Leica D-Lux 5

I've used Nikons for decades starting with the Nikon FE, and for digital starting with the D70, D80 and D300, and a few dozen different Nikon lenses over the years. On my recent backpacker trip, with a premium on luggage weight, I looked for a light camera that could provide decent quality, and settled on the D-Lux 5. The lens sharpness is absolutely brilliant. When set to silent shutter, there's no quieter camera, even quieter than the Leica M-rangefinders of which I owned an M3. I also have the wide angle adapter which converts it to an effective 18mm f2.0. As many have said, there's no lighter 18/F2 on the market. The EVF is ok. It's not the same as an optical viewfinder, but if you accept its limitations, it's acceptable and gets the job done. To save costs, I bought the Panasonic EVF rather than the Leica. All I can say is, on my travels now, I just take this Leica, and leave the Nikons at home. Incidentally, many people assert that the Leica D-Lux 5 is 100% identical to the Lumix LX5. There are a few tests done that indicate the firmware of the D-Lux 5, and its corresponding JPEGs are better than the Lumix. On the down side, there are reports on the net of the higher degree of purple fringing, under certain lighting conditions, that's visible at higher magnification in JPEGs. I noticed that too, although it doesn't seem so pronounced in the RAW files. With the recent Firmware upgrade, the focusing speed has been made faster.

Best kept secret of the camera world. I have had nikon and canons but was always after more sharpness and I found it at last. I wanted manual and auto and here it is. I wanted to take photos without flash but normal quality of colour and the camera does it every shot. After a life time of high end art photography I wanted something small but not sacrificing quality. Thid camera is great and battery life is excellent compared to some

Fantastic quality photos and as many features as you will ever use on normal day to day photography.

I bought this camera because I had decided that my Nikon D90 would be too large to take with me travelling to NY later this year but i could not bear the thought of a camera without manual exposure control!. I read some reviews and was very impressed with the image quality that this little camera could produce, but nothing could prepare me for when i took the first photograph with it. I had the camera set to dynamic B&W - the image quality was amazing, so sharp!! The fast lens - eg. when set to equivalent focal length of 90mm at f/3.3 - means it is possible to get impressively shallow DOF shots as well. At 24mm and f/2.0 this is slightly more difficult as almost everything in view is in focus. And for all the doubters, yes this camera has produced shots which are just as good as my D90 with 35 1.4

I will most likely be documenting my whole holiday in B&W because it looks so good.

I will say this though - if you do not know what f 2.0 and 1/640 means don't bother with this camera. this is a compact camera with MANUAL exposure control, and if you do not want to use these controls (or don't know how) then just going with a canon IXUS will give you some beautiful photos at a much cheaper price.

my only gripe is that after paying 1k for the camera I also had to pay another 300 for the Leica EVF-1, and the EVF isn't brilliant - it could do with a higher resolution.

Excellent image quality in a compact and stylish body - perfect travel and street photography camera.