I splurged this past week and got a new camera. I was looking for a small compact camera that shot RAW and had more manual controls than my Olympus D-580Z. The decision came down to a Ricoh GX200, Canon G10 and the Panasonic Lumix LX3 (I guess I should add the Leica D-LUX 4, but ruled it out since it was way more expensive than the other three).

Ultimately I went with the Panasonic. It's a lot lighter and smaller than the G10. I couldn't find a Ricoh anywhere in Toronto (best buy, downtown camera, henry's camera). I liked the exposure compensation dial on the G10 but it's just as easy through a menu on the LX3. In the end weight won out and I went with the more expensive Panasonic. It's hard to get over just how light this camera is. Well under 300 grams with the battery and memory card.

I forgot one last piece of research data that I forgot to do as I was at the checkout counter: "Does OS X/Aperture support the RAW files from the LX3?" The answer at present is no. Doh! I'll shoot JPEG and RAW for now and just stash away the RAW files and deal with a migration once the RAW is supported.

I went out on a photowalk around home with my partner and ended up with some pics that I like. I'll upload a couple here...