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Rick Rizner
At $600 the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX1 is rather pricey for a point- and-shoot camera, but it's as compact as many in this class and offers some interesting features normally not found in this group.
To begin with, standard film and digital cameras capture images with a width-to-height ratio of 4:3. The Lumix DMC-LX1 offers two additional aspect ratios: 3:2 (DVD letterbox ratio) and 16:9 (the same as a wide-screen TV or HDTV set). You move among the three settings using a switch on the top of the lens, which makes it easy to try them out when you're composing a shot. Most cameras cut off part of the image (and thus lose some of the resolution) to create the wider screen of a 16:9 aspect ratio image. The DMC-LX1 doesn't: 16:9 images use the full image sensor, while photos at other aspect ratios are cropped, so you get 7 megapixels in 3:2, and 6 megapixels in 4:3.
The DMC-LX1 is well built, with a solid feel and an aluminum case that should stand up well to the thumps and knocks of everyday use. The lens protrudes nearly three...