The $800 Panasonic LX100, with a large sensor and 4K video, promises to be a great enthusiast compact

Now this is the enthusiast compact that LX-series fans have been waiting for. The Lumix LX100 takes on Sony's formidable RX100 Mark III at the same $800 price (), finally doing away with the tiny 1/1.7-inch sensor and replacing it with a long-expected Four Thirds version. It costs AU$1,199 in Australia and £700 in the UK.

The sensor and EVF are the same as the GX7's, and the LX100 uses the same imaging engine as the GH4, including the ability to record 4K UHD video at a reasonably high bitrate. The lens doesn't have a terribly long zoom, but at 24-75mm it's bigger than the RX100 III's and just as fast at f1.7-2.8, with a 9-bladed aperture. At least in the preproduction model I touched, the lens sounded a bit noisy during zooming, though.

Panasonic LX100 gets the design right (pictures)

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Although the autofocus system didn't feel noticeably zippy, it's faster than the LX7's, and the camera supports a continuous-shooting rate of 6.5fps with autofocus; that's fast for a camera of its size.

In addition to 4K video, the LX100 introduces a new feature, 4K Photo Mode, which allows you to extract 8-megapixel stills from the high-resolution video, as well as a stop-motion-animation mode.

My take

I really like the design of the LX100; it's compact but not too small, and with shutter and aperture dials, provides the same all-manual shooting experience as the higher-end Fujifilm X models. There's no built-in flash -- the optional bundled version goes in the hot shoe -- but I think it's probably a better move than building in the flash and punting the hot shoe, like Sony did. On the other hand, I really miss the LCD.

The LX7 is remaining on the market, and now the price is where it should be given the camera's tech vintage. The LX100 seems like a really worthy successor, and should please all the LX series fans who've been waiting patiently for a modern update. It will be really interesting to see how it fares against the similarly priced PowerShot G1 X Mark II and the RX100 III.

Comparative specifications