The Panasonic LX3 is very popular as a compact camera for people who normally use a Digital SLR but want something smaller that they can carry everywhere. It has a wide-angle, fast lens, manual controls and can shoot in RAW format, which most enthusiasts and professionals want to do. The LX3 is also sold, with a couple of small alterations, by Leica as the D-Lux 4. One of the differences is the price: The LX3 goes for about £330 in the UK while the D-Lux 4 costs around £500.
Another difference is the software that comes with the camera. The Panasonic comes with Silkypix Studio, which is fine but not very fancy. The Leica comes with Capture One, professional software which many photographers already use with their DSLRs.
So if you’ve already got a copy of Capture One you might think that you could use it with your LX3 since the Raw files that come from the LX3 are functionally identical to the ones produced by the D-Lux4. Unfortunately you can’t. Capture One refuses to import LX3 raw images because of two slight differences in the files. Luckily you can very easily make an LX3 Raw file look like it came from a D-Lux 4. Here are two ways.
Option 1 – Use the command line
If you’re using a Mac, or Linux, you can use Perl on the command line to make the changes needed. Make your way to the directory where the Lx3 Raw files are and then type:
perl -p -i.bak -e 's/Panaso/LEICA\x00/g;' -e 's/DMC-LX3/D-LUX 4/g' *.RW2
You’ll end up with all your original files called something.RW2.bak and a whole load of new files called something.RW2. You then need to change the suffix on the .RW2 files to .RWL by typing:
for f in *.RW2; do mv $f `basename $f .RW2`.RWL; done;
Then give all the original files their old, correct, suffix.
for f in *.RW2.bak; do mv $f `basename $f .RW2.bak`.RW2; done;
Option 2 – Use Like A Leica
An easier way is to use this little programme that I’ve written. It copies your images before it changes them so your original files should be safe, but back-up before you try it, just to be careful.
This is a new version, 1.1. It remembers the folder that you used last time, there’s a progress bar, it won’t attempt to convert files it’s already done and it’s a bit faster now. It also has an icon 
Download for Mac 3MB
Download for Linux 1.2MB
Download for Windows 1.3MB
I have used your program on 25 LX3 raw files in one go and no problems at all, makes my workflow as per my DSLR’s.
Used on OS X 10.5.7 and C1 Pro 4.8.1.
Many thanks for this.
Roy
Thanks thanks and thanks.
I tried the software with more than 500 files in a folder and it worked perfectly.
Used on 10.5.7 and C1 4.8.1
Luca
Thanks for trying it! I’m glad it works. I’ll clean up the code a bit and make an icon for it when I get a spare moment.
It would be fine to have a Windows Version, I’m ready for it
Please let me know once it’s ready.
I’ve tried the Windows Version for some LX3 RAW files and worked perfectly, great job!
Absolutly fantastic your little Tool. Exactly what i was looking and searching for!!! Works Great with my Mac and Capture one Pro even with a large amount of Files.
Thank you very much for your exelent Work!!
Best Regards
D
This excellent little software made my worflow with LX3 files so much faster and easier. May I make a suggestion, which would improve my life even further? I wish Like A Leica would remember the selected folder between sessions. Alternatively, choosing a default folder in the preferences, or starting the programme by dragging a folder on its icon would do the trick for me.
Thanks a lot and best regards.
Great job! thanks very much.
The software works prefectly on LX3 raw file. But it does not work on the raw file captured by the newly released GF1. I guess it should changed to .RAW instead of .RWL in order to work on capture one. Do you have any idea on this? I guess thousands of people having the same trouble with me on this. Can you help to solve this again?
Once again thanks for your software.
Thanks very much for the windows version.
Bought a LX3 today and struggling with DNG route to Capture 4.
By the way, your program works better than DNG (which I have used with other compacts) as all functions work in Capture 4 pro including lens correction which is not available via DNG format.
Thanks again.
hi, just wondering if anybody has figured out what to do for GF1 raw files yet.
Thanks. This has been such a help you’re little program has saved me literally hours of pain. Integrates into Cap One Pro 4, perfect. Thanks again.
hi
i tried ‘like a leica’ on my vista 64 system and it wouldnt run…. any tips to make it work on there?
mike
I should clarify having tried again that after clicking ok on about 7 runtime error messages the program actually came up and worked…. but why all the runtime errors?
Mike
I’m sorry Mike, I wrote this on a Mac and I could only test it on Windows XP running in VMware Fusion, so I have no idea about how well it runs under Vista. Unfortunately I had my laptop stolen just before Christmas and until it’s replaced I’m using my old non-intel desktop computer so I can’t do any cross-platform development at all. The program was written in RealBasic, you might find some answers at the Real Software forums – http://forums.realsoftware.com/
thanks for the reply
it still works i suppose, just 7 screens to click through!
i doubt i would understand the answers from the forum anyawy!
Mike
many thx for the win version.
Works great for my LUMIX LX3 on W7/x64.
mausi
This was working very well but now comes up with the message “An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down.” Any ideas what this means?
Many Thanks
Sorry to hear that Chris. That error usually happens when something that the program confidently expects to be there turns out not to be. It might be worth throwing away the prefs.ini file that’s sitting in the same directory as the application, see if that helps.
Hi Jon, thanks for getting back to me. While trying to work out how to do that I noticed that the programme was still running from my downloads folder so I transferred it to the applications folder and now it is running fine again. Basically it was me being really stupid!!
Hi, I’ve been using Likealeica successfully for a while. Tonight when I ran it I also got the “An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down.” message.
App is in the Applications folder. Mac OS 10.6.2 – maybe that’s the problem??
I’ll give the command line thing a go, but I love Likealeica!
All the best
Rob
a very nice tool for my lumix lx3 and w7/64.
Works great
many thanx
myxo
Doesn’t run on Windows Vista: plugin.cpp: 7327 Failure Condition: pluginEntryTable.GetEntry( entrypointName, out ) can’t find plugin method BevelButton.DeleteAllRows
Perl command doesn’t run either: String found where operator expected at -e line 2, at end of line (Missing semicolon on previous line?) Can’t find string terminator “‘” anywhere before EOF at -e line 2.
Capture One seems to be excellent software I’d really appreciate using on my LX3 RAW files. Like-a-Leica is an excellent approach but the conversion seems not to work for me.
Meanwhile I got the perl command to work when using ActivePerl instead of Strawberry Perl and replacing the single quotes with double quotes. It didn’t work for *.RW2 but it worked for one file, like 1234567.RW2. The file was updated, but after renaming the result to .RWL, Capture One still doesn’t recognize it.
Hello, is it possible to get the source code to make adjustments for pano FZ50? or if you make that available? thanks
Hi,
thanks for this little cutie for my mac …
A great job.
Thank you very much for sharing it with other fans of the LX3.
You’re a very helpfull genious. Thanks a lot.
Jens, Denmark
Will there be a version of “like a leica” for the LX5 ?? Would be great !!
Fantastic. Works well with Mac OS X 10.5.8. Thanx for that great little tool.
Thank very much!
hello. this can work in Mac os Lion?
I don’t have Lion yet so I’m afraid I don’t know. I am thinking of writing an updated version of this so do let me know if it has any problems running under Lion.