As most of you know we don't need a new camera, it's a want. I have sold off my Leica digital a while back. Moved to a Fuji X-Pro & XT-1, with a number of lens. These are great cameras, but I shoot mainly 35mm in full frame format. The 23 Fuji X is a big lens, when I shoot my film M4 it's always with a 35mm.
The 35 1,7 Summilux looks like is great combo on the Leica X 113, for ago to camera to carry daily.
Your thoughts?
I bought one. I was interested to look at the X113 because I already own the X2 and find that the simplicity of controls and quality of photos out of the X2 is just more to my liking than any other fixed lens digital camera I have used, but I wished for improved manual focus control, a little more lens speed, and even a little bit larger body (my hands are on the large side). The minute I handled the Leica X, I knew it was exactly what I was hoping for.
To give you an idea of the simplicity: I took it out of the box, fitted a battery and memory card, and then walked through the menu. The camera was completely set up and ready to shoot about 3 minutes later, without looking at the instruction booklet. Finally a digital camera that is as simple to understand as my Leica M4-2! There are a couple of details in the instruction booklet worth reading it for, but otherwise this is a camera in the film camera aesthetic of simplicity.
The improved build quality and feel, the excellent AF/MF focusing control, improvements to responsiveness, LCD resolution, EVF resolution, and the truly excellent new Summilux lens makes this camera shine. The X2's Elmarit is a very, very good lens ... the X's Summilux is a healthy jump better performing.
A couple of things to be aware of about the Leica X:
- The X lens does not collapse or extend at all (internal focusing), and the body is a bit larger than the X1/X2 (it's quite close in size to my M4-2 body-wise, although lighter). So it carries more like a lighter weight M4 than the X2, which carries more like a lighter weight Barnack Leica.
- To retain the best quality possible when shooting at close range, the Summilux f/1.7 lens is programmed to reduce maximum aperture by closing down the diaphragm a bit. Here's the curve of its operation:
So at sub-4' distances, the maximum aperture you can use regardless of what you set the dial to follows that curve. This is not a big deal to me ... I mean, really, what sensible photographer uses a 35mm wide angle lens wide open at very close focus distances like that other than when they have made a mistake? ... but there are a few folks outraged by this on DPReview and Steve Huff made a big deal of it in his usual goofy review of the camera. (He also moans and wails about the lack of a built-in EVF...) This behavior is well documented in the instruction manual, and Sean Reid's review mentioned it too.
- There's another exposure-related limitation on the X as well: regardless of what shutter time you set, you'll only get up to 1/1000 second if the lens is set to anything smaller than f/3.5. This is due to the fact that the leaf shutter cannot open and close fast enough with a small lens opening to achieve the 1/2000 second shortest exposure time.
Personally, I like the Leica X typ 113's slightly larger size and the two exposure related limitations don't bother me at all. The size makes it a more comfortable camera to hold and work with, and neither aperture nor shutter limitation makes any difference in my shooting at all. The EVF
is a bit bulky, but I tend to use the camera with either a Leica or Voigtländer 35mm OVF fitted instead, just like I use the X2.
G
