Panasonic Lumix LX100 II Announced

2018.08.25

Earlier this week Panasonic announced the success for the unique LX100 in several regions, including the US, UK and Australia. There is no official news yet for Canada but the US press released was announced by Panasonic North America, so it is likely Canada will get this new camera shortly.

The new Panasonic Lumix DC-LX100 II is a refreshed version of the original LX100, a unique camera which delivered a newly perfect performance in our LX100 review back in 2014. This time, Panasonic upgraded the sensor and processor to improve resolution, throughput and modernize the feature set.

This Premium Compact digital camera sports 22 megapixels Four-Thirds sensor cropped to around 17 megapixels at multiple aspect-ratios: 4x3, 3x2 and 16:9, in additional to a further crop for square 1:1 images. This represents a 25% jump in resolution while maintaining the same ISO 200-25600 sensitivity range which expands down to ISO 100. The new sensor forgoes the anti-alias filter for improved sharpness and works with a revised hybrid shutter which covers the 1/16000-60s shutter-speed range, plus allows Bulb exposures up to 30 minutes, significantly more than the 2 minutes maximum of the original LX100.

This is the ultimate Premium Compact digital camera, sporting a large sensor with an effective 2.2X crop-size cut out from the 2X Four-Thirds sensor and a very bright ultra-wide 24-75mm F/1.7-2.8 lens with optical image-stabilization. The Venus processor in the LX100 II allows for full-resolution capture at 11 FPS for up to 33 RAW files or JPEG images plus 4K Ultra-HD video which is used as the base for Focus-Stacking, Post-Shot Focusing and 4K Burst Photo modes.

Even for a digital camera in its class, the Panasonic LX100 II sports a high number of controls, including dual control-dials, a direct aperture-ring, dedicated Exposure-Compensation dial, dedicated Shutter-Speed dial, aspect-ratio slider, focusing switch and 5 customizable control-points. This makes the LX100 II, just like its predecessor which shares an almost identical body, one of the most efficient compact digital cameras on the market. This sturdy camera offers a high-resolution 2.8 megapixels 0.38" EVF with very large 0.7X magnification, 100% coverage and an Eye-Start Sensor. It also has a 3" Touchscreen LCD with 1.2 megapixels.

The Panasonic Lumix DC-LX100 II is expected this fall for a retail price of $1000 USD. Both Adorama and B&H Photo are already accepting pre-orders. There is little doubt this will be one of the best fixed-lens cameras on the market, so order yours quickly. Pre-orders are only charged to your credit-card when the items ship.

• Digital Camera