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Press Release - 21 July 2010
Capturing Creativity with the New Panasonic DMC-LX5
Compact Digital Camera - With New High Sensitivity CCD and F2.0 LEICA DC
VARIO-SUMMICRON LENS
Panasonic is pleased to announce the long-awaited
DMC-LX5 - a successor to the DMC-LX3, acclaimed worldwide by photography
enthusiasts. The premium compact camera is fully re-designed in the lens
from its predecessor with changes in the CCD and the image processing
engine, and with further improvements and upgrades to the camera, ensuring
the new LX5 produces high picture quality and creative images.
Creative ‘Wide Angle’ Shots The newly developed, super
bright, F2.0 ultra wide angle 24mm LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens minimises
distortion for stunning, true-to-life images with outstanding resolution and
detail. With the extra advantage of a 24mm wide angle, rare on a compact
camera, the LX5 offers an extraordinarily large viewing space and with
thanks to an extended optical zoom from 2.5x(60mm) to 3.8x(90mm) even more
versatility and opportunity to capture the perfect shot. This advanced lens
also makes it easy to produce beautiful photos with pleasing soft-focused
background thanks to the shallow depth of field provided by the extra light.
The highly acclaimed 10.1-megapixel CCD in the LX3 has
been redesigned to achieve the expansion of dynamic range by increasing the
sensitivity and the saturation. Modifications to the Venus Engine FHD
provide advanced signal processing in both photo and movie recording. The
high sensitivity, made possible by the alternations in the new sensor and
signal processing, elevates the picture quality to capture stunning clear,
sharp and blur-free images in even low light situations.
Save Memories with Movie in AVCHD Lite For movie
recording, the DMC-LX5 is now compatible with long time high quality HD
movie recording in AVCHD Lite, in addition to the conventional motion JPEG
format. A host of creative options, including Creative Movie mode, which
lets the user set the shutter speed and aperture manually to make even more
impressive movies. Changing the shutter speed brings special effects to
movies, which is especially suitable for shooting fast-moving subject.
Further modes featured are My Color mode and Film mode available for more
extended expression not only in photography but also in videography.
Panasonic’s popular iA (Intelligent Auto) is also
available in movie recording. The POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer),
Face Detection, and Intelligent Scene Selector support shooting beautiful
movie with ease. The Intelligent Scene Selector automatically switches
between Normal, Portrait, Macro, Scenery, and Low Light modes according to
the situation to optimize visual quality while the Intelligent Exposure also
optimises the exposure to prevent over/under exposure part from occurring.
New design to support easy shooting Design of the LX5
has also been improved to pursue high operability - the thickened grip for
easier hold and the newly incorporated turn-and-push jog dial achieves
various selections and setting more quickly. Situation on the top of the
camera, the hot shoe allows attachment of advanced accessories such as an
optional Live View Finder, which helps shooting under strong daylight with
high visibility.
The 3.0-inch large 460,000-dot high resolution
Intelligent LCD is also redesigned by adopting High CRI (Color Rendering
Index) backlight LED to greatly increase the color reproduction, offering
remarkable visibility both in shooting and playing back images in any
conditions from at dark night to under dazzling sunlight. Despite the high
performance and the maintained size of the camera body, the battery life is
extended to shoot 400 pictures (CIPA) per a single charge.
Organising captured photos and motion pictures with
greater ease and fun The latest version of Panasonic’s editing software,
PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD Edition, comes bundled with DMC-LX5. With quick
start-up and fast reading of images, the PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD Edition makes
it possible to sort and organise photos. The Face Recognition function, that
recognizes the faces in the picture, automatically sorting the photos by the
registered faces without picking out each photo one by one when you only
want pictures of a specific person. You can also enjoy slideshows with a
variety of effects and use your iTunes music library as background music.
Motion pictures can be uploaded directly to YouTube using the built-in
YouTube uploader, even in HD (High Definition) quality. It also lets you
create a 360-degree rotation panorama file in MOV, which is especially easy
if Panorama Assist mode in the camera is used. Experience and feel the
outstanding benefit of the PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD Edition. It will surely
allow you to view, edit and archive your captured photos and motion pictures
with greater ease and fun.
As a pocket camera for professionals and high
amateurs, or an advanced camera for step-up users, the DMC-LX5 promises
none-the-like picture quality and creativity backed up by reliability of
Panasonic’s state-of-the-art optical and digital technologies. Leading the
way for expressive possibility of compact cameras, the DMC-LX5 promises to
starts its history
*35mm film camera equivalent: 24-90mm
Panasonic DMC- LX5 Features Explained:
1. F2.0 Super Bright 24mm Ultra-Wide-Angle* High
Quality LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON Lens with Minimum Distortion
The DMC-LX5 is equipped with newly developed F2.0 24mm
ultra-wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens with even higher resolution.
The super bright, high quality lens is redesigned for extension of the
optical zoom from LX3’s 2.5x(60mm) to 3.8x(90mm) to be even more versatile
for snapshots including portraits. The F2.0 lens is about twice as bright as
the F2.8 lens, itself generally considered a bright lens. The result is
higher shutter speed can be used to capture stunningly clear, sharp,
blur-free images in lower lighting situation. This advanced lens also makes
it easy to produce beautiful photos with pleasing soft-focused background
thanks to the shallow depth of field provided by the extra light.
Also, the 24mm ultra-wide-angle lens - rare on a
compact camera - gives photographers a wider range of composition
possibilities. The super-high-quality LEICA DC VARIO- SUMMICRON lens
minimizes distortion at the wide end, so users can get stunning,
true-to-life images with outstanding resolution and detail. The LX5 captures
approx. 213% larger viewing space compared to that normal 35mm camera does,
and even approx. 136% larger compared to that 28mm wide-angle lens can do.
The lens unit consists of 10 elements in 9 groups with
3 aspherical lenses with 5 aspherical surfaces. Minimal distortion, high
resolution, minimum artifacts such as chromatic aberrations, ghosting and
flaring are the proof of uncompromising imaging made possible by F2.0 24mm
ultra wide angle LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens.
Thanks to the newly incorporated Intelligent
Resolution technology, the Intelligent Zoom is available with the LX5 which
extends the zoom ratio by approx. 1.3x maintaining the picture quality even
combining a digital zoom. This means the 3.8x optical can virtually extend
to 5x equivalent. Furthermore, the Extra Optical Zoom function that extends
zoom power to 6.7x (at 3-megapixel resolution) by using the center part of
the large CCD to bring subjects even closer.
In addition, the iris diaphragm allows the users to
adjust aperture at fine steps manually.
*35mm film camera equivalent: 24-90mm
2. Newly Designed 1/1.63-inch 10.1-megapixel High
Sensitivity CCD with Wider Dynamic Range
The predecessor DMC-LX3 played a big role to cease the pixel count war by
adopting 1/1.63-inch CCD for 10.1-megapixel recording to realize the
unprecedented picture quality with a compact digital camera and even to
establish a new premium compact camera category in the market. The CCD in
the LX3 which was highly acclaimed from the specialists worldwide is
redesigned to achieve the further expansion of dynamic range by increasing
the sensitivity by approx. 31% and the saturation by approx.38%*. It is made
possible by the improvement of on-tip-lens design with larger light
concentration and VCCD expansion while deepening the photo diode to manage
richer signal more effectively.
The result is a high resolution, noise-less pictures even in high
sensitivity recording and richly reproduced gradation in highly contrasted
situations with the exquisitely wide dynamic range. Taking advantage of the
high sensitivity CCD and the brightness of the lens, minimum illumination of
DMC-LX5 is as low as 3 lux in movie recording.
Normally, to produce an image of 3:2 or 16:9 aspect ratio, 4:3 picture will
be cropped, so the picture does not have the maximum advantage of these
extraordinary recording aspect. However, the CCD in DMC-LX5 can reproduce
images shot with the lens set from 24mm to 90mm in any of three aspect
ratios; 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9, so you can always capture dynamic, richly
expressive shots with a wide perspective. The Multi Aspect mode allows the
camera to take an image in all three aspect ratios simultaneously for
photographer to choose the one that best takes the advantage of the scene
after shooting.
*Panasonic in-house comparison with DMC-LX3.
3. The New Venus Engine FHD Assures High Picture
Quality for Both Photo and Movie
For the image processing LSI, newly developed Venus Engine FHD is equipped
with the DMC-LX5 featuring even higher-speed, higher-performance while
compiling the Intelligent Resolution technology. It enables the recording of
beautiful photo and high-definition movie with higher quality signal
processing. The triple CPUs in this imaging engine dramatically speed up
processing while achieving exceptional noise reduction performance. The
Venus Engine FHD's excellent energy efficiency supports long-time AVCHD Lite
movie recording, and allows the output of both images and sounds via HDMI.
At the same time, the multi-task image-processing engine Venus Engine FHD
supports a super-fast response time. The shutter release time lag is as
short as approx. 0.007 second and the camera's quick response makes it
easier to capture sudden, spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities together
with the Sonic Speed AF (Auto Focus) that gains approx.40% higher speed* and
the quick startup time.
With the Intelligent Resolution technology, 3 areas — outlines, detailed
texture areas and soft gradation areas are automatically detected. The
outline parts are enhanced effectively to give edges more clearness while
giving a moderate accentuation to the texture areas to look more finely
detailed. To the soft gradation part, superior noise reduction system of the
Venus Engine FHD is applied to make it smoother. Apart from the uniform
enhancement of sharpness, the innovative technology Intelligent Resolution
precisely performs signal processing pixel by pixel in the most effective
way for it. As a result, images are naturally clear and crisp in both photo
and movie recording. The Intelligent Resolution technology also realizes the
Intelligent Zoom, which virtually extends the optical zoom ratio to its
approx. 1.3x equivalent maintaining the picture quality even combining the
digital zoom. Details of an image in high sensitivity recording tend to be
lost in the noise reduction process; however, the Intelligent Resolution
works to keep them.
Despite the high performance, the Venus Engine FHD is superior in efficiency
to extend the battery life of DMC-LX5 to 400 pictures (CIPA) per a single
charge.
*In comparison with DMC-LX3, using 1-area AF, at wide/tele-end.
4. Save Memories in Movie - Start Enjoying
Videography As You Enjoy Photography
In addition to Motion JPEG images, the DMC-LX5 can record high-definition
motion picture in AVCHD Lite. It features almost doubling the recording time
in HD quality compared with the conventional Motion JPEG format. The picture
quality is greatly enhanced thanks to the newly added Intelligent Resolution
technology. The LX5 also features Dolby Digital Creator to record high
quality audio.
In movie recording, the DMC-LX5 goes further than simply recording HD
movies. Apart from the movie recording capability of conventional digital
compact cameras, the DMC-LX5 also features a Creative Movie mode, which lets
the user set the shutter speed and aperture manually to make even more
impressive movies. Changing the shutter speed brings special effects to
movies, which is especially suitable for shooting fast-moving subject. The
ability to control the aperture is convenient when there are several
subjects at different distances and it is desired to have each of them stand
out. My Color mode, which will be detailed later, is also available in movie
recording.
The optical zoom is available in movie recording, too. With the newly added
Video Divide function, users can divide the video into two sections to
shorten or delete the unwanted part on the spot in the camera. You can cut
out a clear still image from a movie in the camera thanks to the Intelligent
Resolution technology. A Wind Cut function is also available to block out
most of the noise from background wind. The minimum illumination is as low
as 3 lux thanks to the F2.0 super bright LEICA DC VARIO-SUMMICRON lens and
the high sensitivity CCD.
The popular iA (Intelligent Auto) is also available in movie recording. The
POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), Face Detection, and Intelligent
Scene Selector also support shooting beautiful movie with ease. The
Intelligent Scene Selector automatically switches between Normal, Portrait,
Macro, Scenery, and Low Light modes according to the situation to optimize
visual quality. The Intelligent Exposure that also optimizes the exposure to
prevent over/under exposure part from occurring.
Still or motion images recorded in AVCHD Lite on SD Memory Cards are easy to
view on a Panasonic VIERA TV. Simply insert the card into the VIERA Image
Viewer (SD Memory Card slot) on VIERA TV or DIGA Blu-ray Disc Player to
playback your contents. Alternatively, you can use an optional mini HDMI
cable to output the still and motion images you took from the LX5 directly
to the TV for VIERA Link. You can take maximum advantage of LUMIX camera's
playback functions including the slideshow in which both still and motion
images are integrated in the timeline, category playback according to the
scene mode you used or calendar display and so on. All control is possible
using only the TV's remote control.
In addition, with the included software PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD Edition, it is
easy to view and edit your recorded contents. You may also choose to upload
your videos to YouTube or burn them to a DVD disc for archiving.
・Motion images can be recorded continuously for up to
29min 59 sec in European PAL areas
・Continuous recording exceeding 2GB is not possible when recording motion
JPEG. Remaining time for continuous recording is displayed on the screen.
・Use a card with SD Speed Class with "Class 4" or higher when recording
motion pictures in [AVCHD Lite]. Also, use a card with SD Speed Class with
"Class 6" or higher when recording motion pictures in [MOTION JPEG].
*SD Speed Class is the speed standard regarding continuous writing.
5. Enhanced Operability and Unlimited Possibility
for Expression
Studying the feedback from the users of the predecessor DMC-LX3, the DMC-LX5
has been also redesigned externally to pursue its operability. Its size is
almost the same but the new gently formed grip provides easier handling even
in active shooting style. The hot shoe is newly added for attachment of the
optional Live View Finder (DMW-LVF1), users can also choose the External
Optical Viewfinder (DMW-VF1) according to their shooting style. The newly
adopted jog dial enhances the operability for quick setting change and the
dedicated playback button lets the user play back the images and return to
the shooting menu in split seconds. The aspect can be changed directly with
the aspect switch on the lens barrel among 4:3, 3:2, 16:9 and the new 1:1.
In addition to the Film mode in which user can select the texture of the
photo as you choose a film, My Color mode is newly added to DMC-LX5. My
Color mode is a special option that gives free reign to the user's
creativity. User can select the color out of 12 options including
Expressive, Retro, Pure, Elegant, Monochrome, Dynamic Art, Silhouette, Pin
Hole, Film Grain, High Dynamic, Dynamic B&W and Custom (the parameter of
color / brightness / saturation adjustable). This makes it easier and more
fun to create interesting, expressive images. The user can adjust the
settings that best suit the shooting conditions and his or her expressive
intent, for greater photographic control. It is available also in movie
recording giving the user a wider range of expressive possibilities to
explore together with the Creative Movie mode.
6. Other Features That Add Fun and Ease to the
Camera
The DMC-LX5 is equipped with a 3.0-inch, 460,000-dot Intelligent LCD with
super high resolution and a wide viewing angle. The screen brightness
automatically adjusts in 11 steps as the surrounding brightness level
changes, ensuring easy visibility at all times. The big screen reflects fine
details, making it easy to check the focus before shooting. It also serves
as a small photo and video viewer, allowing the user and friends to enjoy
viewing the still and motion images together. Plus, reflection is suppressed
with the AR coating. Plus, adopting the High CRI (Color Rendering Index) LED
backlight realizes vivid, impressive color reproduction true to the memory
color that your eyes remember.
The ISO value can be set in 1/3 EV increments for finer control. The maximum
setting is ISO 12800* enabling shooting in extremely dark places.
The new Step Zoom option, zoom range can be set to 24mm, 28mm, 35mm, 70mm or
90mm via the easy menu as you change the fixed focal length lens with D-SLR.
Max.800mm is available if combining the Intelligent Zoom and digital zoom.
The DMC-LX5 has advanced functions that will satisfy experienced
photographers, yet is easy enough for beginners to use comfortably if
iA(intelligent Auto)mode is used. POWER O.I.S.(Optical Image Stabilizer),
Face Recognition, AF Tracking, Intelligent ISO Control, Intelligent Scene
Selector, Intelligent Exposure are available in photo recording and POWER
O.I.S. Face Detection, Intelligent Scene Selector and Intelligent Exposure
in movie recording. Once you enter the iA mode, these functions happen
automatically, so you can shoot without the bother of adjusting settings
every time conditions change. You can enjoy easy, trouble-free shooting in
any situation and get the satisfaction that comes with capturing clear,
beautiful images.
*In 3-megapixel recording mode.
7. Rich options for expandability
The DMC-LX5 offers a wide variety of options to choose from to match every
shooting situation and shooting style. Newly equipped hot shoe allows the
attachment of optional tilt-shift Live View Finder of 1.04x (0.52x*)
magnification, 202,000-dot, 100% field of view, which ensures comfortable
monitoring even under the strong daylight.
Live View Finder: DMW-LVF1
External Optical View Finder: DMW-VF1
Wide Conversion Lens: DMW-LWA52 NEW
Conversion Lens Adaptor: DMW-LA6 NEW
MC Protector: DMW-MC52
ND Filter: DMW-LND52
PL Filter: DMW-LPL52
External Flash: DMW-FL220(GN22) / DMW-FL360(GN36) / DMW-FL500(GN50)
Genuine Leather Case:DMW-CLX5 NEW
Battery Pack: DMW-BCJ13 NEW
About Included Software PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD
Edition
The latest version of exciting software PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD Edition comes
bundled with DMC-LX5. With quick start-up and fast read-in of images, the
PHOTOfunSTUDIO 5.0 HD Edition makes it possible to sort and organize photos
not only of those newly taken but also of those stored in your PC. The Face
Recognition function that recognizes the faces in the picture and the
software automatically sorts the photos by the registered faces without
picking out each photo one by one when you only want pictures of a specific
person. You can also enjoy slideshows with a variety of effects and use your
iTunes music library as background music. Motion pictures can be uploaded
directly to YouTube using the built-in YouTube uploader even in HD (High
Definition) quality. It also lets you create a 360-degree rotation panorama
file in MOV, which is especially easy if Panorama Assist mode in the camera
is used. Experience and feel the outstanding benefit of the PHOTOfunSTUDIO
5.0 HD Edition. It will surely allow you to view, edit and archive your
captured photos and motion pictures with greater ease and fun.
 
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