Snaps from my travels with the LX5, and some thoughts on the LX5

vincechu

Veteran
Hi everyone, its been a while since I last posted images here - I've been a combination of busy with work, busy with university studies and just out-right lazy ;)

As some of you may know I bought the Pentax K5 at the start of the year and have been enjoying it very very very very... very much! So much I've been using it exclusively for 2months. However my girlfriend lives in Birmingham, around an hour away from me, so I find myself travelling to visit her alot, and after a few visits I find the K5 and a few lenses quite a heavy set-up to take on foot and on train (together with my clothes and other belongings).

So one day I just decided to take my much neglected LX5 out for once and boy i felt so liberated! and I immediately fell back in love with it again. I'll tell you why below, together with my photos from my travels.

Oh by the way, having not used the LX5 for a good few months, I spend 1/2 trying to look for the way to switch from AF to MF, digging into all the menus... when the AF-MF switch is actually on the side of the lens housing!

1. Departing train:
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Departing train by VinceChu89, on Flickr

2. Getting bored whilst waiting for my train, I decided to practice my composition.One thing I've missed with the LX5 is its 24mm wideangle, which helped me capture this scene.
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A Platform at Crewe Train Station by VinceChu89, on Flickr

3+4: Another great thing about the LX5 is the hyperfocus function, just switch to MF and a bar appears during focusing which tells you how much of your scene will be in focus - perfect fo maxmising focus like in photos 3+4.

3.
View attachment 34866
P1020024 by VinceChu89, on Flickr

4. 3 Means of travel, maybe four?
View attachment 34867
3 Means of Transport by VinceChu89, on Flickr

5. Saw a blue canal boat and couldn't resist this PP:
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LR3 Colour extraction by VinceChu89, on Flickr

6. Bridge reflection - can you spot Pac Man? (Look at the arch of the bridge and its reflection)
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Bridge Reflection by VinceChu89, on Flickr

As mentioned earlier the LX5 has a very wide 24mm wide angle lens, but its lens is really flexible as seen in the following photos, most of which were taken at celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's restaurant in Birmingham (expensive but in all honesty, the best food I've ever had!)

7. 24mm perfect for touristy turn-the-camera-back-on-yourselves shots:
View attachment 34869
P1010938 by VinceChu89, on Flickr

Great for portraits:

8:Ordering
View attachment 34870
P1010935 by VinceChu89, on Flickr

9: Little Girl - (Emily's actually 20!)
View attachment 34871
Little Girl by VinceChu89, on Flickr

10.
90mm good for candids without needing to get to close:
View attachment 34872
Bread cutter... by VinceChu89, on Flickr

Great for food shots:

11. Emily and I had delicious squid for starters...
View attachment 34873
Squid starters... by VinceChu89, on Flickr

12. Lambchops and Chunky Chips with Parmesan Cheese! (I'm drooling thinking about it... but its 2am here now!). The leica lens can focus really really close, 1cm or virtually touching the front element - I love the compactness and versatility of the LX5.

a)
View attachment 34874
Lamb Chops and Chunky Chips by VinceChu89, on Flickr

b)
View attachment 34875
Chunky Chips with Parmesan Cheese 1 by VinceChu89, on Flickr

c) The lens can do a little bokeh, though depending on the distance it can be distracting:
View attachment 34876
Lamb Chops by VinceChu89, on Flickr

Or a lot of bokeh with some work:

13. Say ahhhh!
View attachment 34877
Say "ahhhh..." by VinceChu89, on Flickr

Another great thing about the LX5 is you can change aspect ratio at the toggle of a switch - hope you've noticed 4:3 and 3:2 above. But here's 16:9

14. Teamwork. (Two little Me-to-You Bears, playing the ukulele)
View attachment 34878
Teamwork by VinceChu89, on Flickr

The bottom line is the LX5 is a great camera for times you just don't want to carry something heavier. It's more discrete and pretty sexy (especially with the Panny ever-ready case) meaning its perfect for dates as shown above ;) Its amazingly versatile too, no dslr can give you macro, wideangle landscape, portraits to telephoto
in such a small package.

Hope you all like the photos - I hope to post more when I have some time!

Feel free to add me as a contact on flickr if you haven't already - I've just started using it more.

In advance I'd like to apologies if I don't reply quickly, maybe even for a few days, I've unfortunately got some serious coursework and revision to be doing :-(
 
Vince, you are a man of many talents and energy! I've always enjoyed your writing style and the way you share your life through your pictures. This series does a great job of pointing out the value of good cameras that come in small packages.:drinks:

I always forget about the changing the aspect ratio and tend to leave it in 3:2, but I'm going to try out that 16:9 for sure.

As for your visit to your girlfriend, I hope the trip won't always be quite so long. Always having been a Jamie Oliver fan, that food is making me "drool", too! ;)

Thanks Vince and best wishes on those exams!
 
Nice photos, Vince; perfect situations for using a camera such as this.

I just purchased the LX5, a week ago, and am just getting used to its size (on a different post, I mentioned that I'm accustomed to carrying a Canon F-1N). It looks as though it'll be our walkabout camera.

Cheers.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'm quite honored to have this on the front page :) I just corrected a double picture post and put the correct photo there.
 
Thanks Armando - will definately post a set when I find some time off my studies, haven't had much time to take photos/go on the web the past week :(
 
Vince... I'm with ya, man. The LX5 is an amazing camera that is so compact and convenient that there's never a reason to not have a great camera with you! I shoot a variety of cameras, and while the LX5 is the smallest by far, it's certainly NOT any less appreciated than the big guns.
 
Nice set Vince. The one photo missing though is the one of the very long and disappointed look on your poor mother's face when you take the LX5 off loan. :sad010: Surely she has bonded with it too....so what will you buy her now? an X100 maybe...that'll turn that frown upside down! :flowers_2:
 
Dhart - thanks, no matter what I shoot with, when I go back to the LX5 I just like it for what it is, a small no-nonsense camera one can take everywhere. Some smaller compact system cameras are getting very close to its size at the moment and do have better IQ, however they don't have the convenience of a zoom which I like for travelling light.

Stillshunter - lol she told me off for trying to 'borrow' it for a day to do the firmware upgrade! So it hasn't actually been done, seems she doesn't trust me! haha AND she gave me the fright of my life the other day when she couldn't find it to take to a meal! -sigh- whatever shall I do :( lol
 
Nice Review! I am looking at both the LX5 and X10 and curious in Auto mode, for those of us just starting out, does one camera work better than the other in this setting?
Was also waiting on the Canon G12 replacement, G1X, but it sound like nothing more than an X10.

Thoughts and comments welcome :)
 
Nice Review! I am looking at both the LX5 and X10 and curious in Auto mode, for those of us just starting out, does one camera work better than the other in this setting?
Was also waiting on the Canon G12 replacement, G1X, but it sound like nothing more than an X10.

Thoughts and comments welcome :)

If you put the X10 in EXR mode on the mode dial, it will do things in low light and high dynamic range situations (very bright with very dark areas as well) that the LX5 will not be able to do. If the difference in price doesn't scare you away, the X10 is somewhat better than the LX5 in almost every respect. The two places where I think the LX5 is a bit nicer is in offering the 24mm wide angle as the wide end of the zoom (with the tradeoff of less reach at the long end) and I believe the LX5 is a better video camera. Its also a bit smaller, but both are coat pocketable and neither will fit in a tight jeans pocket... Other than that, I find the X10 to be notably more capable (I've owned both and like them both a lot). That said, these are just different degrees of very good and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the LX5 at all - I really loved that camera when I had it. But I recommend the X10 even more highly if the higher cost isn't a problem.

-Ray
 
Hi, Ryan, and welcome!

As Ray does, I'd vote for the X10 over the LX5 - and I've owned both as well. The only thing I miss sometimes, more in theory than in practice, is the 24mm wider angle. The X10 works beautifully on Program mode...and the out of the camera colors are extremely nice. Another thing that I believe the X10 has in its favor are its controls - they just seem more straight forward to me. I think it is a camera that you could start out very simply with and then expand...if you wanted to. Check out some of the photos in the sample image thread: https://www.photographerslounge.org/f63/fuji-x10-sample-images-4429/. Some were made strictly in Program Mode, also known as automatic. ;)

Please stop over to our Welcomes and Introductions forum the next time you're here.:drinks:
 
Great to hear from someone who owns both. So with the LX5, you think it works great in iA mode? The 24mm lens is something I wish the X10 had as I recall many times indoors where 28mm just won't seem to work.

Above all if the price, my brother actually got a brand new LX5 for Christmas and instead of returning it, I was going to see if he would sell it to me for about $270 which I think he would do given he owes me for a couple of things. At that price on the LX5, is it a no brainer compared to the X10?


If you put the X10 in EXR mode on the mode dial, it will do things in low light and high dynamic range situations (very bright with very dark areas as well) that the LX5 will not be able to do. If the difference in price doesn't scare you away, the X10 is somewhat better than the LX5 in almost every respect. The two places where I think the LX5 is a bit nicer is in offering the 24mm wide angle as the wide end of the zoom (with the tradeoff of less reach at the long end) and I believe the LX5 is a better video camera. Its also a bit smaller, but both are coat pocketable and neither will fit in a tight jeans pocket... Other than that, I find the X10 to be notably more capable (I've owned both and like them both a lot). That said, these are just different degrees of very good and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the LX5 at all - I really loved that camera when I had it. But I recommend the X10 even more highly if the higher cost isn't a problem.

-Ray
 
Definitely a great price and you're right it's a big difference. I can't speak to the LX5 on "iA" mode as I've never tried it. Oops, I see you were addressing Ray.

May I ask what sort of post processing you'll be doing? As in what software will you upload your pictures to? Generally speaking, I've found the LX5 to have a more yellowish tone overall that needs correcting. I'm sure almost any software can control the color balance, but I thought I'd mention this.
 
Been using Google Picasa. Is that color balance issue still present with firmware 2.0 as I thought that was one of the issues addressed?

Definitely a great price and you're right it's a big difference. I can't speak to the LX5 on "iA" mode as I've never tried it. Oops, I see you were addressing Ray.

May I ask what sort of post processing you'll be doing? As in what software will you upload your pictures to? Generally speaking, I've found the LX5 to have a more yellowish tone overall that needs correcting. I'm sure almost any software can control the color balance, but I thought I'd mention this.
 
I never used IA either Ryan, so I can't speak to it directly, but I'm pretty sure it would be fine. If money is an issue there's no question that the LX5 is a better value, especially at under $300. The X10 raises the bar, but not in ways that may matter all that much to you. Go for it - have fun!

-Ray
 
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