Leica Digilux 3 Digital Camera

Leica Digilux3

By Ernesto  Mar 18, 2007 | 3 out of 3 found this Leica Digilux 3 review helpful

Pros: Manual controls including focus, f-stop ring, and shutter dial. High quality optics. Nice wight distribution.

Cons: High price. Slow writting to RAW. Somewhat slow focusing

This is my 3rd Digilux (I also have the Digilux 1, and the Digilux 2.) The Digilux 3 offers a natural progression to the Digilux 2. The new camera adds interchangeable lenses and reflex viewing. The camera uses the four-third system (a 2x factor on l...enses, so that a 14mm lens is equivalent to a 28mm in 35mm.) I am not sure that this system will grow much in popularity beyond Olympus, Leica and Panasonic (main users of this system.) However, in theory it should allow for somewhat smaller/lighter lenses. The standard lens supplied with the camera is a Leica D Vario-Elmarit 14mm-50mm f2.8-3.5 lens (28mm to 100mm in 35mm). The lens is solidly built and easy to operate. It focuses down to 29mm (approx 14 in) throughout the focal range. The lens has automatic focusing and optical stabilization (you can shut off this feature if you want.) The Vario-Elmarit produces beautiful crisp images with nice saturation. In addition, new Leica lenses including a 25mm Summilux f1.4, a macro, and a larger zoom are slowly appearing on the market. By the way, the four-third system is a universal mount that allows you to use other companies' lenses on the camera. This includes Olympus, Sigma, and others. The camera itself fits very well on your hands, the weight helps to stabilize the camera which offers a better, more secure hold for shooting at slower speeds. The one thing that took me by surprise was the noise that the mirror makes flipping out of the way and then returning to viewing position. I guess I had become too used to almost silent cameras, like the Digilux 1, and Digilux 2. This new camera (like other reflexes) is not very inconspicuous when taking pictures of people. On the other hand, the nice thing about a reflex camera is that what you see in the viewfinder is what you get. Controls on the camera are easy to find and very functional. the shutter release is the one button that takes time to get used to. It is located right in the middle of the shutter dial. Not exactly a natural resting position for your index finger. The camera includes a lever next to the shutter release for light-meter adjustments. It offers settings for spot, center weight, and average. Another lever in the back of the shutter dial offers multiple shots, self timer, and +,- automatic exposure. There are also two function-buttons on the top. These are customizable and very useful. For example, I have set my function-1 button to allow me to under or over expose by up to 2 f-stops each way. My function-2 allows me to quickly change from color to black-and-white. The back of the camera includes a large 2.5 LCD screen, flash adjustments (The camera has a flash that pops-out for either bounce or full frontal settings), play/preview buttons, etc. The camera uses SD cards (important for me because they are the same storage cards as my other Leicas.) Although the camera offers a RAW function, it is somewhat slow to write to it. The Digilux 3 allows you to shoot 5 or 6 images in RAW, then you have to wait for the buffer to finish writing them, before you can continue. Also, while at the beginning it was difficult to find software to support this type of RAW, Photoshop CS2 now supports it. I have been shooting with this camera for a while under various situations. I find that the camera is comfortable to use, even after several hours of hauling around. I always leave the camera "on" when I am shooting (the camera goes to sleep automatically so it uses little battery life. It also wakes up pretty quickly.) I also like the controls, particularly the manual zoom, shutter dial and f-stop ring. I almost never use the focus ring on manual mode, because I find it difficult to focus (I wish it had a split screen), and the automatic-focus works fine. I also love the versatility of the lens. 28mm to 100mm is perfect for most photography, including travel. All in all If you can get beyond the price, I would recommend this camera. Read more Less