Panasonic Lumix LX100 Review – Design

Panasonic Lumix LX100 battery cover

Solid build

One of the major points of emphasis in the premium compact market is build quality, and rightly so when you consider the premium price tag which accompanies a lot of these models.

The LX100 is no different, and it takes just one glance at the camera to realise build quality is an area to which Panasonic has paid a lot of attention.

As soon as you pick the camera up you’ll notice that it feels solid in the hand and certainly as though it’ll last well through many years of usage. That being said, it’s not the most ‘compact’ of premium compacts, and although it will still fit in to a jacket pocket it’s not as slim as either the Sony RX100 III or Canon PowerShot G7 X.

The larger size does offer some benefits however, as the LX100 does offer a few eye-catching build features, in particular the EVF. Although the EVF struggles a bit when it comes to rendering accurate colours, it does offer a sharp and detailed rendition of the scene being captured.

Panasonic Lumix LX100 controls

Control layout

With regards to the general controls located around the camera body, the LX100 features a pleasing range of dedicate dials which are sure to appease the enthusiast photographer.

There are dials for exposure compensation, shutter speed and aperture control, with live previews of all of their effects.

What’s also welcome is the wide range of customisable controls, with a variety of different assignable functionality on offer. For example, the manual focus ring around the camera lens can be assigned to shooting controls such as ISO, while the d-pad on the rear can usefully be assigned to move the AF point around the screen.