Full auto is great for fast stree candid work.

Bright LCD; Easy Setup; Easy to Keep Clean; Easy To Use; Great Picture Quality; Strong Construction

The Panasonic Lumix LX-7 came to the table as a solid looking competitor - with a well-built body, a nice design, and the prior reputation and name. We felt like we were looking at an award winner. However, as we dove in we found the LX-7 to bring little to the table over the competition.

Announced two years after its predecessor, the LX5, Panasonic's Lumix DMC-LX7 fits into the same market slot but now comes in a white body as well as traditional black. Its 10.1-megapixel sensor has the same resolution as the LX5's but it's a new CMOS chip, instead of CCD, which was used in the LX5.

You're looking for a pocketable digicam with a wide range of user-adjustable controls; You need good performance in low light levels; You want Full HD movie recording; You want effective image stabilisation for movies and still pictures; You'd like fast autofocusing.

You're looking for a significant update to the previous model. (The improvements aren't enough to justify the investment; You want the ability to zoom in and out rapidly, You require in-camera red-eye reduction processing.

The LX7 is an addictive compact camera. The more you use it, the more you want to play. The direct control over the lens aperture is something that would greatly enhance the appeal of many compacts, and without question it's the LX7's best feature.

Tactile aperture control; Sharp lens; Impressive stills output

Some noise at high sensitivities; A little more expensive than the competition

Anyone in the market for a top point-and-shoot camera is probably deciding between Canon's PowerShot S100 and Sony's RX100 . But Panasonic is back in the game with the Lumix LX7, a sequel to one of the top shooters of 2010, the wildly popular Lumix DMC-LX5 .

For the second half of 2012, Panasonic has announced a new premium compact digital camera in its popular LX series; the Lumix DMC-LX7. It features a 10.1-megapixel MOS Sensor (1/1.7 inch) and a 3.8x optical zoom lens that is rated to an F1.4 brightness at its widest angle and F2.3 at full telephoto;...

The Panasonic Lumix LX7 is a premium compact camera aimed at enthusiasts. With a larger sensor than most point-and-shoots and sensible 10.1 Megapixel resolution, a bright 3.7x zoom lens and 3in screen, it offers manual exposure control and full HD 1080p50/60 video.

Very bright f1.4-2.3 zoom lens; Dedicated aperture control ring; 11fps full-resolution burst shooting; Close 1cm macro focus; Shallow depth of field for macro shots

Cap obsctructs lens on power up; Limited Creative Control effects; Aperture ring redundant in some modes; No Wifi; GPS or touch-screen

are serious compact cameras, with a similar set of features, such as 3 inch LCD screen, full 1080p HD video recording and full manual controls. They have slightly different resolution sensors and optical zoom.

Longer battery life; More optical zoom; Larger maximum aperture at telephoto length; Faster continuous shooting; Quicker focusing; Higher resolution screen; Better image quality at the higher ISO settings; Built-in Wi-Fi; More megapixels; More detail in panoramas; Slightly better image quality

Panasonic has updated its expert compact-like it has every even-numbered year since 2006. The LX7 therefore replaces the LX5, with a few changes to design and handling and-most importantly-a new lens that's record-breakingly fast, with wide-angle aperture...

Good build quality; handles well; good balance between simplicity and advanced functions; Very fast lens at all focal lengths (telephoto aperture at f/2.3!; Excellent responsiveness; even when shooting RAW+Jpeg; Lens quality very good from f/2.8; sensor gives good results up to 800 ISO

Lens ring can only be used to control aperture-only useful in A and M modes; Not many customisable controls; High sensitivity settings aren't handled as well as in the Sony RX100; Colours are a little cold in video mode

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