LX5 – the son of the awesome LX3

The Panasonic Lumix LX3 was pretty awesome. Even after its release in November 2008, it remains one of the best non-DSLR digital cameras on the market and has mostly retained its original price due to its popularity among photography geeks (we’d argue the Canon Powershot S90 is probably the best little digital camera on the market today, but let’s not split hairs).

Now Panasonic have unveiled this season’s new cameras, including the Panasonic Lumix LX5, which is pretty much a direct upgrade and sequel to the LX3 (they don’t like the number 4 much in Asia).

It’s very similar to the LX3 but that’s not such a bad thing. It looks almost identical and has the same number of megapixels (10 of them), though the CCD sensor has been improved and it sports a newer Leica lens. In addition to taking high quality photos, it can also record 720p HD video.

Interested? It will be available in August for $499.