Battery life is another strong suit. The Lumix LX5 has a CIPA rating of 400 shots per charge of its battery, the best number in our roundup (not counting shooting with the screen turned off on the or the ).

Like the Coolpix P7000, the Lumix LX5 uses a lot of physical buttons to provide instant access to controls. Two sliding switches reside on the ring of the lens itself: the autofocus/macro/manual focus selector, and a slider on top for changing the aspect ratio (options are 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, and 1:1).

The top right of the camera hosts a ten-selection mode dial, where your choices include Intelligent Auto mode, color filters, scene modes, video mode, manual mode, aperture priority mode, shutter priority mode, program auto mode, and two user-defined custom settings. The shutter button, zoom controls, a dedicated record button, and a physical on/off toggle switch round out the controls on the top of the camera.

On the back, you get a thumb-operated scroll wheel, an autofocus/auto-exposure lock button, a playback button, and the standard display, menu, and directional-pad buttons. Somehow, despite so many buttons, the layout feels uncluttered and well spaced.

For pure manual operation without the intimidation factor of the Nikon Coolpix P7000, the Lumix LX5 is tops. Its fine-tunable settings, macro mode, focus features, video options, strong low-light performance, and classic aesthetics are sure to make photography geeks freak (in a very good way).