It's the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX100

[Donald]

Many thanks to all colleagues on here for their patience and advice in this thread in which I asked the question about a camera that could slip into a pocket and which could be carried around at all times.

Well, at the end of the day I have gone for the Panasonic Lumix DMC - LX100.

The DSLRs will always remain the first choice for 'important' landscape and other work, but a good pocket sized job (I decided that a modest zoom with no need for interchangeable lenses was my priority), was calling out to me.

Now, setting the b....y thing up has been far more complicated than setting up the Canon 5DS. But we've eventually got there and this afternoon I took advantage of some fine winter weather to go out and road-test it.

The significance of this image is that, in addition to this being one of 'my trees' that folks have seen a lot in my images, this is where me and my beautiful little dog, Garry, enjoyed so many walks together. I had to say goodbye to Garry on Friday just past, after a massive epileptic seizure left him with such significant brain damage that he no longer knew who I was was nor anything about his home. Yesterday, I buried Garry in the general area of where this image was captured.

So, this is my first published image with the DMC - LX100.

Any comment and critique that you care to offer, will be warmly welcomed.

[zen]

Donald,

This shot is easily as impressive as many of your others. If I didn't know otherwise by way of the hedgerow or fence in the foreground, and your previously demonstrated skill, I'd almost say it needs straightening - because of the leaning tree. But our eyes sometimes confuse us when something isn't quite as we expect it to be, and this is one of those times. I was sorry to hear of the loss of your four-foot friend - Garry. The scene is made all the more precious by his nearness and your warm memories of your walks together.

Thank you for sharing.

Zen

[Sam W]

Nice shot. The tree looks sharp and the photo well composed. I like the photo equally well without the the dark hedgerow laying horizontal at the bottom of the photo. Did you leave the aircraft in the photo for a particular reason? Sorry to hear about Garry. This looks to be a nice resting area for him.

[flashback]

I think you clearly show that it is primarily the person behind the camera, as opposed to THE camera, that is most responsible for a great photo. My only suggestion: clone out that jet and contrail in far upper RHS (just to keep this image pristine and timeless.)

[Manfred M]

Donald, you are clearly demonstrating your style is still your style. If you hadn't told us that you were shooting with a different camera, we certainly would not have been able to guess that this is what you were doing. It will be interesting to hear your views once you have a few thousand shots with this camera under your belt.

I think you have already identified one issue with smaller cameras. There is a lot more that has to be buried in the menu, rather than buttons / wheels on the camera body. That is simply a fact as the designers have far less "real estate" to work with on something that is physically small. It's also designed for a different type of shooter in mind than a high end DSLR is.

As for the image itself, Sam and Jack have made the points I would have. I could do without the contrail and the hedgerow, but then it's not my image.

[Wavelength]

Beauty

[Donald]

Thanks for all you comments, folks.

Hedgerow and Contrail.

I debated the hedgerow for a while and in the end made a call that it should be there.

As for the contrail - I didn't see it until I had processed the Raw file, had the TIFF in Elements with the Silver Efex Pro plug-in active and had darkened the sky to bring out more detail. And there it was. At which point I thought, "Hey, it's a quirk of the picture, let's just leave it there." If I was going to produce a large size JPEG for printing (which I might do one day), then I would take it out.

And Manfred, you are of course quite correct. I hadn't acknowledged the point about there being less body area to work with and lots more things therefore getting put in to menus. Biggest challenge I think was getting autofocus off half-press shutter and exclusively on to the back button. That took about 2 days to work out how to do that. But, as is always the case, once you do slow down and work through the manual in a logical and detailed way ... it all falls into place!

[bnnrcn]

You have chosen a very nice place for Garry to rest. It is good that that place is close to where you live so you can visit Garry whenever you want. It is sad to visit our lovely friends this way but believe me it will make you happy after a while to have still a connection with your lovely friend.

I too would like to know about your experiences and thoughts about your new camera , as I might need one for myself as a pocket camera.

I don't want to comment on the image as it's meaning is more important to me.

Enjoy your new toy

[mugge]

Donald, I love it I agree with Manfred though get rid of the hedgerow. that is only my opinion. I also have a lX100 and I love it. My 'main' camera is an Olympus E-m1. Quite often I go for the LX100 instead of the Olympus simply because it is so portable. I got a bit lazy since I purchased the LX100.
Cheers Ole

[Shadowman]

Nice start to hopefully many fun future days with your new device.