Leica V-Lux 1 & Aperture 2.1.1 … Amazing!

I recently purchased a Leica V-Lux 1 digital camera and compared it side by side with my Nikon D200.

This camera has a phenomenal 35-420 mm equivalent f/2.8-3.7 macro Leica DC Zoom Elmarit lens.

Although both cameras have 10.1 megapixel sensors, the Leica’s sensor is a smaller 4.7x crop than the Nikon’s 1.55x cropped sensor.

Surprisingly, the Leica’s 13″ x 19″ test prints shot at ISO 100 were indistinguishable from the Nikon’s prints.

Differences become more apparent at higher ISOs where noise begins to reveal the Leica’s smaller sensor sites. Using the new Noise Ninja plugin in Aperture 2.1.1, I was able to remove this noise with only some minor loss of fine details at ISOs up to 400.

Both cameras exhibited noise from ISO 800 and more that was not controllable without significant loss of details.

One area where I was impressed with the Leica was it’s compact size. Slightly smaller than the Nikon, it still maintained a comfortable grip with controls in similar positions to the Nikon but fewer buttons!

This is because the Leica isn’t a DSLR and has no mirror housing. Instead it uses and adequate electronic viewfinder OR a small, articulated live LCD.

The lens is zoomed and when manually focused, by gripping the large lens rings. 

BTW When set to manual focus, touching the focusing ring brings up the magnified center rectangle in either viewfinder, making critical focusing simple and effortless. When you stop turning the focusing ring the viewfinder reverts to the normal view.

Several times I found the articulated LCD useful for shooting from odd angles.

But the final prints were so impressive that I sold my Nikon and 37 pounds of it’s ED glass lenses, all of which this under 3 pound Leica kit replaces!

The Mega OIS (optical image stabilization) works well. With it on setting #2, I am able to get sharp images hand held at very slow shutter speeds down to 1/10th of a second.

But the unique part of this camera, which is built by Panasonic for Leica, is it’s incredible jpegs which Leica fine tuned!

Although I shoot in raw, these amazing jpegs become the preview in Aperture 2.1.1. This is a really great place to start from!

But, enough words. Here are some of the photos I shot with it this past week. Note the subtle tonalities and colors. These are due in part to Leica and in part to Aperture!

After testing the Nikon D200 and the Leica V-Lux 1, side by side for a month, I sold the Nikon D200 and all of my lenses.

It was a good camera but for my needs, the Leica works just as well and in many ways is easier to make it do what I want it to.

Aperture 2.1.1 simplified my post processing and now Leica has simplified my camera!

I look forward to seeing the upcoming Leica D-Lux 4 camera with it’s Summicron f/2 24 mm equivalent lens!