Over the last couple of weeks I've bought all three, returned the Canon
and Panasonic. Here's my opinion (again this is mostly opinion, not
fact):
- P300 and S95 are almost the exact same size, LX5 was too big (i.e., too
thick for a pocket)
- P300 and LX5 both have direct video record buttons
- LX5 and S95 both shoot RAW (wasn't a factor for me, but may be for
you)
- All three have great picture quality (1. P300, 2. S95, 3. LX5)
- Two have great video quality, S95 is just OK (1. LX5, 2. P300, 3. S95)
Because I have an SLR for high-quality pictures, I just want a portable
p&s for when I don't feel like carrying an SLR. That factor hurt the
LX5, which I thought was the best camera, just not pocketable.
The LX5 had great video, really fast focusing (for pics and vid), and
strong build quality. It's JPEGs were the worst of the three, but third
best in this class is generally better than 1st place in a lesser class
of cameras. It felt solid. I liked the direct video record button. I
disliked the lens cap.
The S95 never did much for me, it's pics were good but not better than
the P300. It's video was definetly the worst of the three, but again,
solid for a point and shoot. The ring around the lens was cute, but felt
loose to me. The lack of a direct video record button was limiting and I
found the auto pop-up flash annoying (it pushes your finger out of the
way, both other cameras have mechanical flash pop-ups).
The P300 is great. Love the picture quality and video quality. Warning,
the video is jumpy on pans, this camera won't take the place of an HD
video camera, but it's great for a point and shoot. The direct video
button is great too. The lcd screen is beautiful. The camera turns on
and snaps very quickly. Shot to shot is excellent too. Picture quality
is great (again, I'm a JPEG user, if you're all about
RAW-post-processing-for-point-and-shoot-quality-pics you may have a
different experience).
You can slice this opinion a million different ways, all three are
awesome cameras. Pick what the most important factor or two is for you
and decide based on that. For me, the discriminators were size and video
quality (as they all took great pictures).
Update 1:
After using this camera extensively for a week or two I've come to appreciate it more. Some of my recent findings which may or may not be helpful to you the reader:
- Indoor video can take on a soft appearance and the colors can be off under certain lighting conditions in auto mode, however, it appears that manual tweaks in the program/manual modes carry over from photo to video. So you can set the AWB to a better lighting mode in one of the manual modes and simply switch modes as the lighting situation dictates. Outdoor video continues to be outstanding in auto mode.
- The creative modes (black and white, soft, etc.) can also be used for video, again you will need to be in a program/manual mode (P, A, S, M). Of these I do find the black and white to make interesting video depending on what you're shooting.
- The fast motion and slow motion modes for video are quite fun to use (they may not be all that useful, but they're fun).
- The panning motion panorama (easy mode?) combined with the Nikon software if pretty impressive. The stitched assist mode panorama works well too. It's particulary impressive in multiple monitor set ups, I can spread the picture across 3 screens and see an impressive panorama.
- Having no "welcome screen" is the way to go if you want a quick start up.
- The camera does not weigh much, it's a little off-putting at first, but light is good.
- I love being able to decide if the flash should be used by flipping the switch because I usually do not want a flash (fill flash is all I use pretty much) and it's apparent by looking at the camera if the flash is on or off, there's no digging into menus to find out.
- If you're reviewing your work (via HDMI for instance) on the camera or a tv you can press (and hold) the play button instead of power to avoid opening up the lens.
- The battery has provided a long life per charge, I haven't tested it but it may be better than advertised. Two drawbacks: it goes from fully charged to empty without much warning (icon is full, and then it's down a bar for a few minutes, then empty) and you plug the camera in to charge vs putting the battery into a charger (that's a draw back because you can't swap a fresh battery in and charge at the same time, if you buy the separate charger you can do this. I bought both an extra battery and charger to avoid any power outages).
- Applying after effects in the camera works well and the camera automatically copies the original.
- This is a piece of advice that will be obvious to some (ok, it's really for my mom): set the date and time accurately and don't have the date imprinted on your pictures. This info is part of the "meta data" that you can see on any computer. You want an accurate date so you can sort photos later if required and you don't want the date imprinted on the photo because it ruins the picture and is already in the meta data. Nikon COOLPIX P300 12.2 CMOS Digital Camera with 4.2x f/1.8 NIKKOR Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Lens and Full HD 1080p Video (Black) - Digital Camera - Lx5 - Compact - Lumix'
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