Panasonic LX100 II Field Test

Panasonic LX100 II Field Test

A top-notch compact camera with strong features and performance

by Jeremy Gray | Posted 06/03/2019

The original Panasonic Lumix LX100 was released in late 2014. About four years later, its successor finally arrived in the form of the aptly-named LX100 Mark II. While a lot has changed in the photo industry since 2014, the LX100 II doesn't reinvent the wheel. Nor does it need to. It is similar to its predecessor in that it offers a relatively large sensor in a sleek, compact camera body with a fast built-in zoom lens. The LX100 II's Four Thirds sensor has higher resolution and the camera itself is richer in features, but the spirit of the original LX100 remains.

The LX100 Mark II is a compact camera for enthusiasts, and its design, features and performance showcase this well. Let's take a closer look at how the LX100 II performs out in the field.

Key Features and Specs

• Fixed-lens Four Thirds camera
• 17-megapixel MOS image sensor
• Native ISO range of 200-25,600
• Built-in 24 to 75mm-equivalent lens with f/1.7-2.8 aperture range
• Up to 11 frames per second continuous shooting
• 4K UHD video and 4K Photo shooting modes
• Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Around $1,000 USD list price

Camera Body and Design

The LX100 II is a compact and stylish camera, much like its predecessor. The lens sticks out a bit, preventing it from being a true pocket camera, although you could carry it in a baggy coat or jacket pocket. Regardless, it's small and light. Accordingly, there's a pretty small front grip, but the camera is light enough that it works well.

I really like the physical controls on the LX100 II. On the top deck, there are dedicated shutter speed and exposure compensation dials. On the built-in lens itself, there's an aperture ring which is labelled f/1.7, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11 and f/16 plus an automatic aperture setting. The aperture ring has a pair of raised gripped sections which make rotating it quite easy, although it's a stubborn transition from "A" to f/1.7. The transitions between aperture values are otherwise smooth. The lens also includes a focus ring and a switch to change the crop mode.

Moving on to the buttons, the LX100 II includes quite a few on its compact body. Considering the space the designers have to work with, it is no surprise that the buttons are small. However, some of them are raised to make them a bit easier to press, while others are nearly flush with the camera body, such as the Fn2 (Q Menu) and playback buttons to the right of the touchscreen. Speaking of the touchscreen, it's a three-inch display with a resolution of 1,240K-dots, which is a slightly higher-res than the three-inch touchscreen found on the original LX100. In both cases, the display is fixed on the camera and thus cannot be tilted. There are four directional buttons/function buttons on the rear of the camera. When shooting, these control sensitivity, white balance, drive mode and focus area. There are also five dedicated function buttons on the camera, which can be customized.

The electronic viewfinder is a 2,760K-dot OLED finder with 100-percent coverage. It offers a good amount of magnification: 0.7x in 35mm-equivalent terms. The display is sharp and bright, although the frame rate does suffer a bit when shooting in low or changing light. Overall, it's a fine EVF.

There are many aspects of the LX100's design that I like. Despite being small and lightweight, it features ample physical controls, many of which are intelligently-placed. I would prefer more of the buttons be raised from the camera body to make them easier to locate and press while shooting, but overall, the controls are impressive. The camera is stylish too, which is important to some.

Image Quality

The original LX100 had a 12.8-megapixel Four Thirds MOS sensor, which performed quite well. However, it's an outdated sensor so it was time for an improvement. The LX100 II has a 17-megapixel Four Thirds MOS sensor, which is more in line with modern standards, although it is still a little behind Panasonic's highest-resolution Four Thirds sensors. It has a native sensitivity range of ISO 200-25,600 and it delivers strong image quality overall.

When dealing with a camera with a built-in lens, sensor and lens performance go hand-in-hand. Nonetheless, I found that the LX100 II captures images with a good amount of detail. The in-camera processing does a generally good job, although by processing raw files, you can bring out some additional detail. The camera does a good job with colors as well, and they have a nice, realistic appearance in many cases, particularly if you use the "Natural" picture style.

Not only do raw files allow for a bit more resolution, they also have a nice amount of flexibility. It's easy to pull back quite a bit of highlight detail from raw files and bring up the shadows without significantly degrading image quality.

Regarding high ISO performance, the LX100 II does quite well. Let's take a look at some crops from JPEG images, which were shot using the wide macro AF mode, and right near the camera's minimum focus distance.

Lens Quality

While the image sensor in the LX100 II is new, the built-in lens features the same specs as the one found in its predecessor. The 3.1x zoom is 10.9-35mm in actual focal length, and due to the sensor's crop factor, is equivalent to a 24-75mm lens on a 35mm-format camera. The aperture range is f/1.7-f/2.8, so it's a bright zoom lens.

The Leica DC Vario-Summilux lens features 11 elements in eight groups, including five aspherical and two ED elements. It can focus as close as 19.7 inches (50cm) in its normal focusing mode but can focus as close as 1.2 inches (3cm) when using the Wide Macro autofocus mode.

When shooting the LX100 II at its 24mm-equivalent focal length and wide open f/1.7 aperture, there is a slight softness to the image, even in the center of the frame. With that said, the image is still fairly detailed. By stopping down to f/2.8, the sharpness improves dramatically, resulting in images with good detail and contrast.

At 45mm, wide-open performance is much improved and is similar to the results when you stop down at 24mm. Sharpness is improved in the corners as well when compared to the 24mm focal length. The lens is really impressive here.

At 75mm, the lens has a little bit less sharpness than it does at 45mm across the frame, but remains pretty good.

Overall, lens performance is impressive. For maximum sharpness, you will want to avoid the extreme ends of the lens, but the performance at 24mm and 75mm is still pretty good and certainly good enough to produce really nice, detailed photos.

Regarding maximum aperture as you zoom in, the lens goes from f/1.7 to f/1.8 immediately, at its 25mm (equivalent) focal length. The lens then goes to f/1.9 at 26mm and f/2.0 at 27mm. Aperture goes up in 0.1 increments as you zoom until the lens reaches its slowest maximum aperture (f/2.8) at 52mm. The primary takeaway here is that if you want f/1.7, you must shoot at the absolute widest focal length.

Shooting Experience

The LX100 II is an enjoyable camera to use. It's designed well, both in terms of its physical design and how it operates. The menus are easy to navigate, settings are quickly accessed, and the camera's performance lends itself to fast-paced and easy shooting. Simply put, the camera works well and delivers a positive user experience.

Autofocus and Performance

Autofocus performance on the LX100 II is quite good. The camera focuses quickly throughout its focal length range and the touchscreen allows for useful Touchpad AF when shooting through the viewfinder. In fact, the touchscreen is by far the easiest way to move the autofocus area with the LX100 II, as there is no simple, direct button access. To move the point using physical controls, you must first press left on the directional pad to access the autofocus area settings, then you press down to access the AF area option, and then finally you move the point around using all four directions, which is pretty slow. You can adjust the size of the autofocus area while doing this by rotating the dial surrounding the directional pad. The camera definitely works best when utilizing the touchscreen.

Autofocus modes include a face/eye detect setting, subject tracking, 49-area autofocus, custom multi-area AF, 1-area AF and pinpoint AF. You can focus basically anywhere across the image area, which is very useful.

Continuous autofocus performance is generally good for shooting stills, as the subject tracking does a nice job of maintaining focus on a subject so long as it remains in the frame. If the subject exits the frame then all bets are off. For video, continuous autofocus performance is less impressive, as the contrast-detect autofocus system displays quite a bit of wobble, which can be distracting.

When continuously shooting, the LX100 II can capture full-resolution images at up to 11 frames per second, which is pretty snappy. If you want to shoot even faster, you can capture 8-megapixel 4K images at up to 30 fps, which is plenty fast enough to capture just about any action you will encounter. 4K Photo modes have become a staple on Panasonic's Lumix cameras and the LX100 II is no different in this regard.

Overall, the LX100 II delivers impressive autofocus modes and performance, and it can capture images quickly thanks to its strong overall shooting performance. It's a nimble little camera.

Shooting modes

Although not new to the Mark II, an interesting feature of the camera, which continues to remain a distinct offering, is its easy access to multiple aspect ratios while shooting. On the top of the lens, right next the camera body itself, is a switch that allows you to toggle between different aspect ratios, including the default 4:3, 1:1, 16:9 and 3:2. It's a nice inclusion, especially for photographers who want to instantly share images without going through an editing and cropping process on an external device.

Like other Panasonic cameras, the LX100 II includes numerous 4K Photo modes. For the unfamiliar, basically 4K Photo is when the camera captures eight-megapixel (4K) images at fast shooting speeds, in this case, at up to 30 frames per second. There are three burst modes and a Post Focus mode. The latter mode captures a series of images at different focus distances and then allows you to either stack them or choose the desired image from the series after the fact.

Video

The LX100 II captures 4K ultra-high definition (3,840 x 2,160) video at up to 30 frames per second, and Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) video at up to 60 fps. The video quality is quite impressive as well, especially at lower sensitivity settings. The 4K footage in particular shows a good amount of dynamic range and detail for an all-in-one camera.

As far as shooting video is concerned, there is no dedicated video mode. Rather, you put the camera in the shooting mode of your choice and then press the dedicated record button on the back of the camera. While most cameras opt for a record button on the top of the camera, I prefer the rear button location. The camera also includes a dedicated movie settings menu section, which is nice. This allows you to independently select certain settings for stills and video, including the photo style, intelligent image quality adjustments and ISO Auto behavior.

Speaking of sensitivity, the camera does a pretty good job in low light with respect to quality. On the other hand, video autofocus performance, even in good light, leaves a bit to be desired. The contrast-detect autofocus system does a considerable amount of hunting and makes regular minor adjustments, even when the subject hasn't moved within the frame.

Overall, there are some nice video features with the LX100 II and performance is generally good. The lens does not zoom particularly smoothly, so that is a bit limiting while recording, but the video quality itself is good. Autofocus performance, as mentioned, is not great, but it's sufficient in most cases.

Panasonic LX100 II Field Test Summary

An enjoyable compact camera with impressive performance and features

What I liked:

• Sleek and compact body
• A lot of physical controls on the body and lens
• Good image quality
• Many nice features
• Good 4K video quality

What I didn't like:

• The lens' aperture changes quickly as you zoom in
• Somewhat disappointing autofocus performance when recording video

The Panasonic LX100 II does a lot of things very well. The camera is intelligently-designed, the user experience is good and the image quality is impressive. The LX100 II offers many features and delivers strong all-around performance. For photographers seeking a compact camera which delivers great image quality, the LX100 II is a very good choice.