Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/01/10

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Subject: [Leica] Dlux2
From: aaron.sandler at duke.edu (Aaron Sandler)
Date: Tue Jan 10 09:55:27 2006
References: <200601101614.k0AGC37S060339@server1.waverley.reid.org> <67660a596fa5ffc658248486bec7d064@earthlink.net>

Hi Craig,

I have the LX1.  I think it's viable for pretty fast shooting in the 
street...it won't beat a Leica M, but it beats my old Stylus Epic.

I put my first impressions of the LX1 on my webpage here:
http://www.duke.edu/~ahh2/2005_10_18_LX1First/whythiscam.html
and here:
http://www.duke.edu/~ahh2/2005_10_20_NCStateFair2005/LX1_street.html

In answer to your questions:

You can use it exactly the way you describe...the manual settings 
(aperture, shutter speed, focus distance in feet or meters including a DOF 
scale!) are quite easy to do with the separate "joystick" and once you set 
them they are there until you change them...it definitely remember the 
settings between shots.  If you turn it off it will remember the exposure 
but not the focus setting.  If you don't touch any buttons for a while the 
thing goes to sleep, but when you wake it up the same settings are still 
there.  I've developed the tick of half-pressing the shutter button to keep 
it from going to sleep.

Issues with using it this way are:
1) There is a lag of a couple of seconds between shots if you are shooting 
RAW files.  Much faster for jpg.  I still shoot RAW for the flexibility in 
post-processing.
2) RAW files are huge...16MB each...I get 53 shots per 1GB card.  You need 
several cards and plenty of storage space on your computer.  I just 
installed two new 250GB drives.  :)
3) Battery life can become an issue when you leave the camera on for a long 
time as there's no way to turn off the big bright LCD.  I bought a 2nd 
battery.

That said, it's a small camera and I like it very much.  I do miss the M 
viewfinder for composing, I find the LCD (nice as it is) to be a very 
different feel since you're looking at a 2D projection of the scene rather 
than the the 3D sort-of-looking-through-the-camera feeling of the M.  I 
feel less a part of the scene, less connected to it, the when I'm using my 
M.  But it's a lot smaller and a LOT lighter...and digital.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Aaron


>Hello All,
>
>I'm interested in the Dlux2/LXI as it is small and has manual ability. Are 
>there any pro shooters out there using it and, if so, what are your 
>impressions? Is it viable for fast shooting in the street? As in, set it 
>at 28mm, set a hyperfocal distance, and fire away? If you take a shot like 
>under those, does it remember the settings or switch back to auto? I'm not 
>asking what the depth of field is, I'm just asking if it's relatively 
>simple to set the camera manually, have an idea of your hyperfocal 
>distance, and leave it that way for a long period of time without having 
>to restart the camera or reset the controls.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Craig


In reply to: Message from csemetko at earthlink.net (Craig Semetko) ([Leica] Dlux2)