Friday, October 4, 2013

Review: Leica X2


Leica X2: Front View

My SLR , Canon 450D, has become old. For 5 years it  has serviced me really good. It still functions well so no replacement was needed.

I wanted a general purpose camera to go along with SLR. Light weight with a small form-factor. For me image quality is really important. I brought few point-and-shoot cameras and was very disappointed with them. So I was searching for bit higher end mirror-less cameras. After months of research I finalized on Leica X2 - a hand “Made in Germany”  mirror-less camera.


Leica X2: Without Cap


If one word to describe this camera it would be “Beautiful”. It is mostly used for street photography as the lens is fixed to 24mm. People don't get intimidated like they do for SLR

Link to official website:

After using the camera for 3 months here is the review:

There are so many disturbing features:

1          Price: $2000. In this price you can get a medium format Canon or Nikon SLR body
2.       Fixed 24mm prime lens – But this is what you get for entry level Leica and this is not M9 ( Body itself will set you back by  $4500. Lenses can cost you up to $9000)
3.       Multi-point focus does not always work properly. At times the object you focus (auto) will be out of  focus! This is a big flaw!
4.       Simple thing like zooming on an existing photo during playback is not available! You have to remove the lens-cap  to see the photos! How dumb!
5.       At higher ISO ( anything above 6400) the noise is too much to bear!
6.       Low light performance is just “OK” for the price you pay.
7.       JPEG picture quality is miserable (as bad as any point and shoot)
8.       Leica is offering you just 16MP (but consider this M9 is just 18MP)
9.       The Leica EVF V2  viewfinder ( bought separately)  costs $500 ( more than most point and shoot cameras)

Leica X2: Rear View

You can live with those flaws if you see the pros:

1.       RAW Picture quality exceeds medium format camera ( compared it with Canon 5D). No doubt. For a camera this size it is really astonishing.
The APSC sensor is really good in this.
2.       It is light weight but feels sturdy. It comes in two colors silver and black. Silver gives it that classic look. It does not feel cheap like other “rival mirror less” cameras like Fuji X100 ( though Fuji  it costs $1000)
3.       A full charge will allow you around 400 RAW photos – But that is very common these days.
4.       Leica Glass: Elmarit 24 mm f/2.8 ASPH – the most prized thing – is no doubt one of the best I had. Extremely sharp pictures and vibrant colors. I feel saturation is bit bumped in X2.
5.       View Finder function is not available on any other camera  (AFAIK) . If you have time to focus this is the best way to focus on still objects.
6.       Can control Aperture, Exposure mode and shutter speeds just like M settings of SLR.

Leica RAW
Canon RAW

Leica JPEG









Is it value for money? Answer is NO. You pay for the red dot! Anyways value is what you perceive it is. Getting a Leica was a dream for me and it did meet my expectation.

I will rate it 4/5 just for image quality.

No comments:

Post a Comment