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LX3 Photo Walk
Apr 03 2009 23:28 | 50 Comments
Since mid 2005, my day to day camera has been the Kodak DX7590. While it was a great camera in 2005, in 2009 it just wasn't meeting my needs in any category so I decided to finally upgrade. After looking at, and playing around with, many different cameras, I came down to two. The Panasonic Lumix LX3 and the Canon G10. Frankly both are great cameras, but what stopped me from getting the G10 was primarily the fact that at night the LX3 is infinitely better, and when it comes to video, the G10 is about as good as a camera phone from 2003. So the LX3 it was.
The photo above is probably one of my favorite photos taken that night. The same photo that I'm using at the header, at the time of writing this article.
I got the LX3 on the 3rd of January this year, unpacked it, and within 15 seconds the charger with the battery inside was plugged in. It takes about an hour and a half typically to charge the battery, so by the time I had it charged, it was getting dark outside. What a great opportunity to try out how well it takes photos at night, I thought. I grabbed my bike and headed into the city.
The 2-photo composition you see above was taken at night and the building I was facing, was about 15 meters away. Took one photo with the flash turned off, another with it on. For such a tiny popup flash, I was very impressed to say the least. Definitely better then my old Kodak which couldn't illuminate anything more then 3 meters away. and when it did it completely blacked out the background.
On my way into the city, took a photo of a building across the river. While I could've upped the ISO and gotten a much brighter image, not too bad as is.
And this is the first photo I took when I got to the center of Nagoya. For a first try with a camera which I never used, quite spectacular I think.
Absolutely loved the dandelion-like lights in the middle of the street.
Another shot on the same street.
The photo used in the header actually came between this and the previous image, but I thought it would make a quite a good first image in an article. The photo above features an otherwise stock Toyota Landcruiser on huge-ass wheels.
As this was just 3 days after 2009 hit, the whole city was still covered in decorations. Toyota managed to spell out '2009' in the building which is home to their headquarters.
Right in front of Nagoya Station.
And another shot.
Back on the street with the dandelion lights. The ramp is the entrance to the highway.
Somehow transported back to Nagoya Station.
Back to the street again. Same bicycle parking you've seen in a previous photo walk.
A red bike with pink tires. There's something you don't see every day.
Back at the station. On the 2nd floor balcony.
Everything was covered in lights.
Some taxies parked next to Nagoya Station. One of the things I absolutely love about the LX3, its its ability to shoot photos in not only 4:3, but also 3:2 and most importantly 16:9. For those who don't know, 16:9 is the same aspect ration as what widescreen TVs use.
Elsewhere on a street.
Inside Nagoya Station. The gold clock is a popular meeting place for people as its so easy to find.
Escalators going to the second floor. From there you can either step out on the balcony, or keep heading upwards via other escalators. There you will find shops, restaurants, more shops and more restaurants.
Back on the street.
When lights turn red for the cars, you can cross in any direction on this intersection. Like a mini version of the famous intersection next to Shibuya 109 in Tokyo.
Looking out from the balcony of Nagoya Station. The building with '2009' spelled out on the side of it is primarily Toyota's HQ. In front of Nagoya Station, there is this random swirly and pointy thing. Serves no purpose whatsoever other then being shiny.
Store display.
Same one.
Absolutely love this place. A bike parking under Nagoya Station. Why I love it? First of all, its free, second of all, it makes for a wonderful photo. The colors are completely untouched. Thats just how they came out of the camera.
The entire building which houses Toyota's HQ is known as the "Midland Square". Other then Toyota, you will find quite a bit of other companies there. The lower floors are primarily restaurants and stores.
This, just like the previous photo, was taken on the underground floor of the building.
On 2 of the many floors which are occupied by Toyota, they have a small showroom with some of their cars. Can't really say I was too impressed. All that was there were a few Lexus models, and some vans.
During the time of this walk, the showroom was already closed. I went back to it a few days later to see everything that was there, but it was so boring I didn't even bother taking any photos.
But at least the building itself was pretty darn cool on the inside.
Restaurants and shops everywhere.
After being bored by Toyota's dreary showroom, went up to the top of the building. Both the elevators, and the elevator shafts had glass walls. Looked absolutely wonderful as I was going up, same feeling as the one you get when you're on a plane which is taking off.
And when I got there, what a wonderful view.
Just a damn shame they don't let people get right to the glass, so you can't really take any decent photos.
On the back side of Nagoya Station.
And another shot.
Then back on the balcony of the station.
A view of the station from across the road.
Most of the grass around Midland Square was covered in glowing glass. Looked pretty cool at night. During the day was barely visible.
The big animated panel looked horrible during the day as it's just a bunch of wires and lights. Was just a big grey rectangle covering half of the building. During the night, a completely different story, literally.
And on that note, I'm gonna end this post. Turned out a bit longer then I would've hoped, but I just wanted to get all the photos from that night out in one post rather then splitting it up into smaller bits.
julio
so cool the nagoya station.
MikeD
Simply wonderful Michael. That was a great time to take a walkabout and take pics.
The holiday lighting made for great pics.
I like the balcony pictures because of the colors, and the animated sign, well i wish it was
video. As for the Red bike, maybe the tires were red and just faded.
The street views were nice I always like shots like that for some reason.
The land cruiser was a laugh, where's he going to go 4-wheeling in Japan?
Oh and I liked the bike parking too.
Thanks for making my night a little brighter. Hope you have a great day.
Michael Flux
@julio
Agreed. It was wonderful.
@MikeD
I actually do have a few random videos, and will try to upload them as soon as possible.
4 wheeling? You could probably go have some fun outside of the cities, but chances are the big wheels had nothing to do with offroading. Later I'll also upload a few more pics of such vehicles. One of them is a van. :p I think they put on these huge wheels for the "lulz" if nothing else.
And thanks, glad you liked it! ^_^
Ben
Hey, Michael...
Love seeing your shots; very inspired and inspiring. (I have to admit, Flux is a bit catchy; I hope you haven't entirely scrapped your old last name, however.)
Are you still in Japan? Drop me an email and let me know what's going on; I'm very interested in hearing of your adventures.
crew
Hey great article on the lx3. I have the lx2. I LOVE it on ISO 100 shots and LOATH it on 200 and up so I dont waste my time taking it out at night. It appears from your post that it solved that problem. Still isn't pocket friendly though is it? Nevertheless its its full manual and RAW capabilities that draw to it. Any problems with it you want to share?
Michael Flux
@crew, I wouldn't really say problems... but I would really really love to be able to time lapses with it and I would love it even more if I was able to plug in an external mic... but beyond that, well, I've been using it for almost 9 month now and I have had no problems whatsoever. Seems to be quite a perfect little camera. But yeah, usually I try to not take it over 400 as it gets a bit too noisy, still better then most of the compacts out there I think...
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