June 18, 2020
#391
Gentle reader,
I just counted them up, I have owned 22 Panasonic LUMIX cameras so far.
Currently I have a DMC-ZS50 and DMC-FZ200 both of which I bought new. The former is one I carry with me when going out. It is pocketable and is the first compact LUMIX with an eye-level viewfinder. The latter is my do-it-all camera with it's superb Leica 25-600mm f2.8 lens. I have an 18mm lens for it as well as the telephoto lens that extends it's reach to beyond one meter! Both of those lenses are Panasonic lenses.
You may not know this, but Germany's legendary Leitz Camera AG and Japan's Panasonic Electronics Corporation made an agreement many years ago to collaborate on building digital cameras.
Since Leica created one of the first 35mm cameras (but
not THE first) in the 1920's, and their
cameras and lenses are known worldwide for quality, this must have been a no-brainer for Panasonic.
The agreement, condensed for the purposes of this article, was this: Panasonic with their vast electronics experience would build the cameras and sensors and Leica would provide the lenses. Each company would sell the same cameras under their own brand name.
Over time, Panasonic has created FAR more and varied digital cameras all equipped with Leica lenses than Leica has. But for many years, the cameras came out in pairs.
But, Leica learned more about digital sensors and began (and continues to this day) to create their own digital SLR and Rangefinder camera bodies which take their own lenses. But, smaller digital cameras with fixed lenses are from the collaboration.
But, Leica learned more about digital sensors and began (and continues to this day) to create their own digital SLR and Rangefinder camera bodies which take their own lenses. But, smaller digital cameras with fixed lenses are from the collaboration.
This is the Leica D-Lux 5. It is almost identical to the LUMIX DMC-LX5.
Both photos are official ones from each manufacturer. Aside from the LUMIX having a grip on the front, the main difference is if one wants the Leica version with it's tell-tale red dot on the front, they can expect to pay MORE money for it. Upwards of 50% retail. There is an old saying, "You are paying for the name."
I previously had two older LX models, the LX5 and LX3. All three have ten megapixel sensors, the differences are in the lenses and various other improvements.
The new-to-me LX5 has a Leica Vario-Summilux 25-90mm f1.4-2.3 lens.
The LX5 has a Leica Vario-Summicron 24-90mm f2.0-3.3 lens.
The LX3 has a Leica Vario-Summicron 24-60mm f2.0-2.8 lens.
All three are zoom lenses. As with most zoom lenses, the farther the lens extends from the sensor, the weaker the light reaching the sensor gets.
The last number listed above is the maximum aperture f-stop at the longest end 90, 90 or 60mm (35mm equivalent) respectively.
The last number listed above is the maximum aperture f-stop at the longest end 90, 90 or 60mm (35mm equivalent) respectively.
Prior to my selling the LX5 and all of it's accessories, this was my line-up: FZ200 is a "bridge" camera. Unlike most zoom lenses, the FZ200's lens is constant aperture. Thus, it provides full f2.8 light all the way from 25mm to 600mm. It's replacement, the FZ300 has the same lens. The rest of the FZ line, of which there are many, have variable aperture lenses. I guess making the 200/300 lenses was too expensive.
For more on some of the LUMIX cameras I have owned, click on this link:
For the official Panasonic page about the LUMIX DMC-LX7, visit this page:
Panasonic DMC-LX7K - LUMIX DMC-LX7 10.1 MP 3.8X Advanced Zoom Digital Camera - Black
Panasonic DMC-LX7K - LUMIX DMC-LX7 10.1 MP 3.8X Advanced Zoom Digital Camera - Black
The LX in the series of cameras, by my guesstimation, stands for "LUX" but since Leica was using that on their cameras, Panasonic had to drop the U.
What makes them deluxe is using top-of-the-line Leica lenses. All use a Leica lens with a name starting with "Summ". Short for summit, I suppose.
My first real Leica lens was a Summarit 5cm (50mm) f1.5 lens which was very fast for the days in which it was created and produced.
I bought it to mount on my 1946 Leica IIIC camera. This camera came with black leatherette called, "sharkskin", but I removed it and installed this pretty sea-snakeskin. Notice the lens on the Leica is NOT the Summarit. It is a Jupiter-3, Soviet-made lens, produced in 1959.
I later learned that Summarit lenses are not particularly sharp lenses. Zeiss (also of Germany) made some lenses in M39 mount but they are very rare, pricey, and much sharper.
An economical alternative is a post-WWII Jupiter lens, an exact (Soviet) copy of the Zeiss T Opton Sonnar lens. Below is a post-war model mounted on my pre-war Zeiss Contax II camera.
I later learned that Summarit lenses are not particularly sharp lenses. Zeiss (also of Germany) made some lenses in M39 mount but they are very rare, pricey, and much sharper.
An economical alternative is a post-WWII Jupiter lens, an exact (Soviet) copy of the Zeiss T Opton Sonnar lens. Below is a post-war model mounted on my pre-war Zeiss Contax II camera.
Almost every other fixed lens LUMIX camera uses some version of the Leica Vario-Elmar lenses:
The original Leica Elmar lens was created in the 1920's. Here is a photo of a fake Leica camera and lens, one of two I had, made from Soviet FED or Zorki cameras.
Elmar lenses have four glass elements and were the least expensive and slowest Leica lenses with a maximum aperture of f3.5. The are compact and collapsible, meaning they slide into the camera body when not in use.
What do I mean by fast and slow? I'll show you. The numerically lower the "f-stop" number on a lens, the larger the exit-pupil is and more light it lets into the film or digital sensor.
The self-same Jupiter-3 lens. Red n is their sign the lens is coated. Sorry for the blurriness, the camera was focused on the aperture for a reason.
The "Aperture" is a set of blades within a lens that can be closed down or opened up depending upon what you want to be sharp or our of focus in the picture.
The more blades, the more round the smaller opening will be. It is a mechanical version of our eyes pupils. When it's bright out, our pupils are small, when it's dark, they are wide open.
The exit pupil of the f1.5 lens is quite large.
Same f1.5 lens on the left, two f2.0 lenses (Jupiter 8) in the middle and a Soviet Elmar f3.5 lens on the right (Industar-22). All are Soviet copies of Zeiss or Leitz lenses.
So, if you are taking a photo of your sweetheart and you only want them to be sharp and everything else out-of-focus, you want a large aperture:
Fully open with a maximum of f1.5.
As in this photo of my wife, Nancy. However, if you are taking a photo of a large group of people at a long table or a landscape where you want everything sharp from right in front of you to the mountains miles away, you want a small (numerically high f number) aperture setting.
Fully closed at f22.
Do you now have an understanding of apertures? The thing to keep in mind is that the correct combination of aperture opening AND shutter speed must be achieved to have a correctly exposed photo.
Small aperture requires a slower shutter speed. Wide open aperture requires a fast shutter speed.
Getting back to the LUMIX DMC-LX7 cameras, of which this article is supposed to be about.
It was the first LUMIX camera to have such a fast lens. Starting with f1.4 at 24mm even at 90mm it is still relatively fast at f2.3. Whereas the LX5 which starts at f2.0 it is slower at f3.3 at 90mm requiring a slower shutter speed for the same photo taken than one with the f1.4 lens. Starting to make sense?
It was the first LUMIX camera to have such a fast lens. Starting with f1.4 at 24mm even at 90mm it is still relatively fast at f2.3. Whereas the LX5 which starts at f2.0 it is slower at f3.3 at 90mm requiring a slower shutter speed for the same photo taken than one with the f1.4 lens. Starting to make sense?
Fast lenses are ideal for very dark scenes because you may not need a flash to get the shot.
Fast lenses require larger and more expensive glass in their construction.
Although the sensor inside the FZ200 and LX7 are about the same size, for the lens to have a constant f2.8, the glass must be much larger.
It would be economically, if not physically, impossible to make a lens for a full frame (35mm film sized sensor) digital SLR camera. Not to mention huge and heavy if it were possible.
It would be economically, if not physically, impossible to make a lens for a full frame (35mm film sized sensor) digital SLR camera. Not to mention huge and heavy if it were possible.
The front element of the lens above is 42mm in diameter. The front element of the LX7 is only 27 mm. But, the exit-pupil (rear glass element) of the f1.4 Summilux lens is much larger than the one on the FZ200.
A very old, but still excellent, Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens on an old Nikon camera I once owned.
I don't have a photo of the back of that lens. This is an Olympus f1.4 lens, so the hole should be the same diameter. Nice large opening to let in lots of light.
This is a Nikon 50mm f2.0 lens. Note how much smaller it's opening is.
This is an f2.8 lens. One "stop" smaller than the f2.0.
This is an f3.5 lens. Again, one stop smaller than f2.8.
And this is an f4.0 lens one half stop slower and smaller than the f3.5 lens.
I am using 35mm film lenses to show you because they are large and fixed lens LUMIX camera sensors are tiny. And they are fixed or attached so I can't show you their back sides.
This is the back side of a Lumix 45-150mm f4-5.6 lens for a Micro 4/3rds camera. M4/3 sensors are much larger than the cameras I use have.
This is also a lens for M4/3 cameras. Made for Olympus, it's maximum aperture is only f8.0!
Now, I mentioned that the Jupiter lens goes from f1.5 (wide open) all the way down to f22. I was just looking through my lens photos and I did have some that stopped down to f32. Some large format camera lenses go down to f64. That's tiny.
Most fixed-lens LUMIX cameras apertures will ONLY close down to f8.0. Unlike every previous Lumix camera I have owned to adjust the aperture, one uses software to do that after choosing "A" on the control dial on top of the camera.
Why only f8.0? Because the sensors are tiny, the lens is very small. There is simply not enough room to make blades that can rotate far enough to close past f8.0.
As a result, shots made at F8.0 will never be as tack-sharp as a lens which can close it's aperture much smaller. Compromises must be made.
Why only f8.0? Because the sensors are tiny, the lens is very small. There is simply not enough room to make blades that can rotate far enough to close past f8.0.
As a result, shots made at F8.0 will never be as tack-sharp as a lens which can close it's aperture much smaller. Compromises must be made.
New on the LX7 is the lens coating uses Nana Surface Coating. Nano technology is freaky. Look it up.
Do you see those numbers on the side of the lens by the grooved ring (correct term is 'knurled')? Those are the aperture numbers.
This camera has a real, manual aperture adjustment ring!
I had to convert the photo above to Black and White. It had a purple tinge which had to go.
OK, see 1.4, 2, 2.8, etc. above and below? At LAST, I can change aperture settings the old fashioned way!
Unlike what I am used to, the numbers are placed far apart and rotation is a full 45 degrees. Why? Partial changes. There are fifteen clicks to cover from fully open f1.4 to fully stopped down at f8.0. What those numbers are, I have no idea. Math was never my forte.
Below is an Olympus SLR film camera lens as an example. See how close together the numbers are? And that it closes down to f16. Large lens, room to close down more.
I picked out several rangefinder film cameras to show what they lenses with aperture rings look like.
These two Yashica cameras show it best. Electro 35 GTN above, the ring rotates closed to the right, starting at f1.7. The arrows help the shooter know which way to turn it based upon the lights in the viewfinder and on top of the camera.
Below is an Olympus SLR film camera lens as an example. See how close together the numbers are? And that it closes down to f16. Large lens, room to close down more.
It's ancestral brother, the Lynx 14 starts at f1.4 and rotates to the left to f16. Knurling can be seen next to ASA and to the right of 16.
The LX7, like the LX5 on which it was introduced, has an optional "Live View Finder", as seen below.
The LX7, like the LX5 on which it was introduced, has an optional "Live View Finder", as seen below.
The LX5 uses an LVF1, the GX1 and LX7 uses the LVF2.
Of course, I sold the LVF2, not thinking someday I might get a LX7.
These devices let one choose between using the screen to compose, zoom and shoot their photos OR look through the eye-level viewfinder, as God intended.
They rotate upward so one can lay on the ground and look down like a TLR camera to compose their photo of things on the ground. Pretty cool.
LVF2 finders used, sell for upwards of three times what I paid for this camera, so that's not gonna happen.
Aren't these amazing photos? Gotta love Leica glass! Below is a photo of the wall opposite my desk in the home office.
With the aperture at f1.4, handheld at 1:20th of a second. I could not match that with any other lens.
I was thinking the camera is so small, not that I'm not used to it. So, I got out my Bessa R with a black Jupiter-8 lens. The lens was made in 1976 and came standard on a Zorki 4K camera.
And it IS smaller than a 35mm rangefinder camera. But, I also got our my Rollei 35 camera which is one half inch narrower than the LX7.
So, I hope you enjoyed reading my humble blog and I hope that you learned a few things.
Thank you SO much for doing so. Feel free to click FOLLOW (which is at the bottom of list of article dates) to receive notices of future articles. You may leave a comment below or on Facebook.
Scott
June 18, 2020
#391
These devices let one choose between using the screen to compose, zoom and shoot their photos OR look through the eye-level viewfinder, as God intended.
They rotate upward so one can lay on the ground and look down like a TLR camera to compose their photo of things on the ground. Pretty cool.
My Rolleiflex TLR camera. The top opens and one views and composes looking down through the top lens via a mirror. Like an SLR camera. The difference is the image one sees is backwards. The prism inside the top of an SLR corrects that to upright and not backwards. The bottom lens is for shooting.
LVF2 finders used, sell for upwards of three times what I paid for this camera, so that's not gonna happen.
So, I hope you enjoyed reading my humble blog and I hope that you learned a few things.
Thank you SO much for doing so. Feel free to click FOLLOW (which is at the bottom of list of article dates) to receive notices of future articles. You may leave a comment below or on Facebook.
Scott
June 18, 2020
#391
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