Panasonic DMC-LX3 camera (unconventional review)
I’ve owned my Panasonic LX3 digital camera for about a month now and I’m pretty happy. Maybe I was expecting more, but when the conditions are right the camera performs well. There are many great reviews on this camera by professionals that do it for a living, so I will tell you my overall feelings.
I was reading a book on digital photography and it stated that a professional photographer would shoot about 240 shots and get one good one out of the bunch. That statement made me feel better.
The overall build of the camera feels very solid, as it should, since the body is metal. But the disappointing thing is the flimsy battery compartment lid made out of plastic. I’m not sure what the idea was on that decision, but it was a poor choice. The slide lock often opens when sliding the camera out of my trusty sock (yes a foot sock) case leaving the lid in the open position and it is just waiting to snag on something and break off. This might call for some duck tape to give me peace of mind. 
Now you might question the wisdom behind a sock case? But it works well to hide in your room and does a good job of protection. Plus, you can get ten cases for 6 bucks.
The menu system could be a little more self-explanatory. Plan on reading the manual several times to get a solid understanding of what each feature means. I think less would be a better choice in menu functions. The camera manual is available for download at Panasonic's website which makes it convenient to carry on your laptop to refresh your memory.
I’ve already dropped the camera on a carpeted floor (from table height) and had no breakage and it runs normal.
The LCD screen is beautiful and has a very large screen to review your pictures and movies. I like how the flash is deployed. You slide a little switch to the right to open and push the flash down to close. The flash does not pop-up automatically. It’s up to you to do it – which I like. 
The width of the camera is a little too small for my big hands. But it is a compact camera as advertised.
I think the battery life is excellent and the batteries charge really fast (less than a hour.) The charger is included and it a little larger than the battery and the prongs fold out to be plugged directly into the outlet.
The weakest performance thing about this camera is if the lighting conditions are poor. Expect some terrible shots if the lighting is poor. Especially in the woods as I remember taking about 30 photos in poor lighting and was embarrassed to show them to anyone. Now I was shooting without using the flash, but even indoors the results are not great under poor lighting.
The lens cap is solid and comes with a nice strap to attach to the camera. But would be nice if the cap was built into the lens. Also, the shoulder strap is strong and attaches well and is of high quality.
Shooting movies is a pleasant surprise. The movies really come out well for being such a small camera. I did not much care for the movie editing software that came with the camera. So, I think you will have to purchase quick time pro from Apple to be satisfied.
Hiking with the camera is a pleasure, since it is really small and light. 
Plugging the camera into a Windows or Macintosh computer it is instantly recognized using the included USB 2.0 cable. Works well with Iphoto or Windows photo album.
So out of 5 stars I would give it a 4 star rating. Is it worth 500.oo dollars? I would look for a good used one on EBay for about 350 to 400 bucks and they would have to include shipping.
I kinda feel maybe it’s more camera than I really needed to haul around in my backpack for the price I paid. Now I’m used to using a cheap 120.oo dollar camera and setting it on the lowest mega-pixel setting. So I’m getting more familiar with editing 10 mega- pixel files. But the great thing is you can adjust the mega-pixel setting much lower than 10. But I believe it was a good investment to improve the quality of my site.
The camera makes you think more about how you will be shooting the pictures. So the plus is you have that ability to take some great pictures if you put the effort in learning about exposure, white balancing, ISO and all that stuff (which I’m slowly doing.)
So maybe I’ll give it 4-½ stars. Probably a good idea to find a camera store and try one out for your self. Lots of reviews are out on this camera and they are pretty positive.
Here is a very good review on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3.
