Steve Huff Review of X Vario

[dkCambridgeshire]

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The negative storm has blown itself out, tempered by the great results and positive reviews, the negative comments never had any basis and was mostly perpetuated

by those who did not own the camera or actually held it in their hands.

 

... and their predictable contagious paranoia

 

dunk

[bobbyg53]

Luminous Landscape just posted a report on the X Vario by Nick Rains.

 

Leica X Vario

[Carduelis]

Luminous Landscape just posted a report on the X Vario by Nick Rains.

 

Leica X Vario

 

I saw Nick Rains' original article and you have brought to my attention that Luminous Landscape have adopted it. I think it is a very fair report and have ended up buying an X Vario myself yesterday. I get a bit irritated by the pickiness of reviewers as there is no perfect camera and you have to weigh up the pros and cons before buying one. For me I have entered Leica world for image quality equivalent to a digital SLR in a light compact package that is readily portable. I am finding that just as my Ricoh GXR with Leica A12 mount was delivering this ideal, the X Vario is doing the same but complementing the GXR by offering the convenience of a useful zoom range and autofocus for times where faster paced photography is required. I have just carried out further tests on the X Vario lens this morning and it is good enough being virtually on a par with my manual focus lenses, though with a bit more distortion as you would expect from a zoom.

 

One final point is that I traded in the rest of my digital SLR gear to acquire the X Vario which included a Canon 5D mk 1. I mention this because I was always happy with the image quality of the Canon 5D mk 1 and never felt the need to update to mk2 and mk3. I think it is easy to get carried away with the whirring conveyor of articles on digital camera advances and repeatedly losing satisfaction in your existing kit.

[onceuponatime]

Luminous Landscape just posted a report on the X Vario by Nick Rains.

 

Leica X Vario

 

 

High ISO and Noise

Very, very good. I have no way to objectively compare with other cameras but looking back through images shot on a 1Dx, 5D3 etc, I'd say that this camera is remarkably good at high ISO, certainly as good as any APS-C sensor camera I have used and comparable with many full frame cameras. I shot quite a lot of stuff at ISO3200 by necessity (that gloomy Melbourne weather) and rather than pixel peeping, I got Michaels Cameras to make some 16x20 inch prints on an Epson 9900, and they looks fantastic. I had the images on display at the product launch and the general consensus of those who saw the prints was that they looked amazing for such a high ISO.

 

Reviewers should metion when a photograph is digitally cropped to 100% on screen, it adds digital noise (in addition to sensor noise). More accurate is to print then examne with a loupe.