I made a personal purchase last month, the Panasonic Lumix LX3. It is the best compact camera I have owned to date.  I should qualify my statement by saying that I am a photo and video enthusiast.  There are many alternate, budget conscious choices but in the realm of high quality compacts there are only a handful of cameras that I consider on my shortlist.  The Canon G10 is most certainly the closest competitor in my eyes so I will make a few comparison points for those considering both.  I would also note that I have owned the G7 and base my knowledge on the G10 on my favorite site for digital camera reviews (dpreview.com).

Pros:

• insanely low apeture (2.0) for a compact – this means you can take great low light shots (example)
• very compact size with tons – i mean tons of control options (you can even change the size of the image: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9)
• HD Video – this is probably what puts it over the top for me.  It does 720p remarkably well which makes it the best pocket solution for vacation with the family or events where you do not want lug a dslr or a separate video camera
• Options, options and more options.  You can find details on all the features and settings here but suffice to say that you will never run out of creative options to try.
• Superwide lens (24mm) for getting real close with the macro setting or excellent for landscape photography
• Portability: although the lens protrudes the body it is much smaller than the g10, here is a size comparison

Cons:

• If you pixel peep (that means you blow up the photo on your monitor to see it at full size) you will find that is not as sharp and there is noise on many low light images.  But at 10 megapixels you will find that even 11 x 17 prints look great.
• 10 megapixels allows for quite a bit less cropping then say the G10’s 15mp.
• Picture quality still goes to the G10, at least according to most reviews, with the possible exception of the low light performance.
• Lens only has about a 2x zoom, meaning you cannot always get the telephoto shots, although it is fine for portraits and most point and shoot style photos.

Bottomline: If you are in the market for a high-end compact.  Your main choices are the G10 and the LX3.  You can’t go wrong with either.  However, if you want great HD video and low light performance to go along with your photos, the LX3 is where its at.

Recommended SDHC Memory Card - This will allow 3000+ jpg images (600 in raw format) or about 2-3 hours of HD video.  (note: it will record in chunks of 10 minutes maximum – if you need to record an event without stopping, then you will need a camcorder but I usually record in small chunks and edit later, never hiting the 10 minute mark per video clip.

camera review, compact, lumix, lx3, panasonic, reviews Hide

It’s no secret that the iphone is one of the best tech toys out there, but to me it’s a life changer.  Its a revolution in function and where it goes from here could change everything.

The word phone is actually a misnomer.  It would be more accurate to label it a handheld computer that can make phone calls.  Never has there been so much function in such a compact, easy to use format.

Although it is easy to make hardware comparisons and compose bullet lists versus other smart phones, the ace in the hole for Apple is the App Store.  In the same way that video game consoles live and die by the success of software (games), so will smart phones.  Except that the iPhone already has a long line of developers clamoring at making applications and the hardware itself is so hot that it often sells for double or triple depending on what part of the world you live in.

The iPhone, like a computer with only an operating system, is a blank canvas.  Yet it holds many advantages over even the best laptop.  Microphone, Speakers, Camera, GPS, Accelerometer (tilt sensing) Wifi, and 3G (Fast data) all in the palm of your hand and all with Apple’s trademark easy to use interface.

There is so much to talk about that new websites spring up everyday concerning this device.  A podcast called iPhone Alley is dedicated to iphone news only and then there is the legions of hackers “jail breaking” (allowing them to use unlicensed software) their phones because they can’t wait for official applications but I could be here forever if we travel down that rabbit hole.

Lets get to my favorite applications so far:

Productivity

Evernote is an online repository for notes. You can take them in any fashion: photos, recordings, writing.  They are stored and archived for you in a an online repository for future use. It even has the ability to take handwritten notes and recognize the text. The iphone application lest you do all this from your phone with ease.

Weatherbug: If your business is outside, then knowing what is going on with the weather is very important.  There are many ways to get this information but with the built GPS and a real-time radar, it doesn’t get much easier to tell of that rain is coming your way.

Microsoft Exchange email support works flawlessly and was easy as pie to setup. Typing on the screen became second nature to me after a couple of days.  The trick is just to trust the phone, it will auto-correct spelling in most every case.  I can now type pretty fast on it and do not miss my berry one bit.

Kyte.com lets you broadcast live photos and video via a website and the iphone application only supports photos at the moment but is expected to support live video.

The Fun Stuff

Facebook: This one is both fun and productive as many organizations use a facebook account to keep in touch with customers/students/alumni.  You can post images directly, post new messages and chat.

Twinkle: This is a twitter application which amazingly takes your current location and shows you what other people are talking about. You can post a photo direct, respond to messages and make your own posts.

More Cowbell: There are so many novelty applications on the App Store,  I thought I would include just one of my favorites.  Some of you may remember the Christopher Walken skit from SNL. Essentially this turns your iphone into a Cowbell.  Best part is it works with music.  So if you are using your ipod to play music, you can run this app and add cowbell to any song. LOL

The Future

I only scratched the surface here, the killer app is the App Store itself, it represents the life changing possibilities I alluded to.  The list of problems that can be solved is endless: pull up medical literature on a drug, read a CT scan, measure how many calories you burned (based on movement of phone), buy anything, read a book, control your computer, access a server, get directions, find out who is around you, get all your news, watch anything, talk to anyone in the world via wifi, turn photos of text into text, etc etc etc.

All these things were already here or on the way on multiple portable devices. However, no device (other than the iPhone) so far brings them all together and makes them easier to accomplish at the same time.

Oh alright, there must be some cons right?  Battery life is rough, although I heard it was the same or better than most 3G devices.  Video is not there yet but I think this will be a software upgrade.  Maybe this was a battery life decision.  I know its capable, here is a clip of it being used.  As far as cut and paste and MMS messages, I do not really care.

Needless to say, I highly recommend it to everyone. You will wonder how you functioned without it.  Sliced bread’s got nothing on the Apple iPhone 3G.

att, cell phone, cell review, iphone, reviews, tech Hide