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Panasonic LX100 camera topic
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  • Bokeh and night 4K video tests:

  • Hey all,

    I just got me one of these LX100 to replace my Olympus E-P5 that I was using for stills/video with either the Panasonic 25/1.4 or the Olympus 12-40/2.8 zoom.

    I'm brand new to Panasonic menus and shooting so I'm finding it a steep learning curve to setting it up and getting the right functionality (zebras/peaking/focus magnification) - features that were not available on the Olympus cameras in video mode. Also, I'm struggling a bit with getting face detection working.

    Also, would love hearing from people who have set it up to be able to switch quickly for stills settings, to settings for video (manual mode, 180o shutter, automatic focus with manual override, quick WB/ISO changes). I see that there are customisations (C1, C2, C3) but not sure how to apply them quickly without a mode dial.

    Yes, I need to read the manual, and I am in the process of doing so, but looking for some help from those that are shooting with the Panasonic menus, and specifically the LX100. Sometimes the manual is not too helpful there. People say that the Olympus menus are confusing, but as soon as you learn them and set them up, everything you need is in the SCP.

    Thanks!

    Stephen

    P.S. First impressions is that the EVF is usable, but I miss my tilting Olympus VF-4. I can't believe how light the LX100 is, even compared to my E-PM2 with 17/1.8 prime (although I haven't weighed them). I also really like the LX100 grip.

    I'll post some pictures once I figure out how to work the camera properly. I'm trying to learn it before I visit my inlaws in Spain over Christmas. I probably will take the E-PM2 with a couple of primes for backup, just in case :)

  • Hello LX100 people, I joined the club, sold all my other M43 cams, being a traveler, this is as far as I can see the near ultimate cam in a small, robust package... Camera is great, maybe a little to much noise at and above ISO1600, but what I do not understand is: When I record 4K video, playback 'in camera' all OK. Inport to FCPX: choppy, dropped frames... Qtime 7&8: also very very choppy. Unbelievable, in Lightroom (the library module) everything fluid. VLC does not even playback. Also, a test at a friend's PremierePro, again choppy...! AVCHD 24/26/60 fluid and works great on (and with) all stated programs. Anybody any idea? I'm not a movie maker so I cannot comprehend this.... :-(

  • Hi everyone, I have the JP version (menu language : japanese...). Good news for me !!! Today, I downloaded Panasonic Image App and now... I can see the menu of my LX100 in english. Very good news. I'm very very happy :)

  • Looks quite convincing !

  • @gzol Sounds like the computers may be a bit underpowered for 4k. As far as it working in some programs and not others. Some NLEs are less resource intensive or have been optimized in a way that allows certain types of files more efficient playback. I have less issues with playback in Sony Vegas 13 than I have in premiere pro.

    What are the specs of the system(s)?

  • Using the Panasonic Image App I don't see any settings for changing the shutter speed and aperture, could anybody confirm or refute that this is possible?

  • The Nauticam and Ikelite housings for the LX100 now have price tags as they appeared in some shops.

    An LX100 underwater sample, but only using a primitive "generic plastic bag housing", has also been published:

  • Very nice footage... if the Ikelite settles in around $650 (street) I will probably take the plunge on one.

  • thx :) i'm deedive, the settings wont let me change my name. I'm waiting for a real housing too but the ewa-marine did the job in a pinch..

  • @WildLion Unfortunately you can't change aperture, shutter speed or exposure comp via wi-fi control.

  • @McKinice: Macbook pro I7 2.2 Ghz... Should be OK for 4 K video...? Anyway, I can use 4K for photo (beautiful extracts) and AVCHD video, (the quality is really superb) is IMHO better than anything that my GH2 could do...

  • Beware about 3rd party batteries: I have Jupio brand batteries, they work OK, but, after a day of not using these batteries, the LX100 definitely in OFF position, are totally empty...

  • you can buy genuine battery really cheap, I bought 2 BLE9 (GF3-GF6) battery and they work perfectly fine on LX100, just about 10% less battery life

  • @gzol: The 3 Patona batteries I bought so far work great for me (see also my posting above in this thread.)

  • After a week of fun holiday shooting with the LX100 and optimizing my postprocessing workflow for it, I can say that one of the best things about "4k resolution" to me is the increased potential of ex-post stabilizing. I did numerous free-handed shots, e.g. standing on one boat in the wind & waves, shooting another boat at maximum focus length, and only in post stabilized the footage (using libvidstab with ffmpeg). And what can I say, looks perfect to me, without any stand or gimbal.

    (The InterNet bandwidth on this island sucks, but if people are interested, I can upload some samples after returning home.)

  • @karl,

    I would be interested in seeing some of your experiments and learning more of your shooting settings. I've just been shooting some of my kid's Christmas plays, indoors in less that great light and they have turned out great! I love this camera, and haven't even had to use stabilisation in post as the lens OIS has been great, at least for hand shakes.

    Before I had olympus cameras with IBIS, but they haven't done much with improving video. With 4k on the LX100 (and hopefully with the GX7 replacement) I'm going to switch to Panasonic and use the extra resolution for any video projects.

    Does anyone know if the LX100 locks the ISO and white balance (if set to auto) when you hit the record button? I think that it doesn't seem to shift as much as when shooting video on my Olympus cameras.

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    One thing that definitely put a smile on my face as I wandered around downtown Knoxville shooting with all three cameras side by side was the Panasonic LX100's performance. Sure, I wasn't shooting sports, but then none of these cameras have long enough lenses to be well-suited to sports anyway, unless you're pretty close to the action. But for more general shooting, the LX100 was easily swift enough to capture active kids and pets or the like, and it felt significantly faster than either the RX100 III or G7X.

    http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/panasonic-lx100/panasonic-lx100-shooters-report-part-i.htm

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  • I've now uploaded my LX100 stabilization test video - you can download the test video here: (Use something like "right-click / Save as..." to store the file locally, streaming replay probably won't be possible at the bitrates used):

    3840 x 2160 24p H.264 encoded at 32 MBit/s (size ~1.1GB)

    1920 x 1080 24p H.264 encoded at 16 MBit/s (size ~550MB)

    (Notice that downscaling from 2160p to 1080p is not a trivial procedure if you want to avoid awful aliasing artefacts - therefore either follow the recommendations given in this posting or download the already carefully downscaled 1080p version if you do not have a 4k display to watch the video on.)

    No tripods, stands, gimbals, gyros or alike were used for any of the contained scenes - only the LX100's built-in OIS plus Georg Martius' vid.stabfilter were used on the all-handheld-shot material.

    Colors, exposure and sharpness have not been changed. Compressed domain cut was done using mpv and the excerpt plugin and ffmpeg. Timeline editing and rendering were done using kdenlive.

    Settings used to record the video were: 0/0/0/0 for brightness/color/contrast/sharpness, "style" was "standard" and "shadows +2" used to somewhat lighten up darker areas. I didn't play around with those settings too much, I saw not much reason to deviate from the standard settings other than for lifting the shadow areas somewhat.

    @sgreszcz: Regarding your question: "Does anyone know if the LX100 locks the ISO and white balance (if set to auto) when you hit the record button?": ISO is not locked when set to "auto", and from what I have seen, it is reasonably well adjusted with the lighting conditions. White balance seems to be locked when not in "Automatic White Balance" mode, just as one would expect.