After wearing a little patch in the carpet by the door this morning, I was finally rewarded by the arrival of the Brown Truck of Happiness.
Initial testing suggests that the image quality of the LX7 is at least as good as the Ricoh GRD III, which is a very good start as that is my all-time favourite small sensor camera. The raw files seem quite malleable in Lightroom, and capable of pleasing colour. There's a touch of noise even at ISO 80, which is a little disturbing, but that cleans up with a little Lightroom NR. Black and white conversions seem to be pretty good, too. Despite the noise, they seem to be smoother than the GRD III's conversions.
[As a parenthetical aside, I have been reading a number of opinions that Lightroom does NOT produce the best colour for a number of camera brands. My own experience shows that Olympus Viewer 3 produces far better skin tones with the EM-5 than Lightroom, and others are saying similar things about Nikon DSLR's in Lightroom vs Photo Ninja or Capture One Pro. If this holds true for the LX7, it may be worth investigating.]
The aspect ratio switch was already set to 16:9, which is going to be my default setting for this camera. A few functions were not immediately apparent, like Macro and EV comp, but I found those in the focus switch on the side of the lens barrel, and by pressing the back adjustment wheel, respectively.
I've only given the video function the most cursory of tests, but the camera is quite quick to adjust to changing light, and half-pressing the shutter during shooting engages AF at the centre point, which is exactly what I wanted. Speaking of AF, focus speed is generally fast, even in low light situations that stump the Ricoh GXR and GR.
My current plan (which is subject to the usual whimsical gear-madness changes) is to use the LX7 for zoom, video and general shooting, and the Ricoh GR plus 21mm adapter for high quality shooting. Both will fit in the front padded compartment of the excellent Lowepro Streamline 250, giving me instant access to either camera. Very glad to have this in time for my usual Christmas photo rambles, and I'm very much looking forward to what I can discover with the LX7.