X1 preview on DPReview.com

Glad to see that a hood is likely. I wish there was a setup option for controlling whether the lens retracts on sleep of power off - it would be a simple firmware change, I think. I just emailed both Leica USA and Leica AG to suggest it.
 
Long review of the camera without saying one word about how the pictures from it look.

I realize it's a preview but it kinda struck me as the essence of internet camera culture, all about the tool, nothing about what's produced.

Hopefully some Japanese manufacturer will knock off the controls and sell something similar for 1/4-1/2 the price which is what this should cost. $2000 for a APS-C camera when you can get a used full frame 5D with a lens for that? Good luck selling these Leica. Great idea, nice execution, shame about the price. They should get a booth at the next dental convention.
 
Why is the absence of a viewfinder not an issue here when it seemed like it was an issue with the Olympus E-P1? With the non-zoom 17mm lens + analog finder, the Oly would be similarly outfitted as the X1. I just remember a lot of people swearing off the Olympus because of that absence. Maybe they are swearing off this camera too?
 
Well, the Olympus is an interchangeable-lens camera, and an EVF would have made a lot of sense. Here, it's a cinch to add an accessory finder, just one, and you would never have to remove it.
 
Cause you can buy one from Leica for a few hundred on top of the two grand for the camera. They might even make an alligator skin, commemorative version some time down the road.

Leica has made a lot of very good moves with this camera, things that were obvious to anyone on this board- dedicated shutter speed and aperture, duh, assuming the photos from it look good, but I think their pricing is pretty insane. A grand would be a stretch but plausible for a camera like this but two grand is utterly insane.

I would bet the Canon G12 or G13 or Ricoh GR IV or V or Panasonic LX4 or 5 are going to grow big sensors and dedicated buttons at the $500-800 price point. They might even get rounded edges...
 
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Yawn. The same old complaints.

Leica's previous compacts, like the disastrous CM, were well behind the curve. But, as the review points out, there is nothing like this on the market. it's a better concept than the Sigma DP1, a flawed camera with an f/4 lens that cost, if memory serves, around $800. THat was by a company that makes cheap'n'cheerful lenses. This is an esoteric item, made in Germany, it ain't gonna be cheap.

Far more important is how quickly it focuses, and the quality of the images.
 
nightfly said:
Long review of the camera without saying one word about how the pictures from it look.

I realize it's a preview but it kinda struck me as the essence of internet camera culture, all about the tool, nothing about what's produced.
Click to expand...

Dpreview "previews" never contain any information on the pictures because they're made at a stage where they haven't taken enough of them to come to a conclusion, as far as I know. The actual review will be the preview plus the picture part.
 
mabelsound said:
Well, the Olympus is an interchangeable-lens camera, and an EVF would have made a lot of sense. Here, it's a cinch to add an accessory finder, just one, and you would never have to remove it.
Click to expand...

Don't change lenses on the EP1 then. Heck you could buy an EP1, the 17, a bottle of superglue to fix the lens in place (don't do that), the accessory finder, and then another EP1 that you could change lenses on and still save a little bit over the X1.

/extracts tongue from cheek

There are a lot of people here who get very annoyed when the price of a digital M is compared to most any other camera with the claim that the other camera does better and costs less. The argument is that the other cameras are not rangefinders. Fair enough. How is the X1 not a point and shoot?

Cheers,
-Gautham
 
Don't change lenses on the EP1 then. Heck you could buy an EP1, the 17, a bottle of superglue to fix the lens in place (don't do that), the accessory finder, and then another EP1 that you could change lenses on and still save a little bit over the X1.
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Exactly. So what is the difference? Why isn't the lack of an actual viewfinder on this X1 a deal breaker when quite a few people said that it was on the E-P1? The controls on the E-P1 are a different issue.

I think the lack of a viewfinder on a $2000 camera is more of an issue than on the E-P1, as all that extra cash is supposed to buy you heightened image quality. Focusing or judging focus on an LCD held at arms length doesn't seem in keeping with that principle. But this isn't a critique of the camera exactly but a question about the difference in two critiques of two cameras. After all, I guess the AF on the X1 may be plenty sufficient to get the job done. And the added analog viewfinder might make people insanely happy, leather covered or no.

I've used a Leica M .72 with a 28mm finder for years, so I am familiar with the use of an analog accessory finder, but maybe what that really suggests that I am just an antique who needs to get a grip on new technology. Stop worrying and learn to love the bomb, so to speak.:rolleyes:
 
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breathstealer said:
Dpreview "previews" never contain any information on the pictures because they're made at a stage where they haven't taken enough of them to come to a conclusion, as far as I know. The actual review will be the preview plus the picture part.
Click to expand...

Correct, it's just a little hands-on session that they do for a very new camera. The review will come later.
 
Looking at the position of the guy's hand and where the strap lugs fall, a strap is really going to mess up the feel of the camera. I think this will be a no strap camera.
 
jke said:
Exactly. So what is the difference? Why isn't the lack of an actual viewfinder on this X1 a deal breaker when quite a few people said that it was on the E-P1? The controls on the E-P1 are a different issue.
Click to expand...

For me, it's because the X-1 was designed with an optical VF in mind. See that focus confirmation light?
 
OT: For 2K there is a made-in-Japan camera that does focus on the basics, and in style at that: the Bessa III!

Back to your regularly scheduled program...
 
Hey my old Kodak DCS 420 had shutter speed and aperture dials! (based on a hot rodded Nikon F3 body, this was the early one with the five foot long SCSI cable and waist mounted 40mb hard drive). (I actually shot a catalog with one.)

The later Kodak/Nikon DSLRs were really high quality for their day. Kodak really defined the modern workflow and form factor - the Japanese just refined it but for years the Kodak Raw software was still the best.
 
I've always kinda lusted after the Digilux 3 / DMC-L1 because of its shutter speed dial. In fact there is a little part of me that would like to collect every digital camera ever made with manual aperture and shutter speed dials.
 
I think, for $2K, they really should include the accessory VF... if they did I would be far less hesitant about the cost. Paying $2K then ponying up an additional few hundred dollars is a bit rich / a bit of a PITA.

I would imagine that the camera is marketed towards their already existing customer base largely, the guy(s and girls) with the film Leica M's and or a digital M who want a great little P&S made to that standard of quality. You would expect a very high percentage (75-80%) will buy the accessory finder. They could have increaed the pirce $100-150 and just included it... I think they could have won over many more people initially if they had done that...

Then again, maybe a lot of those users potentially already have a 35mm finder somewhere in their collection?

I really do like the visual similarity the X-1 holds with both the M series and the old LTM mount Leicas... that price though, while not a deal breaker is still quiet a lot of $$$.

(i should also add that ergonomics and ease of use is just as important to me as image quality, the external dials on this are a blessing. i've spent 15-16 months away from any sort of digital camera and it just does my head in looking at all of these buttons and menus and trying to wrangle the camera to do what i want.)
 
"Photographers who pine for the good old-fashioned metal-bodied, mechanical-shutter manual focus compact rangefinders of the 1960s and 1970s will doubtless love it [...] Existing Leica users will undoubtably feel right at home."

Yeah right... Who do they think they're fooling?

Vincent
 
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