The Leica has always been the dream camera for many. Even if the German manufacturer started out slowly into the digital photography era and went through hard financial times, it stands on both feet again and delivers high quality digital cameras that make some of us invest their private pension funds. I’m far away from being able to invest so much money into a camera, but am lucky enough to get them to shoot with from time to time.

This weekend has been a real bliss to me, since I had a Leica X1, a M8 and a M9 to use and enjoy. I’ll let you know a couple of my findings in the next days.

Today I’d like to start with a crazy quick comparison of the image quality of the M9 and the X1. They aren’t really comparable in other aspects. The X1 has a fixed lens, autofocus and is rather a large-sensor compact camera and not a rangefinder like the M8 or the M9. The X1 costs about 1.600,– Euros, while the M9 sells for about 5.500,– Euros. But – as the M9 – the X1 delivers digital images. So how good are they compared to the M9? (Read on after the break!)

Of course you’ll never get sweet shallow DOF of the M9 with an X1, since the sensor is smaller and the lens is only 2.8.
So I’d like to show you comparison shots for detail, sharpness and ISO-performance. I attached the excellent Leica Summicron 35/2 Asph. on the M9 to match the X1’s focal length.
Click on the images to get a 100% view. All images are from RAW, imported into Lightroom 3. White balance was altered in the M9 images to match the ones from the X1. No other post-processing has been applied, NR was set to zero, standard sharpening in LR3 with amount 25, radius 1, detail 25. I think the images speak for themselves and show, that the ISO-performance of the M9 isn’t any better than the X1, while detail and sharpness are visibly better with the M9.

First I’d like to do an ISO comparison (on the left the Leica M9, the x1 on the right, Noise Reduction set to zero):

Base ISO: M9: ISO 160, X1: ISO 100

^ M9 left, X1 right

ISO 200

^ M9 left, X1 right

ISO 400

^ M9 left, X1 right

ISO 800

^ M9 left, X1 right

ISO 1.600

^ M9 left, X1 right

Maximum ISO: M9: ISO 2.500, X1: 3.200

^ M9 left, X1 right

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Now detail. Of course the M9 has a megapixel advantage with its 18MP sensor, while the X1 sports a 12MP sensor.

Detail 1 (click to enlarge):

^ M9 left, X1 right

Detail 2 (click to enlarge):

^ M9 left, X1 right

And to close this quick comparison, here’s a portrait at ISO 200 (click to enlarge):

^ M9 left, X1 right

I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for looking,

Wolfgang