Despite the reviews for the X1, I simply cannot see myself buying any of the current 4/3 cameras or any other compact. I just like classic dials on my camera. The X1 is the closest.
Leica X1 Review
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bwcolor
Veteran
The Ricoh GXR has on lens (A12) focusing ring and EVF &/or rear display with resolution contrast and brightness sufficient for manual focus. It also has external aperture and shutter speed, but not dials. A compromise that I can live with and with use I might even like. It doesn't have the sex appeal and it is a bit larger, but from all postings.. great optics with the A12 and a promise of more lens modules to come.
jack palmer
Well-known
It's a bit like being set up on a blind date. If you can get past the ugly factor maybe she's really pretty nice. Brave design? Looks like the modern version of the first Leica.
Which is why, in 2009, that is a brave thing to do. I iwsh more companies would do it. Like Paul T., I'd love a digital Konica Hexar type camera... or something like the Contax G. However, since those don't exist, the X1 is the closest to what I want. The GXR doesn't do it for me.
Tom Diaz
Well-known
I would also like a digital Hexar AF. This could have been it--it'd need fast AF and a viewfinder! Let's hope they do well enough with this model that they're encouraged to keep improving the product line.
jack palmer
Well-known
Looks like the X1 was design by Walter Gropius or Marcel Breuer. That wonderful Bauhaus lack of ornamentation that gave us high schools, high rise apartment buildings, hospitals, hotels and office buildings that looked like warehouses and grain elevators. I guess it's a German thing ... except they all ended up over here.
peterm1
Veteran
There are very few digital compacts I can get excited about and this is no exception. Maybe the (somewhat flawed) Sigma DP1 / DP2 which are simple and are said to produce nice images.................
In styling find the Leica a bit ugly in an overblown, overstated kind of way and for my requirements quite lacking.
For me the main must have feature that I am looking for in compact now days is not just a big sensor (OK it gets a plus for that) but a proper optical or digital viewfinder that you look thru - with an eye!!!!!!!! . I simply cannot bring myself to own and cannot take seriously any camera that forces me to hold the bloody thing at arms length to take a photo. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I do not really like the idea of having to fork out a few hundred bucks extra on top of an expensive camera for a finder either but will do it if all else is OK. (Does Leica even sell one for this???)
Really I prefer a micro 4/3 with interchangeable lenses. I have M lenses and LTM lenses that I would love to use with such a camera. But not without a suitable finder - and for this purpose unfortunately I figure its got to have electronic focus confirmation too - otherwise how do you properly focus those lovely fast lenses which have only inch deep depth of fields. (Hold the camera at arms length and focus using the rear LCD screen, hold focus then bring the thing to your face to look thru the accessory finder and its now out of focus if you have used a large aperture - how does that work???)
Anyway no one has made such a beast yet and my betting is that Leica will not - they want people buying their vastly expensive (but beautiful) M series cameras. So that means compromising and for me the only one that comes close is the Sigma. Even though I cannot use my own lenses it at least looks OK (simple and understated) has an accessory view finder to view-find thru!
In styling find the Leica a bit ugly in an overblown, overstated kind of way and for my requirements quite lacking.
For me the main must have feature that I am looking for in compact now days is not just a big sensor (OK it gets a plus for that) but a proper optical or digital viewfinder that you look thru - with an eye!!!!!!!! . I simply cannot bring myself to own and cannot take seriously any camera that forces me to hold the bloody thing at arms length to take a photo. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I do not really like the idea of having to fork out a few hundred bucks extra on top of an expensive camera for a finder either but will do it if all else is OK. (Does Leica even sell one for this???)
Really I prefer a micro 4/3 with interchangeable lenses. I have M lenses and LTM lenses that I would love to use with such a camera. But not without a suitable finder - and for this purpose unfortunately I figure its got to have electronic focus confirmation too - otherwise how do you properly focus those lovely fast lenses which have only inch deep depth of fields. (Hold the camera at arms length and focus using the rear LCD screen, hold focus then bring the thing to your face to look thru the accessory finder and its now out of focus if you have used a large aperture - how does that work???)
Anyway no one has made such a beast yet and my betting is that Leica will not - they want people buying their vastly expensive (but beautiful) M series cameras. So that means compromising and for me the only one that comes close is the Sigma. Even though I cannot use my own lenses it at least looks OK (simple and understated) has an accessory view finder to view-find thru!
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TheHub
Well-known
When I first saw it I hoped it would be around $800 ... imagine my surprised when it turned out to be more like $2000. The sample photos from that review failed very much to impress me.
But if I was rich? Sure I'd buy one. It looks like an old Barnack Leica 🙂
But if I was rich? Sure I'd buy one. It looks like an old Barnack Leica 🙂
You do not need to hold the camera this way at all. The LCD is small... you can hold it 5" from your face and still see it.
Come on, since when does Leica ever make something that seems like a deal? You should have known better.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
Leica need to stop building cameras that cater to a visual design parameter that was started in the twenties and start building cameras that just plain perform at a level that at least matches their opposition.
Just my opinion of course ... no doubt a lot of people think this weird retro styling is just fab! 🙄
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jack palmer
Well-known
That's why I don't think it's "brave design". It's actually lazy design. Cashing in on the same retro fad that has taken over a lot of industry and consumer products. The car companies think we love it. I feel Leica thought that the X1 would be a no brainer . high profit cash cow, but this camera is a loser in so many ways they may lose money on it.
Paul T.
Veteran
I'd be far more interested in a review of this camera that tells us ow it performs with the 35mm finder mounted (preferably with a focus point hairline, preferably not at a ludicrous price), and how reliably the focus works in this mode.
The focus and viewfinder on the Hexar AF is terrific and reliable; I really think Leica should have used a similar reliable and quick mechanism, active infra red, rather than what I would guess is contrast detection. If the X2 had super-quick, reliable focus, and its existing lens and picture quality, I could see it being a real cult camera, regardless of price.
The focus and viewfinder on the Hexar AF is terrific and reliable; I really think Leica should have used a similar reliable and quick mechanism, active infra red, rather than what I would guess is contrast detection. If the X2 had super-quick, reliable focus, and its existing lens and picture quality, I could see it being a real cult camera, regardless of price.
Paul T.
Veteran
WE know what you think, in terms of your subjective judgement of how it looks. Which may or may not be right.
However, we all know that the selection of existing compact cameras with large sensors is lousy. Canon don't do one. Nikon don't do one. For a tiny company like Leica to produce one is, yes, brave.
I, for one, am glad that they stick to a classic look... I'm sick of cameras that are seemingly designed more for consumer P&S style picture taking than for photography. Retro is not a fad... it'll always be here. The decades that will be cool to emulate will change on a cyclical basis. I have no problem with Retro and Nostalgia.
Well, it's not a P&S. Its focus is not on an auto everything design i.e. it has shutter speed dials, aperture dials, the same menu system as the digital Ms, etc. Outside of the fact that it doesn't have a rangefinder / viewfinder and uses auto-focus, it isn't that much different than the M series. This is anything but a P&S. Additionally, I don't really think they failed at all. They only failed to those who think the price is too high and that are sticklers for ultra fast AF. If that is the case, buy a DSLR.
Keith
The best camera is one that still works!
That's a very subjective statement ... conversely I think it's butt ugly which is also subjective I realise! 😛
emraphoto
Veteran
the samples may have failed to impress but there are a few folks out there saying it is "the best image quality out of a compact bar none".
judging the image quality from a sample on the internet is probably not a good idea.
Mackinaw
Think Different
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Take a look at this thread from the Leica Forum. A pic taken with the X1 at 3200 ISO.
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-x1-forum/110192-x1-iso-3200-a.html
Jim B.