Back in 2008, in the blissful days before the bankers ruined everything, I was invited by Panasonic to a launch event for a new camera. This was not all that unusual; I'd been to many such events before, but this time it was a bit different.

Features; Handling; Performance; Image quality; Build quality

Price

The Lumix DMC-LX7 ($449.99 list) is Panasonic's premiere point-and-shoot camera . It features a 1/1.7-inch image sensor with a CMOS design and 10-megapixel resolution, and a lens with a fast f/1.4 maximum aperture.

Fast lens; 11fps burst mode; Accessory port for optional EVF; Shoots in Raw; Short shutter lag.

Limited zoom range; Soft images at telephoto extreme; Noisy images at ISO 1600 and up.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7 is a compact camera with full manual-controls and a bright stabilized ultra-wide 24-90mm F/1.4-2.3 lens. It has some excellent expansion options thanks to a hot-shoe and a port which supports an optional EVF, making it one of the very few compact cameras usable at...

Ultra-Bright F/1.4 - 2.3 maximum aperture; Very low image noise; Good lens sharpness; Low optical distortion; Excellent resistance to chromatic aberrations; Ultra-fast autofocus; Instant shutter-lag; Fast shot-to-shot speed; Smooth high-quality video capture; Excellent anti-reflective coating on

Below-average Auto White-Balance; Low color accuracy; Half-press required for; Slow optical zoom; Slow noise-reduction; Modal EC control; 1s Filming delay; 1s Missing from videos; Accident-prone aspect-ratio slider; Poor tripod mount placement; Short battery-life

The Lumix DMC-LX7 is Panasonic's flagship compact camera, and the long-awaited follow-up to the popular DMC-LX5. At first glance, it's hard to tell the two apart, but look closer and you'll see some pretty big changes. The DMC-LX7 is a mid-sized camera made mostly of metal.

Excellent photo quality; with less noise than typical compact cameras; Super fast F1.4-2.3; 3.8X optical zoom Leica lens gives excellent sharpness; and versatility in low light; Multi-aspect sensor keeps pixel count high in different aspect ratio modes; 3-inch LCD with 920,000 dots; very good

Aperture ring cannot be customised, unlike similar controls on competitive cameras, Redeye a problem; no removal tool in playback mode, Takes a long time (30+ seconds) for camera to flush the buffer after a burst containing RAW images is taken, Vertical stripes in panoramic images, Very slow lens

Sometimes you don't want to carry a big SLR to get quality images, and that's why cameras like the Panasonic LX7 were born. Small enough to fit into a biggish pocket, the Lumix LX7 has an excellent lens and a good quality image sensor, both tuned to capture good images even in reasonably low light.

Fast lens; one stop faster than predecessor; Lens sharp corner to corner; Image stabilization is rock-solid; Very close Macro mode; Very wide lens at 24mm; The lens is "the stuff of camera-lover dreams; Fast autofocus and shutter lag; Very fast burst modes; Mechanical switch for aspect ratio,

Short telephoto lens at 90mm; Physical aperture ring can confuse; as maximum aperture changes when you zoom; Sluggish startup; Slow buffer clearing; does not appear to be UHS-I compliant; Battery life not as good as predecessor; Slightly below average hue accuracy in JPEGs; Aspect ratio or focus

On paper, you'd expect the Panasonic LX7 to perform as well as or better than its vaunted rivals, the Sony RX100 and Canon S110. With a Leica-branded f/1.4 lens, a 1/1.7-inch image sensor, and the processing power to shoot 12 frames per second and 1080/60p video, this should've been a winner.

Nice cam for "auto" mode users. But still have enough settings to use for Pro. Good optics.

The design embodies exactly what a high-end camera should be: the physical aperture ring and other well-positioned controls ensure that the LX7 is easy to use, yet without ever holding any user control back.

Fast autofocus; f/1.4-2.3 wide aperture; great layout including physical aperture ring; small and light; sharp and detailed images; shoots raw and JPEG; neutral density (ND) filter is just a button away; can add electronic viewfinder (sold separately

Smaller sensor than LX5; max aperture not sustained throughout zoom (so won't always match aperture ring); high ISO sensitivities not as good as larger-sensor competitors; images lack contrast straight from camera; touchscreen ability would be useful for movie mode and some other settings

I own various cameras ranging from Nikon's D7000 through several Panasonic compacts (TZ20, TZ30) down to simple Olympus point-and-shoot. My LX7 is my camera of choice when I go out of home. It is with me at all times. Superb camera, offering a great ease of carrying and using. Highly recommended.

Exceptionally great image quality; ease of handling; superb low-light images

No viewfinder

This camera just amazed me. I used this a week ago when the family went to Disneyland. The pictures and videos were terrific. I decided not to use my DSLR for LX7 and I was never disappointed. When I get back home to check my pictures and videos... it was just WOW!

clear monitor; Sharp images; The best of its kind