25. Shooting And Saving

In continuous mode, the LX1 matches (for a few shots!) the rate of a consumer-level SLR, at approximately 3 fps. Most amateurs should be happy with that. While startup is not very fast (approximately 3 seconds) the camera is responsive.

Unlike a lot of compacts, the LX1 isn't limited to JPEG format (in which it has a choice of two levels of compression). It also offers TIFF (which we don't find particularly essential) and RAW formats. RAW allows sophisticated processing of your shots. Processing software is provided, but the LX1's format is also recognized by certain software packages including RawShooter, and the list is sure to grow. The RAW format used by the LX1 has the big disadvantage of not being compressed at all, which results in files of close to 17 MB! A JPEG image is also saved at the same time, which increases the space taken up by each shot even more.

With its 16:9 sensor, the LX1 can also shoot in 3:2 and 4:3 aspect ratios. The format selector on the lens barrel is very practical for that. However, you should realize that the other formats are handled simply through cropping. That means you'll have fewer pixels in the image and a more reduced viewing angle once you leave 16:9 format.

Full 16:9 image format using the entire surface of the sensor.

An image in 4:3 format with the same width.

An image with the standard format for compacts (4:3). Naturally these three photos were all taken from exactly the same spot.