LX10 Panasonic meets Kwan camera on Pattaya Drinking Street demonstrating the superb video capability of the LX10 camera
In LX10 Panasonic meets Kwan the first time Big Daddy, Bruce and Kwan finally meet. With Big Daddy and Bruce, co-owners of the Teasers Strip club in Dotham, Alabama already bored here on Thailand’s Drinking Street, I manage to get my two friends to join me at one last bar.
Kwan’s now dancing at Frog Bar where I first met her. And shot a lot of video of her before she switched over to Koracha Bar. Both bars on Drinking Street. While now that Mam’s left Pattaya for Hong Kong, there’s only one superstar left on Drinking Street. And that’s Kwan. But I won’t say very much about Kwan in this post. Because you will be seeing a lot of her on the Jack Corbett Video Channel.
In this post, LX10 Panasonic meets Kwan, I’m going to write about why the LX10 camera still is the finest small camera you can buy and what qualities qualifies Kwan for superstar status.
In LX10 Panasonic meets Kwan Kwan’s dancing abilities are self evident. As in so many videos you will be seeing of her on the Jack Corbett Video Channel.
A lot of Thai bar girls are off the charts gorgeous. But too many of them lack personality. Or warmth. Or the ability to transcend what the other girls are doing. After living in Pattaya for 16 years I find most of them to be incredibly boring.
Whereas Kwan possessed the charisma all the others lacked. When Kwann worked at the Frog bar we all went there. And when she switched over to work at Koracha Bar, Koracha bar became our new meeting place. And only because Kwan worked there.
So who was in our group back in the days during Drinking Street’s heyday?
There was May May, my ex girlfriend who lived with me for six years. And there was Nikky who now owns Nikky Bar just 30 meters from Naklua Soi 33. Ross who was a professional photographer in the United States before he retired in Pattaya. Johannes, an Austrian who had been Johnson and Johnson’s number one salesman in Europe. And Johannes’s girlfriend Anne. Big Tom, who would marry Nikky before they’d break up seven years later. Who retired from the U.S. Airforce after twenty years of distinguished service.
And finally Richard who would join me on my condo’s committee. Who would wind up working with me fifty hours a week in our condo office. As we dealt with our condo’s bookkeeper who embezzled a million baht from our condo community. And lastly PlOne who just happens to be one of the finest computer programmers in the world. Who was my partner in developing my alphapro.com web site twenty-five years ago in the United States.
It’s nine years since I shot my first video of Kwan over on Drinking Street. And I’ve met and been with a lot of terrific looking bar girls ever since my girlfriend and I broke up.
But I have never met a single one of them would jump off her stage to meet me. Whenever I got even close to her bar.
Or who would follow me down the street a quarter of a mile. While she was still working her shift.
Kwan and I, and everyone who had joined us had gotten pretty loaded. But I was still feeling very strong. Intending to walk most of the way back to my condo. But Kwan caught up with me. Telling me, “Let me get you a taxi, Jack.”
By the time my LX10 Panasonic meets Kwan, I had been shooting most of my video’s with my Panasonic LX7. And when I shot the Return of Kwan at the Best Bar on Soi 8, Kwan was already living in my condo building. By then she was taking English classes at AUA. And studying English with my girlfriend in my condo.
Ok enough about Kwan other than to say I got to know her very well.
I’m now going to tell you a little about that LX10 camera which I’ve recently replaced with my new Panasonic LX100. Although I shot most of my Drinking Street videos with a Panasonic LX7. And even shot that Return of Kwan video at the Best Bar with the LX7, I’d probably be using the Panasonic LX10 camera forever if its wasn’t for that fatal Achilles heel its designers built into it.
What made both the Panasonic LX7 and LX10 so exceptional were their 1.4 Leica 24 by 70 zoom lenses. Which gave both cameras unparalleled low light capabilities compared to all other pocketbook size cameras. But the LX10 trumps the LX 10 with its larger sensor and 20 megabyte resolution whereas the LX7 could only manage 10 megabytes.
My new Panasonic LX100 should surpass my LX10 on just about all counts. It’s a bit larger. So it has more mechanical controls on its body that makes it much more easy to use. And it’s got a 4/3 size sensor to the one inch sensor of the LX10.
But even though it’s got a a 1.7 24 by 70 mm zoom lens which should still be great for shooting in low light, the Panasonic LX100 does not even come close to the LX10 in low light.
In this LX10 Panasonic meets Kwan video, you won’t find one hint of the LX10’s fatal flaw. Unfortunately Panasonic’s engineers adopted an automatic lens feature in the LX10 that protects the lens as soon as the camera shuts down. And exposes the lens as soon as the photographer turns the camera on.
I learned about this defect when I visited B & H photo in New York City. B & H photo is a huge photography store that encompasses nearly an entire city block. At B & H photo I found a Panasonic representative who demonstrated the LX10’s fatal flaw. “It’s that automatic lens protector that’s at fault here,” the Panasonic, representative continued. “Because eventually it will get stuck when dirt, sand or other debris collects in the mechanism.”
The Panasonic representative’s warning would come back to haunt me. Eventually the automatic lens protector of my Lx10 would open only half way due to whatever debris accumulated there. I took it to a camera shop to have the debris removed. Resulting in the LX10 working perfectly again. For an entire half hour. Now I prefer my new NIkon D780 which is as close to perfection as it gets. And I carry my new Panasonic LX100 due to its portability and unobtrusiveness.
