Rangefinder Magazine
March 2005

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First Exposure: Leica Digilux-2 by Peter Kotsinadelis

Of all the cameras that have come and gone, none are more timeless than the Leica rangefinder. For years it remained the camera of choice for nearly every photojournalist around the globe. With its superb lenses, compact body and quiet operation, the Leica was unobtrusive even in the quietest of locations. But as the digital age of photography began to emerge, many professional photographers moved away from traditional film cameras including their beloved Leicas. “If only Leica made a digital camera like their rangefinder, I would buy it in a heartbeat!” was a common saying among Leica enthusiasts.

With the introduction of the new 5-megapixel Leica Digilux-2 digital camera, Leica users now have a digital camera that operates much like their faithful Leica M-series camera, with standard aperture and shutter controls and a Vario-Summicron zoom lens that continues the Leica tradition of superb optical quality. So the question is, can this be the digital Leica many have been waiting for?

Conventional Features
The Leica Digilux-2 is a rangefinder-style camera designed to operate like a traditional Leica rangefinder camera. The camera has traditional controls with a shutter speed dial atop the camera and an aperture ring on the lens. The shutter speed dial allows you to manually select shutter speeds from 1⁄2000 to 1⁄2, or set it to A for automatic and the camera selects the appropriate shutter speed. As on Leica lenses, there is an aperture ring that allows you to manually select any aperture from f/2 to f/11 in 1⁄3-stop increments, or again set it to A and let the camera chose the shutter speed. Setting the shutter speed dial to A and manually selecting an aperture provides aperture-priority mode; setting the aperture ring to A and manually selecting a shutter speed provides shutter-priority mode. If you set both shutter speed dial and aperture ring to A, the camera is set to full program mode, where it will chose the proper combination of shutter speed and aperture for your exposure with program shift operated using the rotary dial on the rear of the camera.

Also on the lens is a traditional focusing ring directly in the front of the aperture ring, allowing you to manually focus the camera using means of an electronic spot- focus aid in the camera’s electronic viewfinder (EVF) with diopter. Here the spot is basically like using the rangefinder patch in a Leica M-series camera. You can also select autofocus by setting the ring to AF, or AF-Macro for close focusing. The ring in the frontmost position on the lens is a manual zoom ring that provides focal lengths ranging from 28 to 90mm. Although the lens is actually really a 7–22.5mm aspheric zoom that matches the 2⁄3-inch CCD, the lens barrel is marked with 28, 35, 50, 70 and 90mm and the words 35mm equivalent right next to this for ease of understanding for those familiar with 35mm camera focal lengths.

Powered by a rechargeable 7.2V 1400-mAh Lithium Ion battery, the Leica Digilux-2 is turned on/off with a small lever switch on the rear of the camera. A small lever just beneath the shutter speed dial sets single-shot operation, burst mode or review. For burst mode you can select either three or five images maximum within the camera software menus. Several buttons surrounding a large 2.5-inch LCD screen are to select the software menus, display and other functions that appear in the viewfinder or on the various functions, or on the LCD screen. A small cross rocker switch, or as Leica calls it a “direction pad,” is used to set the self-timer or review your images. You then use the rotary dial to zoom in on your reviewed images at 2, 4, 8 or 16X.

Leica digital image of Half Dome, Yosemite	Nikon Coolpix 8700 digital image of Half Dome, Yosemite

The unique built-in pop-up flash design of the Digilux-2 is nothing short of brilliant with its positions for normal and bounce flash operation. A small button on the rear of the camera pops up the flash for normal use, and by simply folding it down halfway, it locks into a 45-degree bounce position. At ISO 400 the flash provides a GN between 26 and 30, depending on your focal length. Should you need more power, there is a dedicated hot-shoe designed to accommodate a Leica SF 24D dedicated flash, or a SCA-3002-compatible flash.

The Digilux-2 has a very good metering system, including settings for spot, average, and multi-segment metering modes all selected using a rotary switch surrounding the shutter-release button on the top right side of the camera. Many times when I review a camera, I find one or two features missing, but in this case I have to say all features one would expect in a camera are in the Digilux-2, including single and 2.7fps continuous shooting modes, rear- curtain flash sync, exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation ±2EV in 1⁄3-stop increments, three- or five-frame auto bracketing ±1EV in 1⁄3-stop increments, and much more in a complete package that is not too complicated to operate.

Digital Features
Although the Leica Digilux-2 has many features of a Leica rangefinder camera, it is truly a digital camera. This new camera uses SD memory cards for file storage. You can set different resolution sizes of 5, 3, 2, 1, or .3 MP with three different compression rates. All generate JPEG files with the exception of a Leica RAW mode that automatically sets the 5MP resolution. The table on page 115 details picture size, resolution and compression as they relate to number of pictures you can store on a 64MB Secure Digital (SD) card.

	At ISO 400, the Digilux-2 had moderate noise.

The SD memory cards are smaller than the more common CompactFlash card and write times can take up to 10 seconds when set to RAW mode. Most of the time I found the camera’s JPEG modes more than adequate for my uses. I was surprised at the inclusion of a video-recording mode in the Digilux-2, something I did not expect in a high-end camera such as this. Although I initially had doubts about using it much, it was fun to take some short family videos that I could email to others who would then view them with Apple’s QuickTime Player program, a free download available at www.apple. com/quicktime/.

Hands On
It has been several years since I have held a Leica M-series camera in my hands, and even though the new Leica Digilux-2 is a bit larger, the traditional placement of controls made it very easy to learn and operate. I started out using manual focus but quickly found AF so good I rarely went back to using manual focus. The shutter release lag time is short at only 94 milliseconds (ms). For comparison, the Nikon D100 has a 100ms shutter lag time, and the Canon EOS 1Ds a 92ms lag.

A welcome feature for Leica users is having the aperture and shutter speed dials in traditional locations with the ability to lock in automated operation quickly. I did find the manual zoom control on the lens much better than automated ones normally found on digital cameras as there was no delay to frame any subject, especially moving subjects where time is critical. The EVF is bright and provides a clear image but unlike an optical viewfinder has considerable lag when tracking moving subjects.

Leica supplies a generous amount of software for image manipulation with the camera. Or if you prefer, simply use the provided drivers and cable to retrieve the images from the camera for use in Photoshop. I found the latter an easier solution for me, and just as easy as using as a card reader. Although Leica recommends using an AC adapter to power the camera when doing this, the Digilux-2 is not a power-hungry camera, so the battery it used never failed me whether using it for photographs or and downloading images to my computer.

The Vario-Summicron lens is first rate and produced wonderfully sharp images. My real question was just how good would the images produced by this 5-megapixel camera with its world-class lens compare to the growing number of 6- to 8-megapixel cameras in the market. To see for myself, I took the Digilux-2 and Nikon Coolpix 8700 8MP camera with me to Yosemite National Park. I took the same image with each using an aperture of f/8 aperture at several different ISO settings. The Leica did very well against the higher MP Nikon Coolpix 8700, and its images were much more neutral in coloring. At ISO 400, the Digilux-2 had moderate noise. I found the best setting for low noise to be ISO 100.

Overall the Leica Digilux-2 is an impressive camera with a wealth of features for the professional photographer. Do the exceptional zoom lens and impressive images justify the hefty street price of $1850? That is something for the photographer to decide.

Peter Kotsinadelis is a writer/photographer living in Pleasanton, CA. He may be reached at peterk727@ gmail.com.