I started to write a rather verbose sum-up but decided it was better to be more succinct.
After about 1000 or so photos with four/five lenses evaluation, I decided that the Pixii was not for me, despite it being a very nice camera that can make excellent photographs. I've sent it back to Pixii SAS after informing them of my decision not to keep it.
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Okay, the more verbose discussion of what I liked and what I didn't follows now.
What's good for me:
- The viewfinder/rangefinder is clear, crisp, bright, and accurate with all the lenses I tested on the camera. That included the Color-Skopar 21mm, MS Optics 24mm, Pentax-L 43mm, Summilux 35mm, Summicron 50mm, and Tri-Elmar-M 28-35-50mm (MATE). The frame lines are accurate, I have no trouble seeing the RF in sunlight or dark, and it worked well with the Ricoh GV2 accessory finder for the FoV provided by 21mm lens. I more briefly tested the Summarit 75mm, M-Rokkor 90mm, Hektor 135mm, HyperWide 10mm, and Color-Skopar 28mm, primarily to see compatibility with the RF window and feel: all worked fine in that respect.
- The sensor produces excellent quality DNG raw files in color and monochrome. They are sharp and detailed, and easy to render in Lightroom Classic.
- The feel of the camera is very high quality build of good materials. I love the simplicity of the controls presented, it's an easy camera to learn and remember.
- I'm particularly taken with the quality of the monochrome DNG files. They capture a great range of gradation and very good detailing, particularly in FINE mode.
- The use of an inexpensive and easily sourced battery is a big positive.
What didn't work for me:
- The controls are a good design, but their action isn't to my liking. The main exposure time dial is an example: one marking for Auto, the rest manual exposure times, good; but the dial is a bit short and difficult to get my fingers on securely at eye level, and I found myself knocking it off the Auto setting or a chosen manual time setting too easily. Another example: The settings dial similarly has light clicks in its action, but its operation is variable speed so you have to keep watching the settings in the top LCD or viewfinder carefully so as not to overshoot the desired setting.
This necessity to keep watching the display for feedback is one of the worst issues for me. I tend to work my cameras mostly by feel ... the number of clicks or amount of distance I turn a focusing ring, etc. I want to glance at a display to get my base of what I am, and then adjust things by feel afterwards. The Pixii with present firmware does not do that for me.
- The in-viewfinder informational display needs some polishing: the manual exposure readout is a bit flickery, it takes some work to choose the EV compensation readout, the other displays didn't really net much use/advantage to me.
- The top deck information display works brilliantly indoors and when not in the sun or no bright sky above. However, in the sun and when there's a bright sky above, the LED illumination is too dim, and too small, for me to see easily with my glasses on. Since one of the notions of using the Pixii is to overcome the difficulty I have seeing the viewfinder in the Leica CL in bright sunlit environments, I see little sense in trading an inability to see the viewfinder display for another inability to see the configuration settings ... Both can be overcome with the same workarounds (using a deep shade to reduce surroundings glare).
- The Pixii's firmware is still young and immature. Metering isn't 100% accurate at ISO settings below 200; the frame counter is sometimes there, sometimes not; etc.
- The feel and surety of making an exposure is inconsistent. The shutter release button has a very light touch and a quiet audio accompaniment to signal its operation, but out of doors and trying to shoot quickly, it proves inconsistent such that I'm not quite sure if or when my exposure has been made. I lost several exposures due to this issue.
This feel and surety is another critical issue to me. I need to be able to release the shutter and know that the exposure was made with certainty, at a particular point in time.
- The Pixii power management needs work. Other, similar cameras that I have using similar batteries can run easily 250-350 exposures on a charge with little effort to keep turning the camera off and on, etc.; the Pixii takes some management to achieve anything close to that. I found myself running a full battery to empty on every walk, where on my similar walks with the Leica CL or Hasselblad 907x I can go two to four walks without even thinking about the battery, and come back with 2x to 3x the number of exposures. I'm not averse to carrying several batteries, but this seems a area that needs significant work.
- Two of my often-used lenses (the latest version Color-Skopar 21 and the MS Optics 24) are a relatively poor match to the Pixii sensor, where the same two lenses work without significant issues on the CL and even the 907x sensors. This isn't a deal breaker, but it was surprising.
- I had problems with the Pixii app allowing me to see the captured exposures regardless of whether it was connecting via WiFi or Bluetooth. It seemed that it would show some of the exposures, and put markers in for others, but I couldn't really tell what was there. This is another situation where it leads me to mistrust the camera because it limits my ability to know what I've captured, or not captured.
- There are other, more minor issues that I'm sure the next softeware revision will correct, like the difficulty in holding onto settings when you change a battery. As I said above, the software is young and a bit rough at present; I'm sure it will all smooth out in due course.
These issues together made using the camera difficult, and I lack the patience to persevere with things as the camera matures. It's a little too young for me, at the present time, and other choices available promote what I want to be doing more at this time ... which is making my photographs, not developing a camera. I looked at the Pixii because it raised certain possibilities at an accessible price, and I think it a fine piece. It just needs some development and maturation, and it will be there.
But that isn't my situation at present. I need the right camera to do my photography now, not in a revision or two.
The monochrome DNG, Fine mode, of the Pixii was my favorite part of the camera. Set on Auto-L and manipulating exposures with the EV Compensation, it produced excellent photos for me. I've long wanted a Leica M Monochrom for this very experience, and using the Pixii in this mode confirmed that desire for me.
I bet you can guess what happens next. 😉
best, G