or with careful post processing, we'll play it safe and call it at 13 x 19 inches here.

ISO 1600 prints display quite a bit of softening due to noise reduction, though the camera does a nice job of removing visible noise and grain, at the expense of fine detail, unfortunately. Colors also start to look a bit on the blander side at this sensitivity. Therefore, at this ISO, we're calling it at 8 x 10 inches for the maximum print size.

ISO 3200 images show an even further reduction in fine detail due to noise and NR processing, keeping us from calling a good print larger than 5 x 7 inches.

ISO 6400 prints should also be kept at 5 x 7 inches at maximum. Noise is quite apparent and really hurts fine detail at larger sizes.

ISO 12,800 / 25,600 images, unfortunately, are too soft and lacking in detail for us to comfortably consider usable for prints.

Competing against the wildly popular Sony RX100-series and Canon G7X-series, the LX10 is Panasonic's take on the premium compact camera. Also sporting a 20-megapixel 1-inch-type CMOS sensor, the Panasonic LX10 has a similar showing to the RX100 IV, for example, with comparable print sizes up to ISO 800. At extended low ISOs and through ISO 200, the LX10 offers nice, high-resolution prints up to 24 x 36 inches, which is quite impressive even though they are pushing the limits of its sensor. At ISO 800, the LX10 offers pleasing prints at up to 13 x 19 inches. However, past that ISO level, the LX10 begins to show some noticeable print quality degradation due to strong noise reduction processing, which does a good job of removing noise but at the expense of fine detail and color saturation. ISO 1600 prints top out at 8 x 10 inches, while ISO 3200 and 6400 are limited to 5 x 7 inches. At the maximum native ISO of 12,800 and extended ISO 25,600, the LX10's prints are too noisy and lacking in detail for usable prints.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Image Quality

Below are crops from our laboratory Still Life target comparing the Panasonic LX10's image quality to its aging predecessor's, the LX7, as well as to a more recent sibling, the Panasonic LX100. We also compare it to a few competing compact enthusiast cameras: the Canon G7X Mark II, Canon G9X and Sony RX100 V. All cameras in this comparison use 1"-type sensors except for the Panasonic LX7 which uses a much smaller 1/1.7" sensor, and the Panasonic LX100 which has a larger Four Thirds sensor.

NOTE: These images are from best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction and using the camera's actual base ISO (not extended ISO settings). Clicking any crop will take you to a carrier page where you can click once again to access the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera. For those interested in working with the RAW files involved, click these links to visit each camera's respective sample image thumbnail page: Panasonic LX10, Panasonic LX100, Canon G7X II, Canon G9X , Sony RX100 IV and Sony RX100 V -- links to the RAW files appear beneath those for the JPEG images, wherever we have them. And remember, you can always go to our world-renowned Comparometer to compare the Panasonic LX10 to any camera we've ever tested!

Panasonic LX10 vs Panasonic LX7 at Base ISO

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 125	Panasonic LX7 at ISO 80
The resolution advantage of the 20-megapixel LX10 over its aging 10-megapixel predecessor is clearly evident here, with the LX10 easily out-resolving the LX7 in most areas, though the LX7 does a better job at rendering our tricky red-leaf swatch. Noise levels are similar despite the different sensor sizes (the LX7 only has a 1/1.7"-type sensor which has less than half the area of the LX10's 1"-type sensor) and resolutions, however keep in mind the LX7's lower base ISO. Contrast and color are also more pleasing from the LX10, with less of a green tint than the LX7, though saturation is higher from the LX7 in deep reds, greens and blues.

Panasonic LX10 vs Panasonic LX100 at Base ISO

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 125	Panasonic LX100 at ISO 200
Here we compare the LX10 to its larger sibling, the LX100. The Panasonic LX100's 16.8-megiapixel Four Thirds sensor has almost twice the total area of the LX10's 1" sensor, however only about 12.7 megapixels is used in its native 4:3 aspect ratio here. Once again, the LX10 easily out-resolves the lower resolution LX100, however the LX100 image shows significantly less noise, even though the base ISO is higher. The LX10's image is sharper with higher contrast and more accurate color, though sharpening halos are more evident, but the LX100 does better with our challenging red-leaf swatch.

Panasonic LX10 vs Canon G7X Mark II at Base ISO

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 125	Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 125
Both of these rivals use a 20-megapixel 1"-type sensor, possibly even the same one, so it's no surprise resolving power is nearly identical. The LX10's less heavy-handed noise processing as well as what appears to be a slightly sharper lens does yield a little more detail than G7X Mark II except in the red-leaf fabric, although the Canon image is a bit cleaner with better color and a more pleasing tone curve.

Panasonic LX10 vs Canon G9X at Base ISO

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 125	Canon G9X at ISO 125
The Canon G9X also uses a similar if not identical 1"-type 20-megapixel sensor and thus produces image quality very similar to its sibling, the G7X II, so most of previous comparison is applicable here. The G9X's lens however doesn't seem to be perform quite as well, translating to slightly less detail than the G7X II, however the Canon continues to do a better job at rendering our troublesome red-leaf fabric.

Panasonic LX10 vs Sony RX100 V at Base ISO

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 125	Sony RX100 V at ISO 125
The Sony RX100 V, too, shares the same 1"-type sensor size and 20-megapixel resolution as the Panasonic LX10. Here at base ISO, we have to give the nod to the Sony, although it's pretty close. The Sony image is a bit crisper with more vibrant color and better contrast, however the Panasonic image appears slightly more natural and realistic. It's really a personal preference as to which image is better here.

Panasonic LX10 vs Panasonic LX7 at ISO 1600

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600	Panasonic LX7 at ISO 1600
As you can see here at ISO 1600, the LX10's larger sensor produces a lot less noise while still resolving more high-contrast detail, however default noise reduction has blurred away a lot more subtle detail in our tricky red-leaf swatch than the LX7. The LX10 continues to produce better color and contrast.

Panasonic LX10 vs Panasonic LX100 at ISO 1600

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600	Panasonic LX100 at ISO 1600
The LX10's resolution advantage has pretty much disappeared here, with the lower resolution LX100 holding onto to more detail at ISO 1600, however some of that is due to stronger default noise reduction from the LX10 as the LX100's image is a bit noisier.

Panasonic LX10 vs Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 1600

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600	Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 1600
The Canon G7X II leaves behind a bit more noise in flatter areas though detail retention is also slightly better. The Canon continues to produce better color.

Panasonic LX10 vs Canon G9X at ISO 1600

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600	Canon G9X at ISO 1600
The Canon G9X doesn't fare quite as well the G7X Mark II here at ISO 1600 with higher noise levels and less detail, giving the LX10 an edge in this comparison with the exception of our troublesome red-leaf swatch.

Panasonic LX10 vs Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 1600	Sony RX100 V at ISO 1600
While the Sony RX100 V's image is crisper with better contrast, noise levels are higher in flatter areas, and there are more visible noise reduction artifacts as well, giving the image a slightly more processed looked than the LX10's. That's not to say the LX10 doesn't have noise reduction artifacts and even more blurring from what appears to be more aggressive noise reduction, however the end result don't appear quite as processed. The Sony appears to do better in our red-leaf swatch, however much of the apparent detail is false.

Panasonic LX10 vs Panasonic LX7 at ISO 3200

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200	Panasonic LX7 at ISO 3200
There's no contest here at ISO 3200, with the LX7 producing much higher luminance noise levels along with some nasty noise reduction and sharpening artifacts, as well as chroma blotching. The LX10 image on the other hand is much cleaner with more detail, but the camera is clearly working hard to suppress noise, blurring and smearing away a lot of fine detail.

Panasonic LX10 vs Panasonic LX100 at ISO 3200

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200	Panasonic LX100 at ISO 3200
Once again, the LX100 comes out on top here at ISO 3200, with better detail as well as lower noise, however color is still better from the LX10.

Panasonic LX10 vs Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 3200

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200	Canon G7X Mark II at ISO 3200
This is another tough call with one camera doing slightly better than the other depending on the subject matter. Overall, we give the Canon the nod here, for retaining slightly better detail with fewer noise reduction artifacts in the mosaic crop, as well as better color and contrast, even though luminance noise in flatter areas is noticeably higher.

Panasonic LX10 vs Canon G9X at ISO 3200

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200	Canon G9X at ISO 3200
It goes the other way here at ISO 3200 against the G9X, with the LX10 producing a better overall image with much lower noise levels and better detail.

Panasonic LX10 vs Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200

Panasonic LX10 at ISO 3200	Sony RX100 V at ISO 3200
Panasonic's more aggressive noise reduction shows itself again here at ISO 3200. In the bottle crops, the LX10's image is noticeably less noisy. However, the Sony RX100 V's mosaic label, while itself rather mottled, is noticeably better than the blotchy, muddy label in the LX10's rendering. Sony still does better with the hue of the pink swatch, but in other respects the fabric swatches are pretty much a wash between the two cameras.

Panasonic LX10 vs. Panasonic LX7, Panasonic LX100, Canon G7X Mark II, Canon G9X, Sony RX100 V

Panasonic LX10 ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic LX7 ISO 80 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic LX100 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon G7X Mark II ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon G9X ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony RX100 V ISO 125 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. High-contrast detail is also important, pushing the camera in different ways, so we like to look at it too. Here, we can see the LX10 is a massive upgrade over the LX7 in all respects and especially as ISO climbs. It also does noticeably better than the Canon G9X despite having similar sensors. It compares well against the Canon G7X Mark II with similar detail though contrast is somewhat lower and sharpening halos are more evident, at least at base ISO. The LX100 doesn't have the resolution to compete at base ISO, but because of its larger pixels, it does noticeably better at high ISOs. The Sony RX100 V bests the LX10 at base ISO by offering the same resolution, better contrast and less obvious sharpening halos, but the LX10 isn't far behind, especially as ISO rises.

Nice, large 24 x 36 inch prints up to ISO 200; Pleasing mid-range ISO prints up to 13 x 19 inches until ISO 800; Usable 5 x 7 inch prints up to ISO 6400.

ISO 80 prints look very nice up to an impressive 24 x 36 inches, with a lot of fine detail and pleasing colors. Upon close inspection, you can see some minor pixelation since we're pushing the limits of a 20-megapixel sensor here. However, it's very minor, and at the typical viewing distance for a print of this size, it doesn't affect the overall print quality.

ISO 100 images, much like ISO 80, look nice up to 24 x 36 inches. We couldn't see much discernible difference in print quality between this and the lower ISO level.

ISO 125 prints look practically identical to ISO 80. There's a very, very subtle increase in shadow noise, but it's so minor that it has no impact on print quality. Prints up to 24 x 36 are therefore very good at this base ISO, with prints showing lots of detail and nice colors.

ISO 200 images are, again, very similar to the previous ISO, yet with just the faintest hint of increased shadow noise. Still, prints look great up to 24 x 36 inches.

ISO 400 prints top out at 20 x 30 inches. Background and shadow noise are a bit stronger now, and we see a slight drop in overall fine detail. Prints up to this maximum size, however, are crisp with lots of detail and noise is well-controlled.

ISO 800 images start to display a more noticeable drop in detail due to noise and noise reduction processing. While 16 x 20-inch prints might work for less critical applications or with careful post processing, we'll play it safe and call it at 13 x 19 inches here.

ISO 1600 prints display quite a bit of softening due to noise reduction, though the camera does a nice job of removing visible noise and grain, at the expense of fine detail, unfortunately. Colors also start to look a bit on the blander side at this sensitivity. Therefore, at this ISO, we're calling it at 8 x 10 inches for the maximum print size.

ISO 3200 images show an even further reduction in fine detail due to noise and NR processing, keeping us from calling a good print larger than 5 x 7 inches.

ISO 6400 prints should also be kept at 5 x 7 inches at maximum. Noise is quite apparent and really hurts fine detail at larger sizes.

ISO 12,800 / 25,600 images, unfortunately, are too soft and lacking in detail for us to comfortably consider usable for prints.

Competing against the wildly popular Sony RX100-series and Canon G7X-series, the LX10 is Panasonic's take on the premium compact camera. Also sporting a 20-megapixel 1-inch-type CMOS sensor, the Panasonic LX10 has a similar showing to the RX100 IV, for example, with comparable print sizes up to ISO 800. At extended low ISOs and through ISO 200, the LX10 offers nice, high-resolution prints up to 24 x 36 inches, which is quite impressive even though they are pushing the limits of its sensor. At ISO 800, the LX10 offers pleasing prints at up to 13 x 19 inches. However, past that ISO level, the LX10 begins to show some noticeable print quality degradation due to strong noise reduction processing, which does a good job of removing noise but at the expense of fine detail and color saturation. ISO 1600 prints top out at 8 x 10 inches, while ISO 3200 and 6400 are limited to 5 x 7 inches. At the maximum native ISO of 12,800 and extended ISO 25,600, the LX10's prints are too noisy and lacking in detail for usable prints.

Field Test

There's a new premium compact on the market and it's excellent

By Jeremy Gray · 11/22/2016

Introduction

The premium compact camera market is as crowded as ever and all its combatants bring to the table distinct features on top of very similar 20.1-megapixel 1-inch type sensors. In a market where usability and features make or break a camera, the Panasonic LX10 offers a lot to be excited about. It has a very sleek, functional camera body; tilting touchscreen display; fast 24-72mm eq. f/1.4-2.8 lens and 4K UHD video and 4K photo features. Does the $700 camera deliver on its solid specs and features list? Read on to find out.

Key Features and Info

• Sleek compact camera body
• Tilting 3-inch touchscreen display
• 24-72mm equivalent f/1.4-2.8 lens
• 20.1-megapixel 1-inch sensor
• 125-12,800 ISO range expandable to 80-25,600
• 49-point DFD autofocus system
• 4K UHD video
• 4K Photo
• Built-in Wi-Fi
• 5-axis Hybrid OIS+ image stabilization
• US$700 list price

Panasonic LX10 is a sleek, compact camera

As a "premium compact," the Panasonic LX10 should have a premium feel, and it achieves this through its interesting design and fabrication process. The camera has a seamless metal profile, which means that the top panel is part of the front panel. This leads to a smooth, sleek appearance. In fact, the camera is perhaps too smooth. Whereas the Canon G7X II has a textured grip finish, the LX10 (and RX100 series) does not. The Panasonic LX10 has a very small front grip, which doesn't do much to provide security when holding the camera, so I highly recommend always using the included wrist strap.

The press-forged body (rather than injection molded, which is much more the industry standard) is quite compact. It's slightly smaller than a Canon G7X II and slightly larger than a Sony RX100. The LX10's dimensions are 4.15 x 2.36 x 1.65 inches (105.5 x 60 x 42 millimeters) and it weighs 10.9 ounces (310 grams) with the battery. Despite being small and light, it feels very solid in my hand.

Speaking of rugged design, the tilting 3-inch touchscreen LCD has a robust tilting mechanism that manages to maintain a slim profile. The touchscreen display has 1,040,000 dots and can tilt up 180 degrees to act as a selfie screen. It doesn't tilt downward or swivel, but it's still a nice display. I found that the LCD's visibility was good in all lighting conditions. It has four brightness settings: automatic, 1 (brightest), 2 (standard) and 3 (dimmest). I left it at "2" in all but a few outdoor shooting situations, when I had to turn up the brightness to see better. The screen wasn't too reflective either.

Looking at the rest of the back of the LX10, there aren't a lot of buttons. They are all small and sit very close to the camera body, making them somewhat difficult to find without looking at the camera, at least until you get used to the LX10's body.

Unsurprisingly given its price point and size, the Panasonic LX10 does not have an electronic viewfinder or hot shoe, but it does have a built-in flash on the top of the camera (more on that later). Looking at the rest of the top panel of the camera, there's a shutter release, which has a nice, springy feel, a zoom lever, mode dial, on/off switch, video record button and rear dial. There's a second command dial on the Lumix LX10, but it's around the barrel of the lens. Similarly, there's an aperture dial on the lens itself which has a good feel, but it requires just enough force to rotate that it's easy to overshoot your desired aperture setting. All the dials and buttons on the LX10 have a good tactile feel.

Although not unusual for a compact camera, the card slot for the Panasonic LX10 is on the bottom of the camera inside the battery compartment. This means that if you are using a tripod plate, it must be removed to access the memory card. However, you don't need to worry about removing a tripod plate for charging the battery as the LX10 supports internal charging via the USB port on the right side of the body.

Overall, the Panasonic LX10 body feels very nice and is well-designed. It looks great; very sleek and modern. However, it has a slippery metallic finish and lacks much of a front grip for you to grasp. Nonetheless, it's a solid-feeling, easy to use camera.

Fast 24-72mm f/1.4-2.8 lens performs well in many situations

The Panasonic LX10's 24-72mm equivalent lens has a maximum aperture of f/1.4-2.8 across the zoom range, which is very fast for a compact camera (about 3/4 stop faster than the f/1.8-2.8 lenses found on the Canon G7X II and Sony RX100 IV at the wide end). When the camera is powered off, the lens is very small, its entire length is essentially comprised of the control ring and aperture ring. Despite being small, Panasonic still managed to pack in a whopping 11 elements in 9 groups, including 4 aspherical (dual-sided aspherical), 2 aspherical ED (dual-sided) and 1 UHR element in the LX10's Leica-branded DC Vario-Summilux optic. In case you're wondering, the 3x zoom lens' actual focal length is 8.8-26.4mm.

One issue that I ran into with the LX10's built-in lens is that it doesn't have a built-in neutral density filter. Sure, you can use the electronic shutter when shooting during the day, but if you want to use the lens at f/1.4 during the day with the mechanical shutter, you're out of luck as the mechanical shutter is capped at 1/2000s at f/1.4. You need to stop down to f/3.2 or more to get the top mechanical shutter speed of 1/4000s.

Macro capabilities

The Panasonic LX10 can close focus to 1.2 inches (3 cm) at the wide end of the lens, which is 2 centimeters closer than both the Canon G7X II and Sony RX100 IV. It's an impressive level of macro capability for a premium compact camera, but it does come at the cost of severe softness in the corners of the image. This is not unusual in my experience with compact cameras and macro photography, but it is worth keeping in mind if you intend to use the camera for macro photography.

How changes in focal length affect image quality: Weaker at the wide end

When shooting at 24mm equivalent, particularly wide open at f/1.4, there is a considerable drop-off in sharpness towards the edges of the frame compared to the center. This improves quite a bit by stopping down to f/2.0, but generally persists into the range of diffraction. Speaking of diffraction, that starts as early as f/4.0 in my test shots. At 72mm equivalent, the frame is more consistently sharp when shooting wide open, although there is softness in the extreme corners of the frame. The LX10's lens is also prone to pretty severe purple fringing, particularly when shooting wide open, although I found it can occur at any aperture.

Diffraction sets in quickly with the LX10

Speaking of aperture changes and image quality, I already mentioned the issue with diffraction at moderately low apertures, but what about the LX10's built-in diffraction compensation? It does technically work, although it works by increasing sharpness beyond default levels, which can introduce issues with over sharpening.

I also encountered another issue when stopping the Panasonic LX10's lens down, particularly at wider focal lengths. When stopping down, purple ghosting would appear just beneath the center of the frame. I don't know what causes this issue, but you can see it below.

If you are interested in the maximum aperture of the Panasonic LX10 at its stepped focal lengths, at 24mm the maximum aperture is f/1.4, of course, but it becomes f/2.5 at 28mm and f/2.8 at 35mm.

Surprisingly good bokeh results from a compact camera

With the LX10, Panasonic has put an emphasis on creating a built-in lens that offers high-quality bokeh. The lens has a 9-bladed aperture diaphragm and it has been specially-engineered to offer smooth, creamy bokeh. It can't quite rival a DSLR's much larger sensor, but at f/1.4, the LX10 can deliver a pretty impressive out-of-focus area. At the telephoto end, despite a maximum aperture of f/2.8, the LX10 can produce a pleasing out-of-focus area as well.

Overall: A very good built-in lens for the premium compact Panasonic LX10

Not without some issues, the Panasonic LX10's built-in lens still provides excellent results for a very fast, compact zoom. Distortion is well-controlled at 24mm, even if the edges of the frame are soft, and the frame is consistently good at the telephoto end. You do need to be wary of diffraction when shooting with the LX10 as it starts to rear its ugly head early in the aperture range. Despite the typical issues compact cameras show when shooting macro shots, the Lumix LX10 nonetheless manages to impress. Further, Panasonic's emphasis on creating pleasing bokeh has paid off as the LX10 can create silky smooth backgrounds given the right conditions and provide results that are particularly nice for a camera with a 1"-type sensor.

We'll have a lot more to say about the LX10's lens performance once we post our full set of lab results, so stay tuned!

Reliable and common 20.1-megapixel sensor works well in Panasonic LX10

20.1 megapixels is a very popular megapixel count for premium compact cameras which utilize a 1-inch sensor. Canon uses it, Sony uses it and Panasonic is using it in the LX10 and other 1-inch models. Compared to the LX7's 1/1.7-inch sensor, the LX10's sensor has about a three times larger effective image area. Additionally, the LX10's pixels are about 1.6 times larger and the camera gains an additional stop of high ISO sensitivity over the LX7. The 20.1-megapixel 1-inch Live MOS sensor provides quality results across a wide range of ISO speeds that certainly place this camera in direct competition with the impressive image quality found with the G7X II and RX100 IV. In fact, any dramatic differences in image quality would be the result of differences in processing and built-in lenses rather than the sensor itself.

Image quality: Detailed JPEGs, but perhaps overly sharpened

JPEG images are very sharp at low ISOs from the Panasonic LX10 and full of lots of fine detail. On the other hand, RAW images are soft and somewhat dull straight from the camera, requiring more extensive sharpening than I am used to having to apply to RAW files from the different cameras I've tested. Nonetheless, RAW images contain a good amount of data and are easy to work with.

Image quality at high ISOs: Panasonic LX10 offers good high ISO performance for its sensor size

While images, JPEG ones in particular, are very sharp and detailed at low ISOs, beyond ISO 400 there is a noticeable decrease in fine detail. At ISO 800, JPEG images remain quite clean, showing low amounts of noise, but the very fine details present in images shot at lower ISOs are gone due to the increased noise reduction processing taking place. Unsurprisingly, the situation gets worse at ISO 1600, but images are still clean and very much usable. At ISO 3200, not only do you lose additional fine detail, but a fair bit of noise and artifacts appear. ISO 6400 and 12,800 are both very soft and muddy, with an unpleasant digital appearance due to the noise reduction.

Panasonic LX10 Noise Comparison 100% crops from JPEG images captured with Standard Picture Style and otherwise default settings. (Click for full-size images.)
ISO 125 Full Scene
ISO 125	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12,800

Considering RAW images, at ISO 400 you start to see some noise, particularly in shadow areas. At ISO 1600, noise is quite noticeable and beyond ISO 3200, the files are noisy enough that they're not worth the effort, in my opinion.

Panasonic LX10 Noise Comparison 100% crops from RAW images converted with default Adobe Camera Raw settings. (Click to access the .RW2 RAW files.)
ISO 125 Full Scene
ISO 125	ISO 12,800

Overall, I am quite impressed with the high ISO JPEG images that the Panasonic LX10's 1"-type sensor produces. For its relatively small sensor size -- although still much larger than the LX7's image sensor -- it produces strong results.

Panasonic LX10 user experience: Very good overall, although performance can be lacking

Metering

Metering performance was very good in a wide array of situations with the LX10. The camera offers intelligent multiple (which works excellently), center-weighted and spot metering options. When shooting with a single AF point, spot metering is tied to the focus point, otherwise it is locked to the center of the frame.

Autofocus: Quick in good light, but not so great with moving subjects

The LX10 uses Panasonic's Depth From Defocus (DFD) autofocus technology. While the description is tailored to the autofocus system in the Panasonic GH4, you can learn a lot about DFD technology in Dave Etchells' article here. What is most important in the case of the LX10 is that its contrast-detect autofocus system offers up 49 autofocus areas and proved to be very speedy in my testing, at least in good light. Low-light autofocus performance is good too, although the decrease in focusing speed is noticeable, and the LX10 tends to hunt for focus in low light when using AF-F or AF-C.

The camera also offers face/eye detection and tracking autofocus modes, although I thoroughly enjoyed using the single-point AF mode and using the touchscreen to move the point around the frame. If you're looking to capture action, continuous autofocus works well, although shooting speeds are limited to 6 frames per second with full AF-C (you can shoot full-res images at up to 10fps with AF-S selected).

Plentiful shooting modes

Offering a variety of shooting modes, including the standard assortment of program, aperture priority, shutter speed priority and full manual modes, the Panasonic LX10 has something for everyone. It includes scene modes and special creative filters to add a distinct touch to your photography. It also has a panorama mode, which works well, provided you are capturing steady images of stationary subjects.

Image Stabilization

With 5-axis Hybrid OIS+ -- at least when shooting stills and Full HD video -- the Lumix LX10 allows for impressively stable shooting. I could shoot sharp stills at 24mm with shutter speeds as slow as 1/2.5s and at 72mm with shutter speeds as slow as 1/5s. Everyone's technique varies, so your results may end up different than mine, but the LX10's image stabilization system impressed me. Unfortunately, when shooting 4K UHD video (or High-speed video), image stabilization is limited to the lens' optical stabilization, but that isn't unusual for cameras that can record 4K video.

Menus

One of the best and worst aspects of using the Panasonic LX10 is its touchscreen user interface. The touchscreen display works well for tasks such as moving the focus point or navigating the camera's primary menus -- although sometimes my touches of the back button in the bottom left corner of the display didn't register -- but it struggles with the camera's potentially very useful Q. Menu. The Q. Menu, accessed by pressing the Fn3 button on the back of the camera, has many useful functions including movie and image quality options, focus mode, metering, drive mode, exposure compensation, ISO and white balance. Many of the options work well with touch, but ISO doesn't. The arrows to change ISO are tiny and it is frustrating to be slowed down while out in the field by a menu that could very easily have been made more user friendly. With that said, the camera's Auto and Intelligent ISO settings both work well, and you can always assign ISO to a function button and then use the rear dial or directional buttons to adjust it instead.

Performance is good for JPEG shooting, but RAW buffer disappoints

Performance is good with the Panasonic LX10, at least regarding overall speed. However, buffer depth was not nearly as impressive during my testing. I tested the LX10 with a fast SanDisk Extreme Pro 8GB UHS-I SDHC card capable of 90 MB/s write speeds.

When shooting in High Speed burst mode, the Panasonic LX10 can capture full-resolution images at up to 10fps, but 10fps speeds are only achieved when focus mode is set to AF-S (focus is fixed at the first frame of a burst). If you want continuous autofocus, speeds decrease to 6fps. There are also Middle Speed (7fps) and Low Speed (2fps) modes. A Super High Speed mode is also available which can shoot up to sixty 5-megapixel JPEGs at 50fps using AF-S and the electronic shutter, as well as 4K Photo Burst mode which of course shoots 4K (8-megapixel) JPEGs at 30fps (more on that below).

What about buffer depths? When shooting in High Speed burst mode, the RAW + JPEG buffer was a mere 13 frames, RAW was 14 and JPEG was 80 frames. Buffers cleared in about 12, 9 and 6 seconds respectively. See our Performance page for details.

It's safe to say that if you want the ultimate speed from the LX10, 4K Photo is the way to go. If you want full-resolution RAW files with full autofocus capabilities, the camera slows down dramatically and is much less impressive, with only 6fps shooting speeds and a less than impressive buffer.

Built-in flash has impressive flash sync speeds

Flash performance is interesting with the Panasonic LX10. First of all, you cannot use the built-in flash with the electronic shutter. Further, the max flash sync speed matches the fastest allowable mechanical shutter speed, which means you can get very fast flash sync, up to 1/4000s, but that means that the aperture has to be f/3.2 or slower. Between f/1.4 and f/2.8, the maximum shutter speed is 1/2000s and therefore the maximum flash sync is also 1/2000s. The built-in flash has a claimed range of 0.5 - 12.1 meters (wide) and 0.3 - 6.0 meters (telephoto) with Auto ISO. The LX10 doesn't include a hot shoe.

No NFC, but the wireless capabilities of the LX10 are quite impressive nonetheless

Panasonic's wireless features are very good. The LX10 has built-in Wi-Fi, although it doesn't include NFC or Bluetooth technology. The connection process is straightforward on iOS devices, requiring the user to turn Wireless on via the camera, connect to the device in the iOS internet settings menu, accepting the connection on the camera and then opening the Panasonic Image App iOS application. An Android version of the app is also available.

Once connected, you have access to a very good remote control feature. You can control every important setting on the camera for both stills and video recording, including file quality, metering, focus mode, drive mode and much more. Changing the focus point includes a slight delay in the live view and the live view preview quality isn't high enough for precise focus checking, Overall, though, the LX10's wireless features are impressive.

Panasonic LX10 4K UHD Video is impressive

The Panasonic LX10 can record 4K UHD video at 24 or 30 frames per second. During my testing, the LX10 worked quite well with 4K video and recorded high-quality footage. With that said, continuous autofocus had a slight tendency to hunt, but it wasn't bad. Regarding the field of view, the LX10 doesn't utilize the full width of the sensor when recording 4K video, as you can see in the comparison images below. At maximum wide-angle 24mm equivalent for 3:2 stills, EXIF reports 25mm equivalent for Full HD, and 36mm equivalent for 4K video.

Full HD video also has the advantage of being able to be recorded in Panasonic's 4K Live Cropping mode. By utilizing a 4K frame, you can pan and zoom a Full HD video frame around inside the 4K frame. By using the feature when the camera is steady, you can record a smooth panning motion as well. It's a neat feature that works well. It is worth noting as well that Full HD video recording supports the LX10's 5-axis image stabilization whereas 4K UHD video recording only uses the built-in lens' optical image stabilization. In addition to stabilization, Full HD video can be recorded with automatic levelling.

On the technical side of things, the LX10 records 4K video in the .MP4 file format for up to 15 minutes and Full HD video can be recorded in .MP4 or AVCHD and has a time limit of 29:59 with AVCHD but no time limit for the .MP4 format. Panasonic recommends using a UHS Speed Class 3 card for recording 4K or High Speed videos, but a Class 4 card will suffice for Full HD and HD video in either AVCHD or .MP4 format.

When recording High-Speed video (Full HD at 120p), which is a good feature to have, there's no audio, the focal length is locked and you have very limited control over exposure, which is somewhat frustrating. Otherwise, the LX10 offers the user a lot of control over shutter speed, aperture and much more in other video recording modes.

Regarding focus, the touchscreen works well for moving the focus point during video recording and autofocus is very quite, however some noise can be heard while zooming.

4K Photo: Array of fun photo features

Panasonic's 4K Photo modes are very cool. While you cannot capture RAW images in 4K Photo mode and the images themselves are only 8 megapixels, the mode allows for a lot of flexibility and speed that you cannot achieve when shooting RAW or full-resolution image files. Using 4K Photo Burst, you can shoot at up to 30fps, which is impressive. To capture action, there's a burst mode that starts firing shots as soon as you half-press the shutter and then continues with a full-press, automatically deleting some of the pre-press images.

If you have access to a tripod, 4K Post Focus is a fun shooting mode. Particularly well-suited for still life scenes, 4K Post Focus captures a burst of images at different focus points and then allows you to select the desired frames after the fact. By moving the focus point around the frame, you can select the corresponding frame. If you want to have a scene with everything in focus, you can do that too by having the camera stack all the Post Focus images into a single frame. This process is a little slow, but it's particularly useful for macro photography.

Overall, 4K Photo is a great feature that helps set the LX10 apart from non-Panasonic cameras. It is worth noting that the mode utilizes the electronic shutter rather than the manual shutter, so you may experience some rolling shutter and other artifacts in certain situations.

The Panasonic LX10 is a premium compact camera in terms of features and performance

What I like:

• Compact, sleek camera body
• Very fast built-in lens performs well overall
• Lens can focus closer than average in macro mode
• Good image quality
• 4K video and 4K Photo features are strong

What I dislike:

• Camera has a slippery finish and a small grip
• No integrated ND filter
• Lens is soft in the corners at 24mm equivalent focal length at wide apertures
• Small buffer when shooting RAW files

Overall, thanks to impressive imaging quality, autofocus and a very good variety of 4K photo and video modes, the Panasonic LX10 is a terrific premium compact camera, with a wealth of features and solid performance.

Flash

Panasonic LX10 Flash

Built-in Flash Test Results

Coverage, Exposure and Range
A small, weak flash with narrow coverage.

Coverage. Flash coverage was quite narrow at wide angle, leaving dim corners and edges in our flash coverage test image, though that's fairly typical of the type. We no longer test flash coverage at telephoto, as it is invariably better, making wide angle the worst case scenario.

Exposure. Our standard Indoor Portrait test scene came out well-exposed at f/4 with +0.3 EV of flash exposure compensation, but the camera boosted ISO to 500 and the image is quite warm and orange from the ambient tungsten lighting.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Telephoto
19.7 feet ISO 2000, f/2.8

Manufacturer Specified Flash Range Test. The Panasonic LX10's flash range is rated at 12.1m or 39.7 feet at wide angle, and 6.0m or 19.7 feet at telephoto, with ISO sensitivity set to Auto. As you can see from the test shot at full telephoto above, the Panasonic LX10 produced a well-exposed flash target at the rated 19.7 feet, though it boosted ISO sensitivity to 2000 to achieve that result. We shoot this test shot using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

Conclusion

The Panasonic LX10 joined a crowded premium compact camera market this past fall. Equipped with a 20.1-megapixel 1-inch-type sensor, like many premium compact cameras, the LX10 also offers a quick 24-72mm equivalent f/1.4-2.8 lens. What helps set it apart from the competition is its 4K video and 4K Photo features along with a sub-$700 price tag. How does the camera's image quality, performance and overall usability fare?

LX10's 20MP sensor impresses and so does the fast built-in lens

The LX10 is a follow-up to the LX7 and employs a larger 1-inch-type sensor this time around. The 20.1-megapixel sensor proved to be quite good and comparable to its competition, including the Sony RX100 V, Canon G7X II and Canon G9X.

When comparing the LX10 to the LX7, the LX10 represents a considerable upgrade in every way, from detail to high ISO performance. The LX10 bests its 1-inch Canon competition overall, although the LX10 does display slightly more sharpening halos at low ISOs. Compared to the Sony RX100 V, the LX10 comes up a bit short at base ISO, but the gap is small and decreases as ISO increases. Ultimately, the LX10 is a very solid competitor in its class and offers good image quality. You can make good 13 x 19 inch prints up to ISO 800, for example, which is impressive for a 1-inch-type sensor camera.

The good 20.1-megapixel sensor is paired with a built-in 24-72mm equivalent lens, which offers an aperture range of f/1.4 to f/2.8. It is worth noting that the lens is f/1.4 only at 24mm equivalent as it drops to f/1.5 and f/2.0 at 25mm and 26mm, respectively. The camera's max aperture decreases to f/2.8 by 32mm and maintains that f-stop through the end of its focal length range. At the wide end, the LX10 is still nearly a full stop faster than the Sony RX100 V.

Offering very good sharpness across its range, the LX10's lens proves very nice for its speed, size and the LX10's price point. When looking at uncorrected RAW images, there is a lot of distortion at the wide end, as well as a lot of chromatic aberration, but that is typical of the class and the camera does a good job correcting it in-camera. Corner sharpness leaves something to be desired across the focal length range when wide open, but that isn't unusual given the lens' speed and small physical size, and corners sharpen up nicely when stopped down except at wide angle. (The in-camera distortion correction likely plays a role in the lack of corner sharpness at wide angle.) The Panasonic LX10's lens also focuses closer than rivals, which is a nice bonus for macro fans.

Overall, both the 1-inch-type sensor and the built-in lens offer a lot to like. The sensor performs well across much of the ISO range, comparing favorably to competing cameras and performing much better than its aging predecessor's, the Panasonic LX7. On the optical side of the equation, the LX10 provides a very fast maximum aperture of f/1.4 and offers very good optical performance for its type.

AF & Performance: Speedy and solid with the exception of raw buffer depth

Autofocus performance with the LX10 is solid, thanks to Panasonic's Depth From Defocus (DFD) technology. The contrast detect autofocus system offers 49 AF points and numerous autofocus modes. Autofocus performance is quick and accurate in good light and only slows down slightly in low light conditions.

As an enthusiast compact camera, it should come as no surprise that the LX10 offers pretty good performance across the board, with a few shortcomings here and there. Startup times are slow, taking around 3.2 seconds from powering on to capturing the first shot, but other performance areas were much better. Autofocus speeds proved excellent despite relying on a contrast detection system, and full-autofocus shutter lag was a speedy 0.125 seconds.

When considering continuous shooting speeds, the LX10 very nearly matches Panasonic's impressive 10 frames per second speed specification, coming up short in our tests by a mere 0.1 fps when recording JPEG images. Shooting RAW photos reduces speeds slightly to 9.3 fps. If you want full continuous autofocus, burst speeds drop further to 6 fps, which is still good for its class. Buffer depths are not as impressive, however. The RAW buffer is only 14 frames in the 9.3 fps Continuous H shooting mode, and it takes nearly 10 seconds to clear. The JPEG buffer in Continuous H mode at 9.9 fps is much better, filling after 80 frames and with a 6-second clearing time.

The camera offers numerous additional shooting modes which sacrifice image quality for speed. You can record up to 60 5-megapixel JPEG frames at 50 fps in the Super HS mode, for example. You can also record 8-megapixel JPEG images in the 4K burst mode at 30 fps. Additional 4K Photo modes include 4K Post Focus and a neat focus stacking mode, both of which work very well.

Video: 4K UHD video recording in a compact form factor

Speaking of 4K Burst, the LX10 also of course records 4K UHD video. 4K UHD video can be recorded up to 30 fps, and the video quality is impressive. Relying on a contrast detect autofocus system, although fast for stills, poses some problems when recording video as the autofocus has a tendency to hunt during recording. It is also worth noting that when recording 4K UHD video, the camera crops-in and doesn't utilize the full width of the image sensor. The camera also has a 15 minute continuous recording limit when capturing in 4K resolution, primarily due to heat in such a compact camera body. Overall though, 4K UHD video quality is good and a nice feature to have in your pocket.

The LX10 has many features for sub-4K UHD video recording as well. Full HD video can be recorded at up to 120fps, and the LX10 utilizes its 5-axis image stabilization when recording non-4K video (4K video only uses optical I.S.). In addition to stabilized video, the LX10 can also record 1080p video with automatic leveling and 4K Live Cropping, which entails moving a Full HD frame around during 4K video recording, providing the user a lot of flexibility in-camera for framing and cropping. The camera also offers high-speed video, albeit at lower resolutions and with very limited control of settings, focus and zoom during recording.

Overall, while video autofocus leaves a little to be desired, we were impressed not only with the LX10's video quality, but also its wide range of video recording features. It offers a lot for its class.

Build Quality: Sleek and slippery camera body with a nice touchscreen

As a "premium" compact camera, the LX10 should have a good feel in the hands, and we found it to be a comfortable camera to hold and use. The LX10 has a seamless metal body, with the top panel being constructed of the same piece of metal as the front of the camera. This gives the LX10 a sleek look and a robust feel. The body is press-forged, rather than injection molded. While sleek and solid, the LX10 is also a bit slippery, and there is not any sort of grip material on the front of the camera.

On the back of the camera is a very nice 3-inch touchscreen display. The display tilts upward to act as a selfie screen, but does not tilt downward. There is also no electronic viewfinder, a feature found in Sony's more expensive RX100 V compact camera.

Overall, the Panasonic LX10 looks great and feels quite good. It is solidly-built compact camera with numerous features, including its nice touchscreen display and good user interface. The camera does not have many physical controls, but the on-screen Quick Menu works well enough to act as a suitable substitute for many functions that otherwise might have dedicated buttons.

Summary: Panasonic LX10 is a capable, full-featured camera and a great value

The premium 1-inch compact market is a busy one, making it hard for a new entrant to distinguish itself. Panasonic doesn't break much new ground, but it does offer a very fast built-in lens that opens to f/1.4 at the wide end as well as very good 4K video and 4K Photo functionality. The overall user experience proved to be good, and the camera offers a wide array of great features, such as an excellent touchscreen interface and speedy continuous shooting.

Besides being a very good compact camera, the LX10 is also a great value. You can find the Panasonic LX10 for under US$650 brand-new, which is a very good price. If you're in the market for a premium compact camera, we recommend giving the LX10 a long look, as it is a very strong option.

As a pick for a "Camera of Distinction" trophy in our 2016 Camera of the Year Awards in the Premium Compact category, the Panasonic LX10 definitely earns a spot as a Dave's Pick as well.

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