Out of the box the LX-100 comes configured for photography, which has led some early reviewers to dismiss it as a capable video camera. The fact that the menu isn't too intuitive doesn't help in this respect. Here's how to configure your LX-100 for video shooting.

Want to shoot 4K video? Switch to 4K photo-mode!

If you activate 4K video shooting through the Q.menu button you'll notice that the image crops to 4K mode after you press record, which can be quite annoying when trying to frame a shot. Furthermore, the exposure shifts once recording starts, even when you're in full manual mode. To fix both issues you need to go into the menu and in the "Motion Picture" menu activate the 4K photo mode. For some reason this configures the camera to be optimsed for 4K video shooting, without the exposure and crop changes after you press record. Another added benefit of this configuration is that you can now use the shutter button to start/stop recording.

ISO increments

By default the camera only allows 1 stop ISO increments (200, 400, 800, 1600, etc.), which makes it hard to adjust the exposure precisely. To change the increments to 1/3 of a stop, go to menu > Rec > ISO increments and change the setting to 1/3EV.

Focussing

The LX-100 features a plethora of customisation options for focus. By default the manual focus function will display focus peaking AND an enlargement of the center area, but you can easily change the camera to only display one (or none) of these focus aids. I personally found it easier to focus with just the peaking feature enabled. To do so, go to menu > Custom > AF Assist and select the third option.

When using the (quite spectacular) autofocus the camera will refocus every time you recompose. In some cases you might want to use autofocus to quickly grab focus before recording but maintain that focus when you recompose. To control focus with a half press of the shutter button, go to Menu > Custom > Quick AF and set it to "off".

Shutter speed in PAL countries

If you live in a PAL-country, you can't set the shutter speed dial to double the framerate (1/50 when shooting 25p or 1/100 when shooting 50p) because the shutter dial is based on the NTSC scale of shutter speeds. You can however fine-tune the shutter speed by turning the thumb wheel (or the focus wheel when you're in autofocus mode). The downside of this is that you can easily change the shutter speed without noticing.

Found this information useful?

If you found this information useful, be sure to check out our full Panasonic LX-100 Filmmaking Guide, which contains loads more tips and tutorials!