A year later this Lumix LX5 seems to me to be much more camera, at about 1/4 the price and 1/4 the size and weight as the Sony DSLR I was going to buy.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 camera - ReviewOn trips, there have been times when I've left my SLR camera at home because of its weight and size.

The Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 is the long-awaited successor to the ahead-of-its-time LX3, a compact camera that hit the sweet spot for photographers looking for a pocketable alternative to their DSLR.

If you cant take your SLR everywhere, go get a lumix LX5, it is the perfect tool for the photographer that needs to travel light everyday but cant compromise image quality.

Four reasons for ordering the LX5 were: (1) the new Canon Powershot S100 was completely out-of-stock despite me waiting over 4 weeks prior to a vacation trip (Yes, Canon was out-of-stock right before Christmas).

I travel to Mexico a lot and the S100 is just so easy to keep in my little waist pack that reaching for it is second nature.

I have a Canon DSLR (not 5D2 level) which I basically use for shooting portrait, and I always use my P&S for shooting landscape, I haven't see much difference when aperture is small and ISO is set to low, so I keep using P&S for landscape, unfortunately, my IXUS 60 died recentlySo I decided to continue my tradition since carrying DSLR with landscape lens is just not comfortable, and my choice is between LX5 and S95.

With a high street price of £399.99 the LX5 may seem expensive, but it is substantially cheaper than any of its main rivals except one.

I compare LX5 and Sony DSC-W530 on landscape photos and it is not easy to tell the difference.

I shot a few times with a film Leica M5 and that was super sharp too, like the LX5.

We've already seen the Lumix GF1, which shares many design features with the LX3 but adds a larger Four-Thirds sensor and interchangeable lenses, but for an advanced fixed-lens compact there just aren't that many ways to significantly improve on the design and specification of the LX3, which is probably why it's taken two years for the LX5 to appear.

For alternatives, I would urge people to look into the Panasonic LX5 or the Fuji X10.

My reasons for buying this camera are as follows; I wanted a pocket-friendly camera to use as my main camera (not just a second camera) with good low-light capability, a wide angle lens and the auto focus and optical zoom in the HD video mode, The LX5 with the large sensor (large for a pocket-friendly camera), the fast f/2 lens (at the wide angle setting), and the excellent image stabilization meets my requirements.

Although I liked the pocket ability of the S95, I chose the LX5 because of the excellent build quality, wide angle bright Leica lens and the optical zoom.

The LX5 has a new lens with 3.8x zoom, equivalent to 24-90mm, but this hasn't meant sacrificing the fast maximum aperture, which is now f/2 – f/3..