Leica Digilux3

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Leica Digilux 3 and the Panasonic L1 were separated at birth. Technically, they’re identical and both are supplied with the truly excellent Leica D-Vario Elmarit 14-50mm f/2.8-3.5 OIS lens as a package.

But with the Panasonic L1 only costing around £1,299, it begs the question: what do you get for your extra £500? As far as we can see, the images from both cameras are identical, so we can safely rule out performance.

On visual inspection, the camera is very ‘retro’ with the traditional Leica Rangefinder look. This theme continues with a proper aperture ring, shutter-speed dial and very easy-to-use metering and shooting control levers. Some have claimed these controls are actually a design flaw on the camera. We couldn't disagree more, as certain aspects of handling are almost perfect. Changing from single-shot mode to Burst mode without taking your eye from the viewfinder is simple.

So it’s all good on the handling front? Well, actually, no. For some reason, you can't shoot RAW-only. If you want to shoot RAW, you have to shoot it alongside JPEG. The other downside is that when you do select RAW recording, the instant review is reset to about half a second – not nearly enough time to see if there are any blown highlights. The only way to view the image is to press the Playback button, which reveals yet another faux-pas – no highlight warning screen. You can still check the histogram, but as it’s so small on the 2.5-inch LCD, it’s difficult to see if there’s any clipping in the higher tonal values.

Image sharpness isn’t an issue with this camera, though. The supplied lens is a lovely piece of glass, with sharpness across the frame that a Canon 5D can only dream about. Equally, the image-stabilising system does a brilliant job. Shots hand held at 50mm (100mm equivalent on the Four Thirds system) at 1/20sec are razorsharp, and this is where the Leica comes into its stride. With this lens and body combination, if you shoot RAW and select almost any aperture setting, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get truly excellent results. If the lens has a weakness, it’s its tendency to display distortion at wide angles. The metering system is pretty accurate, but like almost any camera we’ve used, it can be tricked into either over or underexposure depending on the dominant tonal values of the frame.

The Digilux 3 boasts a live-view facility similar to the Olympus E-330. However, unlike the Olympus, which has a brilliant LCD-tilt mechanism, the Leica LCD is fixed. While we applaud the inclusion of live-view, surely the best implementation of this is to be able to shoot at waist level, similar to a medium-format camera? With a heritage of building cameras that have a propensity for street photography, we’re surprised that Leica has the screen fixed.

One unique feature of the camera is in the deployment of the on-camera flash. This is a really excellent design, as it is a two-way mechanism. Press the flash button once and the head pops up in a bounce setting; press a second time and the flash moves into a more conventional forward firing position.  

At 7.5 megapixels, the Leica offers marginally higher resolution than the previous standard of six, and is some way behind the new ten-megapixel benchmark. In reality, when you print at either A4 or A3+, there’s little to choose between the Leica and most ten-megapixel cameras. Compared to Nikon’s D200, results are as good, if not better, in some areas, although some of our shots did suffer from persistent noise. The Leica only offers one-stop adjustments of sensitivity. Many would like the ability to be able to select 1000 or 1250 ISO without going to the noise-crippled 1600 setting.

Digital cameras have a propensity to blow highlights, but the Leica actually does quite well here. We could recover almost two thirds of a stop of highlight detail when shooting RAW, and equally found that at point of capture it didn't blow the highlights as readily as other cameras.

We really enjoyed our time with the Leica, and its excellent output does instill a real sense of confidence. It’s not without its faults, though, and one of these – omission of highlight warning in replay mode – is inexcusable. The lens is a cracker, although at wide angle there’s some noticeable distortion. However, your images will be tack sharp, the colours accurate and prints up to A3+ are good as anything currently available up to this price. In short, the Digilux 3 is a camera of unique style and substance.