Pimp My LX3 - 52mm Adapter Tube for Panasonic LX3

Probably you know that MTV Pimp My Ride - that is how basically I got the idea for the title of this post.

Recently I bought this no brand Adapter Tube (DMW-LA6 alike) for my Panasonic LX3 from an E-Bay seller in Hong Kong for a mere SGD 7.50 plus another SGD 4.50 for Register Mail shipment.

2 reason why I don't bother to buy the original Panasonic DMW-LA6 Adapter Tube for LX3 are because of the expensive price and I don't really know where to get them locally - I don't think there is any shop here selling it anyway.

So this is it then...




52mm Adapter Tube for Panasonic LX3




You might wonder why do I need this Adapter Tube? or maybe you will ask if this really a must?

This is not a compulsory or a must but rather just an optional accessories for certain people who love to experiments with lots of other accessories on their LX3.

After all, this LX3 is an advance creative compact and when Panasonic designed the camera, they do think about the possibility of using external accessories and add on. This means Panasonic have another opportunity to make money by selling some of this external accessories to their hardcore and loyal customer who love the LX3 so much.

This Adapter Tube will enable me to use the additional lens filter that might be useful to my photography needs. So for the rest of you, probably you don't even need this at all.

With this Adapter Tube I can use the UV Filter to protect the lens from finger prints and dirt and dust...

In addition, I love to learn through experiments and I love to make my LX3 looks a little different (or weird) than the others... LOL...





The front thread size is 52mm and the back is 46mm...





This is how to attached it onto the LX3...






First you need to take out that thing....







And just screw this adapter tube there...




And there you are.... done... simple as that....




Side view...



I have bought all these lens filters in advance - some of them I bought together with my LX3.




First and foremost is the UV Filter. This UV Filter absorbs ultraviolet rays. Gives cleaner, sharper pictures with less haze and also serves as a permanent lens protector. I will leave this permanently attached onto the Adapter Tube to protect my lens.






It's easy, just screw it to the front thread of the Adapter Tube like this....




See... the LX3 looks gorgeous now...








As you can see from the LCD below, there is no vignetting what so ever.... very nice and clean.

At full Wide Angle 24mm:




At full Telephoto Zoom 2.5x (60mm):




Next is the Neutral Density Filters (shortly known as ND). This ND reduces the amount of light without affecting the color. Eliminates overly bright, washed out images. There are few types of ND Filters - ND2, ND4 and ND8 - the number on each of them represent the light amount reducer power. ND8 is the most powerful and ND2 is the minimum.

At the moment I only have the ND2 as the shop don't have the ND8... hopefully I can get the ND8 next time....






You can see the difference of with and without using the ND Filter below (using LX3);

Without ND2 Filter...




With the ND2 Filter... in my eyes, the obvious difference is on the tone color of the table (light brown), the ND2 Filter reduce the brightness a bit....




The other filters that I have is the Close Up Filter. Available in +1, +2, +3, +4, +8 and +10 diopters for close-up photography. Depth-of-field is shallow so they said it is recommended to use a small Aperture settings (F8, F9 or F10 maybe).




Those that I have here are basically 2 units of +4, 1 unit of +3 and 1 unit of +2. You can use them separately one by one or you can combined them all together like this.





This is how it looks like if you combined them all together....






With so many filters attached, vignetting is sure to happen and is quite common;


This is at full Wide Angle 24mm




But if you zoom to the max 2.5x (60mm) the vignetting is gone




We will do some test on that tiny snake....




Yeah this little brown snake...






The LX3 have a very good Macro capabilities already... but we can try to improve it a bit maybe.... This photo is without the Close Up filter.....

*The following 5 photos below were taken using the LX3.





And now with the Close Up filter, I can go as near as 2 inches from the subject (snake)





Another test on this 3.75 inch action figure....




Without the Close Up filter...




With the Close Up filter....




It is not as great as using the Raynox DCR-250 Macro Lens but at least there is some sort of improvement where you get a closer look on a tiny object...

The Raynox DCR-250 Macro Lens is useless at this stage as the zoom power of this LX3 is a mere 2.5x (up to 60mm) only. The Raynox DCR-250 Macro Lens works well with long zoom telephoto lens like the Panasonic FZ28, FZ35/38, FZ40, Canon SX20 IS and Fujifilm HS10.

The most suitable model for the LX3 is the Raynox MSN-202 Macro Lens available from McGill Singapore for SGD 155.00

The Raynox DCR-250 will not perform as well as MSN-202 with the LX3 in terms of magnification. The DCR-250 will only give almost the same magnification as in its macro mode, but with a much longer focusing distance of around 12cm compared to 1cm in macro mode (without the DCR-250).

The MSN-202 Macro Lens offers an astounding diopter strength of +25 diopter, 3x much better than the DCR-250.

I believe the next obvious target for me now is surely this MSN-202 Macro Lens.

So at the moment, I believe it's pretty hard or maybe impossible for me to get a good big full frame shot of a fly or any other tiny insects. I might still need to depend on the long zoom Fujifilm HS10 and Raynox DCR-250 Macro Lens.

And lastly, I also bought this 52mm lens cover as a protection for the UV Filters.






With this now, I can just leave the beautiful original LX3 lens cover in the box without worry of losing or misplaced it some where...






Overall, this is a very useful add-on for those who have the need for it. The original accessories with Panasonic brand name on it is never cheap but some people don't mind and can afford the price and they happily will buy it. As an alternate, you can also grab similar items with much cheaper price from E-Bay though they may don't have any brand or warranty but the price is certainly a factor to be considered.

With this Adapter Tube attached, I can now pretend that I'm using Panasonic GF1 - LOL...

More importantly, with this Adapter Tube attached, the LX3 no longer fit my pocket. In fact, at the end I have to buy another small bag that is just nice for me to put this LX3 and all the relevant filters and accessories inside it, will upload the review later.



end