The Pansonic Lumix LX7 is a new 10.1MP point and shoot camera with a 3.8x optical zoom lens. The camera shoots RAW still images and 1080p video at up to 60 fps. The zoom lens is wide and bright. Zoom coverage is an equivalent of 24-90mm with an max aperture of f/1.4 to f/2.3 on the respective ends of the zoom.
No word on price yet, but you can check availability here at B&H Photo. (Also in white here.)
Panasonic Lumix LX7 Key Features
- New 1/1.7″ 10.1MP MOS Sensor
- Venus Engine Image Processor
- Leica DC Vario-Summilux 24mm Lens
- 3.8 Optical Zoom Lens
- 3.0″ 920K-Dot LCD with Auto Brightness
- Full HD 1080 Video Recording
- RAW and RAW+JPEG Recording Options
- Trust iA and iA Plus Modes
- Creative Control Modes
- Time Lapse Shot Function
The good: Nice, bright lens.
The bad: Panny missed the memo about moving to a larger sensor.
Love that the lens is much brighter than before and that they added some nice external manual controls. I don’t doubt that this will be an amazing camera and it shows that Panasonic is listening to the enthusiasts and creating a camera with the layout that they want. It would have been nice to see a larger sensor, but that would mean a larger camera/lens and at that point they would be competing with their own m4/3 cameras so I don’t know that it would be the smartest decision to go there. Panasonic has a reputation for stellar image quality in the last several years and I’m guessing this revised LX-Series will be no slouch either.
Good for Panasonic. They did a fine job with this iteration. Small sensor or not, it’s an intriguing camera.
Too bad that there is no viewfinder
Check the slot below the flash shoe – looks like a connection for an accessory EVF finder, as on the GX-1.
Gordon is right Milan. There is a port for connecting a hotshoe-mounted EVF (similar to the GF-Series, G1X and Olympus offerings). I’m sure that Panasonic didn’t put an optical viewfinder in this camera because of size constraints. To add any sort of useable viewfinder, the camera would have to be significantly taller, making it awkward in size. To balance it, the camera would be considerably wider (you would essentially have an X100 with a 1/1.7″ sensor).
Everyone touts about having a VF built in to the camera. But for a small, take-anywhere camera, I’d rather have no viewfinder and a smaller camera as opposed to a slightly larger camera with a crappy viewfinder like the ones on the Canon G-Series or Fuji X10 (both abysmal although the X10 viewfinder is slightly less terrible than the Canon) or a significantly larger camera with a useable VF (as seen on the X100, M-Series, etc.).
It just doesn’t make sense physically to put a VF in cameras this small. I actually applaud Panasonic for not cramming some POS glass tunnel in there just to appease those wanting a viewfinder.
From what I understand, Panasonic’s new EVF is quite nice and I’m guessing it will fit this camera. They also make a 24mm optical VF that slides into the hotshoe. If you shoot wides a lot, you can pop that in there and just shoot away with your camera set to center focus and you’ll be in good shape.