It has now been just over six months since I took receipt of a brand new Panasonic LUMIX DMC-LX3. Since then I have shot 10,098 images and short HD video clips. All still images were shot in full res RAW+Jpeg mode and all HD video clips were shot in the full 720p res mode. Early on in using this camera I decided to stick to the Standard Color mode. I had experimented with some of the other modes in the first week of owning the camera, but I quickly decided to stick to shooting color, as my preference was to always start with color and do black and white conversions in post production.

This article isn't really a review, but more of a conversation about my dealings with this amazing little camera.

I am still very impressed with the LX3. It has become my "main" camera over the last couple of weeks. I take it everywhere and I have been having fun seeing what it can do. It has a few little intricacies that took me some time to learn, but I am getting pretty proficient with it now and very happy about the results.

The picture above was shot in Standard Color mode and converted to B+W in Photoshop beginning with the RAW file. I used the Silver Efex plugin for P-Shop for this one ( and most of my other B+W images ) as I have been having some great success with it and find it very easy to use.

One advantage to using the Silver Efex plugin in P-Shop vs. Aperture is that I can save the file as a Smart Object, which allows me to go back into the Silver Efex filter and make changes. I really wish I could do this in Aperture.

At school I actually made TWO whole prints. I haven't really printed anything in years, so it was a great bunch-o-fun for me. I was REALLY impressed with the quality, and I went and ordered a whole roll of Ilford Gallery Gold Fibre Silk from B+H. I've also been working with the Grad Lab to get the Epson 4800 printer calibrated for this paper.