The arrival of Sancho Panza

There are times, in the Don Quixote style quest for interesting photos, that one doesn't want the burden of a hulking SLR. Heavy, big, black and obvious, it just shouts photographer. Sometimes this is a good thing and when the best quality of image is necessary there is no argument. At other times one wants something small, light and unobtrusive, that you can carry all day without ending up with a bruise on your shoulder. Yes, I've taken the plunge and bought a compact camera.

My first digital camera was an Olympus compact and was great fun but 4 million pixels just don't cut it these days, not to mention all the other advances such as image stabilisation. I began looking around for a potential camera with just a couple of criteria in my head. Stabilisation would be good but a reasonable price and the ability to shoot in RAW format were essential. Type compact camera and RAW into Google and you'll discover that the choice is severely limited. Canon have the powerful G10, Nikon have the less than enthusiastically reviewed P6000, and recently Olympus have launched the Pen model, based on the stylings of their old rangefinders. Amongst these, the camera that kept popping up in comments and reviews was the Panasonic Lumix LX3. Comparative tests showed it to be one that was rated highly again and again. I began to do some further research.

None of these cameras is exactly cheap, varying between £300-400 even on Ebay with the Olympus weighing it at twice that and effectively ruling it out of my selection. Besides, I don't need to be starting another whole system. The Nikon, despite my liking for their SLRs just had too many indifferent reviews when placed up against the Canon and the Panasonic so it became a two horse contest. I have a friend who has the Canon and a very nice machine it is too. However it is a lot bigger than the Panasonic and reviews suggested that it didn't produce images that were any better either. The LX3 after all has a Leica lens that goes down to F2 (indeed Leica have a camera model, the D-Lux 4, that is in many respects identical for double the price) and opens up to 24mm wide which is often the sort of angle I like to use. Granted, the Canon has a much longer zoom range, but if I want long zooms then the SLR is the better choice. It also has a viewfinder, but I'm interested to play with the compact and no viewfinder might encourage a different way of looking. One can get accessory viewfinders that fit in the hot shoe, albeit it at a pretty high price. I found myself leaning towards the Panasonic.

This isn't a particularly easy camera to buy new in the UK at the moment (summer 2009). It quickly became clear that most shops were awaiting stock and either had none or in a couple of instances still had the silver version. It looks better in black, no question, and the few shops that had them were asking silly prices. Ebay had a few hotly contested secondhand examples and lots from Hong Kong at prices that exceeded the average retail price here, along with the risk of duty being imposed above that. I decided to wait. Two weeks later I idly checked Amazon to see if they had stock and they did, at a high price. The Used and New list caught my eye though. A nearly new model with extras such as 4GB memory card, spare battery, filter and extension tube.... It sounded good, and a few days later it looked good when it arrived, beautifully packed and all for just over £290 delivered.

Now I'm really looking forward to trying it out and having it as a general carry around tool. The controls seem very comprehensive and it is neatly arranged so I'm off to find windmills with my new sidekick.