Black & White Panasonic Lumix LX3.

Remember old days.Photography is a film shooter.They use B&W film and there so many choices of film that they use.Kodak,Fuji,Agfa etc,etc.To-day I still enjoy seeing some of the film images without the distraction of color.It help convey mood and its help tell a story.

B&W images directly from my Pana Lumix LX3.It's raining outside so I shoot from inside my car.

Today we have a digital camera or digital photography.We have all the tool and digital technology either on your camera or on your computer.Since I have a Panasonic Lumix LX3 a kind of compact P&S camera.I thought I would like to try shooting B&W setting directly from my camera instead of converting color image to B&W from the computer.
The LX3 is fairly well known to photographers who appreciate manual controls and the fast and wide angle Leica lens. However, it’s not a camera for everyone, some photographers want more of a zoom range, since the LX3 only has a 2.5x zoom from 24-60mm (in 35mm equivalent), nor does it have a standard viewfinder. Those are of course limitations for some photographers; however, it does have a large, high resolution LCD screen that seemed to be easy to use under most conditions and outside. I even thought that it was a bit bright, so I turned the brightness down. I also appreciate the fast (f/2.0 max) lens with image stabilization that allows you to shoot wide in dark environments with no flash.

All shot with The LUMIX LX3's Dynamic B&W Mode in Aperture Priority. Most of the shots are shot between f2.0 and f4.0 at shutter speeds ranging from 1/400s to 1/1000s.All at ISO 80.

As I usually take color photos and later convert them to B&W in post processing, I thought it would be interesting to see how the LX3 did with the built in black and white preset setting. There are two to select from in the camera. One is a standard B&W setting that looks very good, and another more contrasty setting called “Dynamic” that creates a bit more contrast. I decided to use the Dynamic setting along with center-weighted metering with an ISO set to 400. I probably could have used the auto ISO setting with a maximum set to 400, but I didn’t think of it at the time .I'm still worry when will be the rain stop and perhaps I'm unable to shoot many photos to-day.

Taken with Aperture Priority,Dynamic B&W,ISO 200, f2.1 with 1/4 shutter.

So, do you like to shoot in black and white? Do you use the built-in settings in your camera, or do you like to do it all in post processing? Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the effect you get with the built-in settings on the LX3, so I’m sure I’ll use this setting again in the future.So watch out on my next entry ,more B&W images from my Lumix LX3.