To begin with, standard film and digital cameras capture images with a width-to-height ratio of 4:3. The Lumix DMC-LX1 offers two additional aspect ratios: 3:2 (DVD letterbox ratio) and 16:9 (the same as a wide-screen TV or HDTV set). You move among the three settings using a switch on the top of the lens, which makes it easy to try them out when you're composing a shot. Most cameras cut off part of the image (and thus lose some of the resolution) to create the wider screen of a 16:9 aspect ratio image. The DMC-LX1 doesn't: 16:9 images use the full image sensor, while photos at other aspect ratios are cropped, so you get 7 megapixels in 3:2, and 6 megapixels in 4:3.. You can learn more about this digicam over at PCworld's full test report.



Link: PC World