What is the point? They are two totally different animals. One is a fancy compact, the other is a ‘proper’ interchangeable lens system camera with a much larger sensor.

The GF1 is more capable, who’d have thought it??

A GF1 with 20mm pancake seems just as pocketable as a LX3 afaics, and immediately felt better in my hand. I only have small hands, but the LX feels fiddly.

But part of the appeal of a pocket camera is immediacy – catching the moment. If that 20mm is limiting, then the whole point is lost – suddenly you’re carrying round extra lenses, fiddling with changing them; the shot’s lost and so’s the fun.

And then there’s those extra lenses… I hear the standard zoom’s Ok, but the star in the useful (and quality) stakes is the 7-14mm. It’s a beauty. But jeez, it’s a thousand pounds! So a basic two lens kit with viewfinder (but no telephoto capability, remember) is now over One Thousand Eight Hundred pounds!! At least you’ll have space in your pockets for the camera…

Oh, but if I buy a converter I can fit my Leica M series lenses – oh joy! The man in the shop handed me the black metal ring and told me – without laughing – that it cost £150. “Oh that’s the cheap one, sir. The Panasonic one’s £200″. Come on… I had a similar one milled for me to fit a Zeiss T* to my Canon DSLR for under a tenner. So, anyway, I put a 50mm on the front and got lovely depth of field (much nicer than the LX3)… and that’s all. It was damn near impossible to focus accurately with the rear screen.

So I come back to the idea that – even though photography is my job – the point of a compact is that it mostly *is* a point and shoot. In which case, grab the LX3 for a fraction of the real price of a GF1 system, and be happy.

actually, apple added raw support for lx3 now in Aperture 3

Discussion:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/dmc-gf1/discuss/72157623071136287/

Comp shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malcolmandcarollewis/sets/72157623198356038/

well, I am a journalist, and the ability to present your work in multimedia is very important these days.

And this is the sort of camera that is appealing for reportage. If you are a pure stills artist, I can imagine you may be happy with a larger camera. A journalist can really use something pocketable.

HD video is now essential. Canon really missed the HD boat with their G11.

Panasonic LX3 vs GF-1…..고민인데 ?? 어차피 난 그냥 막 찍고 다니니까 LX3가 낫겟지?…

I might be missing something here or I may be the only one courageous enough to put my head above the parapet but I am baffled as to what benefit movie recording has to a photographer who is serious about his/her art form of making images. I understand the saleability to photojournalists and tourists but that is it.

Isn’t it?

Thanks.

RD