LIKE CAMERAS ?

Just as well ... they really are everywhere. These taken at the long end of the zoom on CX1 ... definitely something my LX3 unfortunately can't manage, which is why I use them both.

What's impressive is that I've not had a single blurred image with the CX1 due to camera shake - the image stabilisation works brilliantly at all focal lengths, right up to 200mm, which along with its ultra fast-focusing ability means its easy to grab a shot when there's little time.

ARTIST'S IMPRESSION ?

LX3 f/4.5, 1/640, ISO80, -0.7EV

Struck me when processing this image earlier how similar it looks to some of those architectural 'Artist's impression' images you see in marketing brochures for new housing and commercial developments ... this image shot at the Hub, Milton Keynes ... one of the most recent, and therefore thoroughly modern in styling - very fitting for this modern city.

LX3 DYNAMIC BW

LX3 f/4.5, 1/2000, ISO80, -1.3EV

Digging through a 'to be processed' folder of fairly recent LX3 images, reminding myself just how great a camera it is - and the 'Dynamic Black & White' output, with a very film-like feel, was one of the big attractions in acquiring an LX3. Advantage over the CX1 is the customisation of the 'film' type, which perhaps Ricoh will learn from ?

LX3 WHITE BALANCE

Interesting to note that tomorrow will see yet another Panasonic firmware update that should further improve white balance performance (again!) ... I'm interested to see if they achieve what for some reason is an awkward aspect for Panasonic, and one that would make a great difference to LX3's usability for many.

Even though the LX3 Dynamic BW is stunningly good and highly addictive, we do need far better jpeg wb accuracy as well for colour images, especially as SilkyPix raw file conversion is so painful and time-consuming in attempting to gain good wb ... so fingers crossed.