CHIP Editor’s Choice - LUMIX DMC-LX1

CHIP pays homeage to local brands and documents this special event with the LX1

October 2005 (CHIP) by RAJESH NARWANI - It was an event not to be missed and I was fortunate I had my LX1 with me. The music festival held consecutively over 3 nights pays tribute to the founding fathers of American and British Pop such as the Beatles, Joy Division and Blue Ash. As the lights started to dim along the shallow shores of the Bay at the Esplanade, the PARnels and PARkens blazed into action with psychedelic lights recreating an atmosphere of careless abandon synonymous with the hippy heyday of the 60's and 70's. As the performers strummed their guitars in the open-aired atrium to signal the start of the performance, I accessed the situation and knew that I could get creative with my camera, set my ISO to 400 and started snapping away hoping that the grainy look would add to the overall mood of the evening. After all it was a rock fest and NOISE is obviously a big part of it. Jokes aside, I made sure to turn on the Mega O.I.S, selected to Mode 1 which leaves the image stabilizer on at all times and consequently consumes more battery power. Mode 2 on the other hand only activates O.I.S at the point the shutter release button is pressed. At that point of time I didn't want to take chances so being a 'kiasu' Singaporean, I decided to leave my O.I.S on throughout.

The 8.4 megapixel count on this camera was good but my guess was that I didn't need to shoot at such a high resolution, judging from the size of the prints on this page. Also, by setting to a lower resolution, (5.5 megapixels to be exact), I was able to extend the optical zoom to 5x in the 16:9 aspect ratio. In case you're wondering, the LX1 comes with a selection of 3 aspect ratios to choose from, the other two being 4:3 and the conventional 3:2. For me, the excitement of working with the 16:9 aspect ratio brought a whole new perspective to the video and still functions and added variety to the shots taken.

The wealth of manual setting on the LX1 proved to be a real help that evening as I was mostly shooting in manual mode and experimenting with long exposures and slow shutter speeds to take full advantage of the psychedelic lighting that evening. After fiddling round with the functions, I managed to get this shot with the Black and White Function. A little point to note is that by adjusting the contrast levels to high in the Picture adjustment menu, you get better looking B&W images.

Many a time, I made used of various implements such as the concrete benches, railing and and occasionally a friends shoulder to give me extra stability when using slower shutter speeds. Even in the absence of a tripod, I was able to get some funky shots with the streaky lights lending a psychosomatic aura to the images. However I did realize that handheld shots were not possible for shutter speeds below 1.5secs even with the O.I.S activated. As you can see, that's when the shots start looking a little more abstract.

As you probably would have noticed, Singaporeans are an orderly and well behaved bunch. For example, when the 2nd act called Couple took centrestage and started building up the tempo with even faster rifts and added effects on the wah-wah pedals, the majority chose to show their appreciation by watching intently rather than being active participants. Fortunately, that evening, two people were a little more adventurous and decided to dance to the melody. You will probably see one of them in the video clips recorded in MPEG 4 format. For a better idea, I would strongly recommend that you refer to the complimentary CD that comes with your magazine.

Sometimes choosing an angle other than the obvious can heighten the dramatic effect of an image. Making use of the flare from the lights serves to give the images a little more life. Also making use of certain implements such as railings would help to stabilize your camera.

The Video function is something that deserves special mention. As you would have already noticed the extended range of aspect ratios work well for the camera especially where the movie mode is concerned. At the 16:9 aspect ratio, movies can be played back at 30fps at a resolution of 848 x 480 pixels. This practically makes the LX1 the first compact camera that features cinemascope recording.

In terms of handling, the LX1 was no different from the previous FX models however; all I can say is that it is definitely a more power packed camera with a good number of nifty features to boast such as improved video recording options with the selectable aspect ratios, noticeably slower focusing lags and brilliant images reproduction at night. By the end of the night as the event drew to a close and I was left to transfer the images to my computer, I realized that Panasonic has come a long way with the LX1 and surpassed many compacts in its class. For this reason the LX1 deserves nothing less than the Editors' Choice award this Month.

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