Informal Camera Comparison: Panasonic LX100 vs. Nikon D4

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/1000 sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Seeing...








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/200 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

...Double

Paul Barr at the Toji-in Temple (等持院) in Kyoto, Japan, in photos
taken by two different cameras (whose names are included in the data under
each photo).

最近小さいカメラ(パナソニックLX100)を買いました、サイクリングをする時に使うと思います。
僕の普通のカメラ(大きいなニコンのD4)と比べると質はどうでしょうか。京都市の等持院でテストをしました、同時二つのカメラを使って、だいたい同じ写真二枚を撮った。結局LX100は結構良かった。この記事の写真の下にカメラ名が付いている。

When I started cycling earlier
in the year, I brought along my big Nikon D4, carried slung across my back
like this so
that I'd have it ready to shoot when I wanted (like this).

It's a heavy camera to carry, especially on steep uphill mountain rides,
but I like the quality of photograph that it allows me to get. I don't think I'd
be able to get these kinds of shots
with a smartphone.

But the D4 is big, so for some of the more mountainous rides like this, I reverted back to my older, lighter Nikon D700.

Still, I hoped for something a lot lighter without sacrificing too much
image quality, and after some mild searching, decided to give a Panasonic
LX100 a try. Among other reviews, the review
at DP Review was glowing, and this camera won out on its “Enthusiast
Compact Camera Roundup”, which looks at “compactish” cameras from the
point of view of someone used to a high-end SLR.

In the
conclusion to the roundup they declare the LX100 the best with:

The LX100 offers just about everything you could ask it to: a fast, bright
lens with an adequate zoom range, a large sensor, and well-thought-out,
responsive controls. DSLR and mirrorless slingers searching for an
all-in-one compact that will satisfy their needs for control and image
quality will not be disappointed with the LX100

Good enough to give it a try.

The first thing I did when I got it was set it to record images in raw and not JPEG
(because working with the raw sensor data gives you
so much more latitude
to work with in post processing, and to
recover from exposure disasters that might happen).

Other than that I've not done much more than skim the 332-page manual,
so I'm sure I'm not using the camera to its potential, but I'm quite
pleased with it so far.

The first cycling outing I used it on was this jaunt with Manu, and
then on the 330km ride
around Lake Biwa, but before those I put it head to head with my Nikon
D4 on a trip to the Toji-in Temple (等持院) with Paul Barr and Damien
Douxchamps, a wonderful “hidden treasure” location that I learned about on
a tour with NORU last
month.

I tried to take comparable shots, and processed them in Lightroom to
taste. It's a very unscientific test... sometimes I screwed up the exposure
on one or the other, and had to recover it in Lightroom, but this is what I
do anyway, so it's a real-world (for me) test.

div.foap { margin-top:75px; margin-bottom:0 }





Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/1600 sec, f/2, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/1250 sec, f/2.2, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos












Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/320 sec, f/4, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/1600 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos











Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/400 sec, f/1.7, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 125 —
map & image data — nearby photos











Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/9, ISO 110 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/125 sec, f/8, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos












Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 900 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/7.1, ISO 1000 —
map & image data — nearby photos











Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1400 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/60 sec, f/5, ISO 1250 —
map & image data — nearby photos












Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24mm f/1.4 — 1/800 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 —
map & image data — nearby photos








Panasonic LX100 at an effective 24mm — 1/500 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 —
map & image data — nearby photos

Overall, given the convenient size and reasonable quality, I'm happy with the camera. I still need to understand more on how to use it best.

I've only two complaints so far. One is that you can't easily set the
time to the exact second, something important when you intend to combine
photos with those taken with another camera, or when you intend to
geoencode the photos from a tracklog. You'd think that when you set the
time to a specific minute, the seconds would start at “:00”, but it doesn't
seem to be that way all the time. I haven't figured out a pattern yet.

The second is that I'd like to have the lens ring, which you can have
perform a variety of functions, always be manual focus. That's what the
ring does when you're specifically in manual-focus mode, but I'd like it
to override autofocus mode temporarily and dump me into manual-focus mode if
when activate it.