We used the built-in lenses at their widest and longest focal lengths with the apertures wide open. The crops are taken from the upper left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.

In this particular test, the Panasonic Lumix LX2 showed a little coloured fringing at wide angle, but none to mention at telephoto. This puts it in line with most rivals, although the Lumix TZ1 is particularly impressive here.

To measure and compare the Panasonic Lumix LX2’s macro performance we photographed a custom chart using it and a number of rival models with their bundled lenses.

Each camera was positioned at a distance and set to a focal length which delivered the maximum possible reproduction.

The dark lines are 10mm apart and the result is not cropped. Smaller areas are preferred in this test. The image left was taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX2 in its Macro mode.

At its closest focusing distance, the LX2 captured an area measuring 80x44mm in 16:9 mode; switching to 4:3 mode for comparative purposes, the LX2 captured an area of 60x44mm.

This is a modest macro result compared to the cameras below which all captured smaller areas. The Canon A620 in particular remains one of the most impressive macro performers we’ve tested.