After eight months of shooting with a 50mm lens, this was the first weekend where I could select whatever gear I wanted from my photographic armoury, whatever I did select, would be in keeping with my other theme of 2022, shooting with older gear.
Alongside my Canon 5d Mk II, I also have a Canon 50d and a charity shop bargain in a Panasonoc LX3 digital compact camera.
It was the LX3 that found its way into my bag this Saturday and Sunday and I could not believe how much I enjoyed using this great little camera.
Now I have a confession to make, in that my previous obsession with uber sharp images and keeping up with the latest tech within my budget had made me a ‘sensor snob’, I followed the well trodden path to the holy grail of photography ‘full frame’ having fallen for all those articles online and watching those you tubers who would only review the latest offerings with the most expensive lenses.
My eureka moment, or epiphany was watching my all time favourite landscape photographer, Charlie Waite on a shoot with a digital compact camera, the Lumix LX5, the younger sibling to my LX3, if this type of camera is good enough for a photographer of Charlie Waite’s standing, it is more than good enough for me!
With such a small camera in hand, the freedom from a bulky DSLR is evident and with a decent macro mode, I was in my element.
The true revelation of this camera was seeing the images on a bigger screen, the lens on the LX3 is superb, the in camera dynamic black and white is very good!
Naturally noise is an issue with these tiny sensors, evident from iso 800, yet the grain is not unpleasant, for me, it adds more character to the black and white Jpeg’s, and dare I mention the ‘filmic’ look with the older CCD sensor.
While I am no longer in the market for the latest and best, I will be on the look out for more of these older cameras for sure.
Andy's Photography blog 
Nice pictures. Colors seem nice with this camera. I did not know about this Panasonic range before. I have been looking at compact cameras for a little while now. It seems to me that you have (or had) a Ricoh Gr camera. I am curious about your opinion on how these two compact cameras compare.
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The lx3 is over 10 years old, capable but obviously dated, the gr 3 is the better option for sure, having the APS-c sensor.
The latest iteration of the lx series has a one inch sensor, just as the Sony rx100 series
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Thank you for your answer. I enjoy a lot reading these kind of articles, showing that the quality of the pictures is mainly due to the photographer, not on the fact that the latest gear is used.
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I used to obsess over clinically sharp and noise free images but with the smaller sensor cameras I do not mind the graininess, it adds character to the image.
I hated recently added a Canon S95 to my collection, costing the princely sum of £20, this seems to be a well liked camera, I will be testing it this weekend.
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