Leica Digilux 2

[Ahmad Bhai]

Leica Digiulux 2 (announced 2003, releasd 2004) can i think be considered one of the classics of digital cameras primarily due to its aesthetics, handling and Vario Summicron f2-2.4 28-90mm. Leica by common consent have never made a zoom lens for digital this good.

(Courtesy of Leicatime Luigi Crescenzi : leica cameras leica compur mp elmar 250 reporter leicavit )

Specification Leica Digilux 2: Leica Digital Cameras - Photoxels

(Courtesy of digilux2.jpg - We Do This!)




The first time i held the Digilux 2 i smiled Such a simple idea why didn't anyone do similar in digital land.
Turn on tune in ... select metering, select single or continuous, Automatic aperture on lens aperture ring or Automatic shutter on shutter dial or fully manual, check histogram.

The Vario Summicron 28-90mm manual zoom and manual focus was as smooth as silk and aperture had gentle clicks. Looking through the EVF, manual focusing magnified a rectangle in the centre of the EVF to assist manual focus.
The EVF which although 100% must be said is somewhat dark and not as representative of the view as modern counterparts. Autofocus was sluggish.
Nevertheless taking time the images from Digilux 2 were stellar.


Jpegs at iso100 were as fine as RAW.
Iso200, 400 jpegs best saved for b&w and only if absolutely necessary RAW for colour. With the metering and histogram easy to nail exposure every time. Silent shutter and looks it just made we want to photograph nice things and people reacted nicely to it.



This was my standard colour fidelity test. To my eyes Digilux 2 gave the most accurate colour of any digital camera i have used including Fuji S2 (dslr), Kodak SLRc (dslr), Olympus EP1 (mirrorless). With the 2/3" sensor dynamic range is reduced which can result in blown out skies.



The Vario Summicron had a clarity allied to a weak AA filter.




At the same time there was a naturalness.




Close focus was 30cm.






Ofcourse b&w was lush.



There were two caveats.
The CCD sensor was prone to failure. Leica still replaces this free of charge.
The circuit board can fail. Leica will replace this for approx Euro150.


If fine with these two caveats, slow af, not concerned about shallow dof, dont need lots of details that is happy with 5mp, fine with iso100 (iso 200, iso 400 for b&w), dont need speed and 28-90 is plenty then Digilux 2 even now is a something else.
Only other digital cameras offering a similar photographing experience were Panasonic LC1 (Digilux2's twin), Leica Digilux3 / Panasonic L1 an interchangeable lens version and a while later Fuji X100, XPro1, XE1, Olympus OMD.

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks Ahmad for this super review. Interesting and informative.

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

Welcome Pete

(Courtesy of PHOTOGRAPHIC CENTRAL: Leica Digilux 2- Still A Contender (Updated 7-14-2011))

Three rings : aperture, manual focus, zoom. AF & AF-Macro activated by twisting the manual focus ring to desired.
Automatic (A) on aperture ring is after F11 and highlighted on the aperture ring.

(Both courtesy of leica.overgaard.dk - Thorsten Overgaard's Leica Sites - Leica Digilux 2 sample photos and tests (as well as Panasonic DMC-LC1) - Page 1 of 3)

Bounce flash (Courtesy of Camera Works: Photo Essay (washingtonpost.com) )




Thorsten Overgaard leica.overgaard.dk - Thorsten Overgaard's Leica Sites - Leica Digilux 2 sample photos and tests (as well as Panasonic DMC-LC1) - Page 1 of 3 is the reason i bought the Digilux2.
Thorsten said on a forum the Vario Summicron 28-90 f2-2.4 was as having four separate Summicrons 28 f2, 35 f2, 50 f2, 90 f2.
Since then i have read others say similarly. For this reason i can understand why Leica would wish to make only once such a lens.

 

[Paul Lange]

Nice write up Ahmad, made me wonder if 5MP is really that low. By todays standards maybe but in real terms quite a large image is still possible especially when you consider printer resolution.

 

[Ahmad Bhai]

Thank you kindly Paul

I had the S602z and the later S7000 - superb cameras and both still going strong with their current owners!
I won one of my first camera club print competitions with a 3mp landscape off the 602 - printed at 16x12"

I would hope 5mp of Digilux 2 would print 16x12.


When i was in Red Dot Cameras couple of months ago, they had a Digilux 2 on display. The Proprietor said almost all the product shots on their website were taken with Digilux 2.


...


To add :

EVF shows the live histogram and all the info seen in the photo of the LCD (if i recall correctly ).
Shooting to "the right" (over exp), left (under exp), centre of the histogram whilst keeping eye to EVF and changing aperture on lens, shutter on dial was a doddle.

Although the Digilux 2 was not image stabilised, it was easy enough to hold steady due to its design and size.
The guitar i took inside a shop 1/8, the archway 1/2.
Furthermore as the Vario Summicron was sharp from f2, i could photograph in low light f2 iso100,
whereas with other bridge cameras to have sharpness i would have needed perhaps f4-5.6 which in low light would have necessitated higher iso.