Shooters.

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!) weiter lesen

When it comes to a compact combo, this is the way to go. The small leica lens feels great on the Nex, it feels much better than any other lens I’ve tried on that camera.

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Next up for a review are two cameras and one amazing little (and quite affordable) lens – at least for Leica price standards:

The Panasonic GF1 and the Sony Nex-3, both with the Leica Summarit-M 35/2.5 lens. The lens is part of Leica’s “low-cost”- or “nice-price”-line of lenses and can be found for EUR 1.350,– new and for EUR 1.150,– used.

I already did a few shots with it on Panasonic’s GF1 recently and was quite impressed of its sharpness and brilliance. So I decided to give it a real try, not only on the GF1, but also on Sony’s Nex-3. I will use the whole week to test the two small combinations quite extensively and let you know my findings immediately afterwards.
From what I saw on the first pics in a 3 meter radius around my desk, this little Leica lens seems very competent with the Sony Nex (click to enlarge).

^Sony Nex-3 with Leica Summarit 35/2.5 (via Kipon adapter)

^Sony Nex-3 with Leica Summarit 35/2.5 (via Kipon adapter)

^Sony Nex-3 with Leica Summarit 35/2.5 (via Kipon adapter)

Since I got my Sony Nex-3 a couple of weeks ago I have been eager to try lenses from other manufacturers on it. I really love using fast lenses and the original Sony E-mount lens selection didn’t serve me well in this respect.

A couple of days ago I eventually got two Kipon adapters: One to use Nikon AF-lenses on the Sony and the other to use Leica M-mount lenses on it.
After doing a couple of shots with my Nikon lenses (Nikon AF-D 35/2, AF-D 50/1.4 and AF 85/1.8), I was sort of disappointed, especially shooting wide open. So I decided to do some testing, not on test charts, but using a real world subject – the view from my living room.

Here are the results. I let you form your own opinion.
I will do some testing with “real good” Leica M-lenses in a couple of days and see if it gets better – I really hope so. So stay tuned and follow me on twitter to get informed as soon as the new test is online!

All pictures are from JPG:

First there’s a 35mm comparison between the Nikon AF-D 35/2 and the Sony 18-55/3.5-5.6 at 35mm setting.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 35mm.

Then there’s a 50mm comparison of the Nikon AF-D 50/1.4 and the Sony Kit zoom at 55mm.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 50/55mm.

Finally here’s a 85mm comparison of the Nikon AF 85/1.8 and the M-mount Konica Hexanon 90/2.8.
Click here to download the 100% comparison at 85/90mm.

I know neither the three Nikon lenses nor the Konica lens are the best lenses in the world. But the Nikons worked quite well on the Nikon APS-C and Nikon FX-cameras I’ve used. I never saw this sort of bad behavior wide open before. I guess it might be the Kipon adapter.

Since so many visitors come from countries, where German is hardly on the fringes, I decided to give you guys an english version of some of my blog entries. Let me apologise for my English first – I know there will be a lot of mistakes, since it’s not my motherlanguage, but I figured, it might be better than those often funny google translations.

I’d like to start with this real world comparison of these three small competent cameras: The brand new Sony Nex-3, the Olympus E-PL1 and the Leica X1.

Why are they milestones among cameras? Because they are reasonably compact and still have a large Sensor in them, that promises image quality similar to DSLRs.
The choice between those Smaccs gets larger and larger. Photokina is coming in September and a lot of rumors tell us, there might be new models being introduced in the upcoming months.

I wanted to know, which one of the small competent cameras – let’s call them Smaccs from now on – suits my needs and my likings the best? I wanted to do a comparison in a real world setting and not in a Lab. I appreciate technical reviews but figured that only the realworld reviews available on the net from great guys like Steve Huff and others eventually influence my choice making process.
So this comparison isn’t meant to deliver scientific charts, but everyday experience to give you a feeling for the cameras. Technical data on paper and using these cameras are totally different stories.

The contestants

I made a choice of three different brands and three different concepts:

• The new Sony Nex-3 with the 18-55/3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens
• The Olympus E-PL1, which has been on the market for a couple of months and prooved to be a great camera.
• And the Leica X1, being the most expensive among Smaccs right now. I’d like to thank my friend René, who gave his camera to me for a weekend (www.digitalcameragraz.at)

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