Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/14

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Digilux 2
From: John Mason <profmason@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:17:23 -0800 (PST)

This seems to be an apt time to delurk.

I'm optimistic that the new Panaleica will be a
shooter's camera and a good one.  My experience with
Panasonic's DMC-FZ1 has been quite positive.

The DCM-FZ1 is a two megapixel P&S with a Leica DC
Vario-Elmarit 4.6mm-55.2mm (35-420mm, 35 equiv.) 2.8
constant aperture image-stabilized zoom.

AFAIK, Panasonic has never built film cameras, but
they've managed to make the DCM-FZ1, plastic though it
may be, feel like a tool, not a toy.

I bought the camera on the basis of several rave
reviews, including Frank van Riper's:

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030807.htm>

Seemed to me that the long, fast, image-stabilized
reach would serve me well shooting concerts.

Turns out that I haven't shot any concerts with it,
but I did take it along a couple weeks ago, when I
documented the jazz and blues marathon at my local
non-commercial radio station, an annual fundraiser.

Terrible light in the studio.  (I was mostly shooting
Neopan 1600.)  With the Panasonic, I was getting
shutter speeds between 1/8 and 1/30 at 2.8 and ISO 400
(the limit).  Results surprised the hell out of me,
ranging from not bad at all to pretty astonishing.

Leica must had actually had something to do with the
lens--the name must be more than marketing hype.  It's
exceedingly sharp, even wide open.  Image stabilizer
worked perfectly at 1/8, zoomed all the way out.

In several of these examples, you can see that the
problem was subject movement, not camera shake:

<http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=352582>

I've printed 8X10s on an Epson 1280.  They look just
fine.  Two megapixels doesn't sound like much, but
there are megapixels and, then, there are megapixels. 
Combine what must be a good sensor with a truly
amazing lens, and you've got a file that will print to
8x10 with no problems at all.

Some things I don't like.  Small electronic
viewfinder.  A tendency to blow out highlights.  (It
does, however, have spot metering and exposure
compensation, which I've set permanently to -1/3.) 
Autofocus could be faster, but, once focused,
shutter-lag is negligible.

Here are the Leicasonic links that people have been
pointing to:

<http://www.letsgodigital.be/en/news/articles/story_440.html>

<http://digilux2.ralfbuerger.de/>

- --John

=====
J. Mason
Charlottesville, Virginia

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