Pretty good combination I would say.

Sure, NTU has been getting some pretty bad press lately, but it looks like our garden campus just showed us what it was really capable of in the last week. Beautiful white and pink flowers have been blooming around the campus, and they look almost like cherry blossoms. I thought I’d go for a walk and take some pictures with my trusty LX3. Enjoy the full gallery after the break.

Took this photo in the bus last night on our way back using the Panasonic LX3 from our motion graphic class’ excursion to Lights and Shadows, the post production company I worked in as an intern last December. I dare say I wouldn’t be able to take such a photo using my current DSLR setup. The LX3′s large aperture and optical image stabilizer really helped a lot to reduce the effects of camera shake. Click on the picture for the full, and browser unfriendly picture.

It was a tough choice between this camera and the Casio Exilim FC100, which could shoot up to 1000fps video for slow motion playback. In the end, the F2.0-2.8, 24mm focal length (35mm equiv.), intuitive user interface and cool retro looks won me over. I tried to get Alan Photo’s limited time offer of $680 with 8gb memory card, card reader, case, mini tripod, battery and lcd protector but both Sim Lim and Funan branches ran out of the black model. In the end I had to proceed to Cathay Photo and bargained their price down from $720 to $685 with just 8gb memory card and a case. It was a good thing, actually, because I really think that Alan Photo should send their staff to Cathay Photo to learn a thing or two about how to not be rude to their customers. Why didn’t I purchase the camera at the IT show? Because they’re selling the LX3s at the recommended retail price of $799, albeit with an additional 8gb memory card on top of Alan Photo’s freebies. Also there was the mob.

This camera performs like a dream. I remembered the Lumix days when i first started out with photography with the FZ5. I had an excellent run with it, then I upgraded to a D50 DSLR. I remembered the days of not complaining about the shoulder ache I got from lugging the camera around everywhere I went. Then I had to bring my laptop everyday to school, and there was no way I was going to carry both my laptop and DSLR everywhere. I had gotten a compact camera, the Kodak V570 when I sold my FZ5 to a friend, and it performed sufficiently (it had 2 lenses, one ultra wide 23mm and one normal zoom). But it performed as good as compact cameras go (at that time), and I still had to lug around my DSLR along, especially on overseas trips. I’ve stopped keeping my DSLR by my side at all times for about a year now.

I’m guessing now things will change. I am getting sufficiently good low light performance from the LX3, considering it’s physical size. It performs almost as good as my D50 with the Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens. The HD movie mode is addictive. Every video I shoot now looks epic because of how wide I can go. Due to its light weight, I will be bringing this around more often.