Up to ISO 800-1600, the IQ on the LX-5 is useable, IMO.
However, there's a little shutter lag and it seems to like to refocus on every pix, but it may be just the way I have it set. It does have manual focus and that may speed up the lag. As for ISO, if you shoot raw, you can fix some of the noise that you'll get in the ISO 800 plus speeds.