Your opinions and experience matter. Reviews by PhotographyREVIEW.com community members are the foundation of the site. Share your experience with other photographers by writing your own reviews for cameras and other photo gear you own and use. You don’t have to be an expert – everyone’s opinion counts.
To highlight the community’s experience, we’re going to start featuring some of our best user reviews. To start, here’s a review for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 digital camera by PhotographyREVIEW.com member jcrootpi.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 User Review
Price Paid: $450.00 from J&R
Summary:
I recently had to replace my stolen/borrowed canon s80 which was a rock solid camera. What I was looking for was dSLR performance in a small package that I’d actually perhaps maybe carry with me. On paper, ‘cept for the obvious and fair sacrifices of viewfinder and long (any) telehphoto, lx3 is it.
And, for the most part it performs well; ergonomics and logistic details (AF, time to capture after trigger, etc) are functional. There is a great deal of available manual control, different aspect ratios, fine tweaking white balance, upper ISO limit, which is all commendable. (little experience with the flash, though, because…)
The large step up from the s80, and probably any other non dslr camera, is the very usable available light capability of this camera. The limit is almost always the photographee, rather than the photographer (especially two year olds ;). The 2.0 lens, 24 mm focal length (effective off course) and image stabilization are a great combination.
However, its not perfect because there is too much noise at 400, despite state of the art (supposedly) sensor and large sensor size. Available light at iso 400 is very useable, just not as much a step up from s80 as i’d hoped. The noise also has very distinct weird fingerprint. (Search the web for examples. )
Panasonic have definitely made strides since their prior cameras, but are still no in the same league as the majors.
The most annoying issue though is color. The manual control over white balance and color modes is nice, but I just cant’ get over the feeling that all my photos aren’t quite color correct. This may be because i did color printing for a spell, enough to learn when color was off, but not enough to reliably correct it. Or it may because the options (natural mode or nostalgic mode or standard mode, each can then be fine tweaked) serve to remind one how subjective color is.
Except, there are some pretty blatant examples on the web, and I myself witnessed a venus4 brain cramp myself:
3 seconds apart, i shifted the ev down a 1/3, and my wife’s face goes from tinge of death (it was cold out) to flushed. This was the most obvious, but i really do not get a strong sense of confidence that color balance is reliable.
Sure, there is Raw, but
a) color balance with the (well reviewed) raw processor software isnt’ much different than internal jpeg engine
b) if i had time to do Raw, i’d get a dSLR. 
If you are not a color stickler, and can stomach a pricey product, then this camera is for you if you like/need:
wide angle
available light photography
portability
dont’ print > 8×10 (my rough guess of where the noise will become a nuisance)
Cheers
Strengths:
Lens (!) (wiiide angle)
size,
battery,
lens (!!) (available light photography)
lcd screen
macro
black and white mode
good movies (including HD)
lens (!!!) (just barely usable boukeh)
looks (silly, but it really does look like a real camera)
Weaknesses:
noise 
no viewfinder (only really issue in bright light)
color accuracy
auto-white balance
60 mm max
Reviewed by:
jcrootpi
( Intermediate)
Review Date
November 20, 2008
Overall Rating
4 of 5
Value Rating
4 of 5
Used product for
1 to 3 months
Awesome idea, John – featuring user reviews!
I will be looking forward to them.