Panasonic LX3 – a great pocket or purse camera

In recent years I’ve experienced a great deal of frustration finding a camera small enough to carry all the time without having to make too many  compromises. Finally I think I found one I can live with.

The Panasonic’s LX3 has a lot going for it. Small. Light. RAW option. Image stabilized lens. It’s fabulous in low light situations. Downside is that it’s white balance at times leaves much to be desired. So far, I’ve only been shooting JPG files, so I don’t know if some of the strange color casts would be less and correctable with a RAW file converter.

Sunday I took the LX3 to Marin Farmers Market to give it a spin. Here are some of the results. The automatic white balance does tend toward magenta casts at times as is evident with the peach tasting bar. In the grape shot it is hard to know how much is the camera’s tendencies and how much is the glow of the umbrella above.