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

I’ve had my own Leica X1 for two weeks now and love it (except for the AF).

I’d like to share with you a couple of moments I had the chance to capture with it.
(Click images to enlarge.)

Thanks for looking!

Wolfgang

More after the break… weiter lesen

I’ve been a big fan of the Nikon D40 and D40x at their time. They had great image quality in 2007, were small and handy and it has always been a joy to use them. Their successors, the D60 and the D3000 never really caught my interest, since they didn’t improve very much over the older models.

Three years went by until Nikon introduced their new D3100 recently with an all new 14MP sensor, with full HD video and a couple of other improvements. You know by now, that I really grew out of big DSLR cameras, so the D3100 came in handy for a short review.

Before I got a review sample, I was handling the camera a couple of times at my camera store, but wasn’t too eager to try it. I have still a D3s laying around and the viewfinder of the D3100 was just too small to awake my lust to take a photo. Eventually I decided I’ll still give it a try. Here are my findings (read on after the break). weiter lesen

When I first published my comparison of the Sony Nex-3, The Olympus E-PL1 and the Leica X1 I stated, that the Leica is my personal favorite (you can read the full comparison here). This verdict comes actually out of personal taste and not out of scientific findings. I just liked the handling of the camera.

Now, 2 months later, I got the chance to give the X1 another try. (Read on after the break.) weiter lesen

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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Sie sind da: Kleine, mehr oder weniger kompakte Digitalkameras, die Bilder liefern sollen, wie man sie bis jetzt nur aus digitalen Spiegelreflexkameras (DSLRs) kannte.

Die Auswahl unter diesen Kameras wird laufend größer. Aber welche ist – zumindest im Moment – die richtige? Ich wollte es für mich wissen. Wenn ich dir damit bei deiner Auswahl weiterhelfe, freu’ ich mich natürlich riesig.

Ich war gespannt und wollte mal einiger dieser Kameras in einem Alltagstest miteinander vergleichen. Und hier sind meine Ergebnisse. Da möchte ich gleich mal vorwegschicken, dass es im Internet eine ganze Reihe an technischen / wissenschaftlichen Tests gibt, die ich auch immer wieder lese. Endgültig entscheiden kann ich mich aber erst für eine Kamera, wenn ich sie mal in der Hand gehalten und mit ihr ein paar Testfotos gemacht habe. Dieser Vergleichstest hat also nichts mit Messdaten oder Ergebnischarts zu tun, sondern soll ein Gefühl für die Kameras, ihre Vor- und Nachteile und ihre “Usability” bieten.

Die Test-Kandidaten

Für meinen Test habe ich mir drei Kameras ausgesucht:

• Die brandneue Sony Nex-3 mit 18-55/3.5-5.6 Objektiv
• Die bereits einige Monate junge Olympus E-PL1, die bei Testern für ihre Bildqualität sehr beliebt ist.
• Und die Leica X1, die werder Wechselobjektive noch ein Zoom hat und die die obere Preislatte der kompakten Kameras mit “großem” Sensor bildet. Herzlichen Dank an meinen Freund René, der mir die Kamera zur Verfügung gestellt hat (www.digitalcameragraz.at)

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