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.

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