Panasonic LX5 Closeout

The late, great LX5. Wasn't so long ago that your $500+ would have gone begging. Now you can snag one for half that.

I wasn't on top of this, but there are still a few hours left in Amazon's fire sale of remaining Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5's. Final price (you have to click on "View Gold Box Offer" to see it) is only $249.

UPDATE: The Amazon Gold Box Deal is over (so I removed the link), but B&H Photo is continuing to offer the same deal...at least as of 8:30 Central time: the Panasonic LX5 in black for only $249.95. They also have the same camera in white for the same price. I don't know how long this offer will be good for, but give it a shot.

Remember when demand had stomped all over Panasonic's production capacity and you couldn't get one of these for love or money? Wasn't that long ago, either. Now it's been superseded by the LX7.

The LX5 is a small-sensor pocket compact that competed with the Canon S100 and the Olympus XZ-1 (also on closeout now, for $200. Canon = Big Dawg, don't need no steeking closeouts).

The window on this segment might be beginning to close, what with new competition from 1" sensor cameras like the brilliant (but more expensive) Sony RX100.

Mike
(Thanks to Bill Mitchell)

Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

adamct: "One advantage that the Panny LX-5 and the Olympus XZ-1 have over the Canon S100 and the Sony RX100 is the fact that they both have hot shoes. The S100 is fine for outdoor daytime pictures, but without a flash small-sensor cameras just aren't the right choice for indoors in most cases. I suspect the RX100 is better than the S100, but I really don't understand why Sony didn't include a hot shoe. If they had, I would have bought one immediately. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the next iteration!

"P.S. In case you're wondering, the Sony apparently can't be easily used with optical slaves either, since the flash cannot be manually controlled to eliminate pre-flashes. There are time-delay optical slaves available, but at some point the whole exercise becomes too tedious."

Eric Rose: "I have one of these LX5's. The IQ is outstanding."

Comments

[Western Infidels]

I would love to wake up one morning and discover that the world had switched to measuring sensors in something comprehensible like square millimeters instead of the insane inch/fractional inch system, which doesn't actually specify the size of any part inside the camera in question at all.

[Dogman]

While I like my LX5, I find the images are a little "brittle" if that means anything to anyone else. Maybe it's just me since I only shoot Raw and convert using the SilkyPix software that came with it. I like it because it's smaller and easier to drop in a pocket than my old Canon G10. But the G10's results are more to my liking.

Great price, however.

[Peter]

The point about the lack of a hotshoe is well taken. That said, if Sony is selling the RX100 and successors around the $650 mark, I doubt these cameras will ever be able to command $500 again.

[Kevin Purcell]

"The S100 is fine for outdoor daytime pictures, but without a flash small-sensor cameras just aren't the right choice for indoors in most cases."

Perhaps it's just a run on sentence but ...

The Canon S90/S95/S100/S110 all have a built in flash. It pops up when you turn the flash on. The RX100 doesn't. Neither have hotshoes.

In the case of the S95 the camera is thinner than the ISO hotshoe. So it will fit in a jean's pocket but the LX5 (and the other cameras) won't. It's a trade off and one I'm happy to make so I can take the camera everywhere.

The S95 (and the other small sensor cameras) works indoors without a flash, especially in B&W.

For example an S95 at ISO 3200, Somewhere in suburbia

The S100/S110 should work even better at low light.

[Paul Amyes]

Brilliant little camera at a truely brilliant price. I take mine everywhere and it never ceases to amaze me at the quality of the files it produces.

[Zvonimir MW Tosic]

And a beautiful Queen among all the compacts, Pentax Q, is now on sale too, I see (Amazon, BH Photo, etc.). And yes, it has a hot shoe too, and a flash, and the flash can raise well above the body. And the flash sync of 1/2000 sec ...
No one knew that? Perhaps time to raise our flashes well above crowd ... :)

[adamct]

Kevin,

You're right that my sentence wasn't precise. But unless I'm using it for fill, I never use the built-in flash on a compact camera. From the context, I hope it was clear that I was talking about the ability to insert an external flash and bounce it off the ceiling/wall.

Is it possible to use these cameras indoors? Of course. Is it possible to take low-light, high-ISO pictures that turn out well? Of course. But most people use cameras indoors to take handheld pictures of people. People who move. And in my experience, especially if children are involved, it is hard to take good pictures in those situations with a small-sensor compact without using an external flash.

[Chuck Holst]

Contrary to rumor,the RX100 does have a flash. You can tilt it upward for ceiling bounce flash, too. Nonetheless, I normally keep mine turned off.