Wider compacts for Panasonic's new four

Even if you swear by one or two traditional camera makers for all your digital photography needs, you can't deny the innovation that Panasonic has brought into this space. Building upon that, the Japanese company today announced four more shooters for a wide range of users.

The DMC-LX3 may have only 2.5x optical zoom but it comes with many other features not common on compact digicams like a 16:9 sensor.

Improving on its range of Lumix compacts, the company has the new DMC-FX38. Like the earlier FX36, it has a wide-angle lens starting from 25mm. What's different is that it has 5x optical zoom, giving it a range of 25-125mm (35mm film camera equivalent). It remains compact at 94.7 x 51.9 x 22mm and weighs 146g loaded with battery and SD card.

In a move that will interest those who want a bit more than your run-of-the-mill compacts, Panasonic has updated the LX-series with the DMC-LX3. Those familiar with the series will know that the sensor found in these cameras comes with a 16:9 aspect ratio--a fact unchanged in the LX3. The major difference is in the lens, which is now a 24-60mm (film equivalent) compared to the 28-112mm in the LX2. This means you can't zoom in as far, but it can go much wider. What's more, the aperture goes down to F2.0, great for getting those bokeh (soft background focus) effects you can't usually achieve with compacts. Additionally, the LX3 has a Multi Aspect mode which captures three shots at the same time in three different aspect ratios (16:9, 4:3, 3:2), so the photographer can pick the one that's nicest later. We do wonder why it's necessary since you can crop the largest 16:9 one on a computer--perhaps for convenience.

For now, Panasonic cannot confirm availability in Asia Pacific, though we do know that the shooters will be available in Singapore between August and September--it should not differ much for the rest of the countries. We'll bring you more on these new cameras in a few days, so watch this space.