fotografr Posted August 9, 2013 Share #1 Posted August 9, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) I've used the X Vario enough now to be completely comfortable and familiar with it. In my opinion, it is overall a brilliant little camera. There are, however, two issues that really bother me. One is the way the camera freezes up for several seconds after taking a shot. This is not due to the card I'm using because I have the fastest 16GB SD card available--a 95 mbps SanDisk Extreme (not counterfeit). The other is the inability to shoot DNG only. I hate having to waste the space on my card and having to sort through them during the post. Maybe those issues can be addressed with a firmware update. I certainly hope so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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spylaw4 Posted August 9, 2013 Share #2 Posted August 9, 2013 From what I found out it is not possible to have DNG only with the sensor used, unless that had changed from the X1/2's sensor. The only solution is to use the minimum size of JPG. "Several seconds"? I don't find that problem on mine - as soon as it focuses it takes. My niggles are with the Starwheel position - always getting under my thumb and up pops the EV scale; and I do wish they had added the ability a la M9 to change title of User Profiles, I cam never remember which is which! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
euston Posted August 9, 2013 Share #3 Posted August 9, 2013 I’ve timed the post-shot ‘freeze’ at about 2.6 seconds which is more than long enough to be annoying. That’s DNG + superfine JPEG at 16M. It makes a nonsense of turning auto review off or setting it to one second. However, I’ve found that you can interrupt the ‘freeze’. If you touch the shutter button again immediately after taking a first shot, you will be able to focus and take another shot. If you shoot JPEG on its own, the freeze is much shorter but it’s still there. I hope they're working on a firmware fix. I agree about the star wheel. A button lock would solve it for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
miatadan Posted August 9, 2013 Share #4 Posted August 9, 2013 " I agree about the star wheel. A button lock would solve it for me " this would be best fix via firmware as it is only real issue that I have. I keep hitting it when holding camera and missed some shots as menu got activated ((( be nice to be able to turn off display completely as well if using EVF or optical viewfinder. Do not know if Leica type of company that provides regular firmware updates or not. From what I read Fuji is great at firmware updates, adding features that been requested ))) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
papimuzo Posted August 9, 2013 Share #5 Posted August 9, 2013 In fact, if you push (mid course) the shutter button, you can take picture quasi immediatly, several time if needed. BTW, I found in several occasion that pushing the shutter button is the (only?) way to go out of some situation, like for ex. quitting the Play status. Or when hitting the rotating wheel () when holding the camera... I agree that an update of the firmware should take away this last trouble, i.e. disabling it at will. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografr Posted August 10, 2013 Author Share #6 Posted August 10, 2013 I’ve found that you can interrupt the ‘freeze’. If you touch the shutter button again immediately after taking a first shot, you will be able to focus and take another shot. I just figured that out while shooting last night and it's helpful to know. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardcor Posted August 16, 2013 Share #7 Posted August 16, 2013 Advertisement (gone after registration) I've used the X Vario enough now to be completely comfortable and familiar with it. In my opinion, it is overall a brilliant little camera. There are, however, two issues that really bother me. One is the way the camera freezes up for several seconds after taking a shot. This is not due to the card I'm using because I have the fastest 16GB SD card available--a 95 mbps SanDisk Extreme (not counterfeit). The other is the inability to shoot DNG only. I hate having to waste the space on my card and having to sort through them during the post. Maybe those issues can be addressed with a firmware update. I certainly hope so. Brent, the ability for the XV to take DNG only would not be a problem for Leica but if you are only taken DNG which will mean you can only view DNG on your screen? Can you imagine the time it takes for this to happen? It will slow your camera down even more then now, and for that reason this is why they do DNG / JPEC. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wda Posted August 16, 2013 Share #8 Posted August 16, 2013 While I agree with the irritation of being forced to capture JPEG as well as Raw, the JPEGs seem to disappear when importing files from memory cards into Lightroom. Probably settable in the import menu. I suffer the low-res JPEGs on memory card. Space is seldom a problem for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
barjohn Posted August 16, 2013 Share #9 Posted August 16, 2013 I don't know if you have noticed but the JPG review images at any ISO above 400 look really bad at maximum magnification of 16X on review. At 8x they look fine. Is this due to poor review resolution capture or the high noise in the JPGs? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
beewee Posted August 17, 2013 Share #10 Posted August 17, 2013 Regarding the lack of DNG only option, I recall someone from Leica saying that the XV uses the jpeg for image review as it doesn't take any more time to generate JPEGs than it does to not generating the JPEG upon capture. I presume this is because the JPEG is done on an ASIC. What this means is that there is no gain in speed if there is a DNG-only option while shooting with one exception where you're shooting continuous bursts in which case you might be able to squeeze off one more photo in the burst before the buffer fills. Aside from this, not generating a JPEG image will result in a slower, less responsive camera when reviewing images on the camera. Since you're actually looking at the rendered JPEG images when reviewing on the camera, this means that choosing a low resolution JPEG for shooting will result in low resolution review images on the LCD - even if you shoot in JPEG+DNG. Likewise, choosing super-fine JPEG will result in cleaner looking images when zooming in on the camera as compared to choosing a lesser quality JPEG image. With all this in mind, if you want decent looking images for review on the camera, you're better off just shooting full resolution superfine JPEGs + DNG and taking the hit on the SD card. Use a high speed 32GB SD card and you'll have room for ~1000 shots. If you want more space, then go with a 64GB. Memory is cheap these days so you might as well take advantage of it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted August 17, 2013 Share #11 Posted August 17, 2013 I seriously doubt that anybody would be able to see a difference between a low-res or high-res JPG on a screen the size of a camera LCD. Even the smallest JPG will outresolve it by a fair margin. The embedded JPG from the DNG file which cameras that can shoot DNG only use is smaller than the smallest any camera shoots, yet is ample for the LCD. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
barjohn Posted August 17, 2013 Share #12 Posted August 17, 2013 I seriously doubt that anybody would be able to see a difference between a low-res or high-res JPG on a screen the size of a camera LCD. Even the smallest JPG will outresolve it by a fair margin. The embedded JPG from the DNG file which cameras that can shoot DNG only use is smaller than the smallest any camera shoots, yet is ample for the LCD. If this is true, why the poor quality image at maximum magnification of 16x? Additionally, I have seen images on the back that look to be out of focus but when taken into LR 5 they looked fine. In comparison, RX-1 fully magnified images showed very fine detail. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brill64 Posted August 18, 2013 Share #13 Posted August 18, 2013 maybe that could be fixed with a firmware update, John. Good point. Re the accidental pressing of the star wheel, which brings up the flash menu, I think this error could be improved greatly by fitting an X-Vario grip with the M240 finger loop attached, making the camera less weighted on the base of the thumb when used with one hand. This item should be available later this month. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest badbob Posted August 19, 2013 Share #14 Posted August 19, 2013 If we're talking about image review after the fact, is it true that the review uses the full size JPEG? I thought it would be using a thumbnail or something like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlindstrom Posted August 22, 2013 Share #15 Posted August 22, 2013 Handled the XV very briefly at a camera shop today. Surprisingly similar size to my M9 at first, but couple of minutes later it's obvious it's still a bit smaller. I think it definitely needs the Leica grip for better handling, same as the X2 does. Also from this brief encounter it was obvious that the EVF-2 would be a must for this camera. That manual zoom function together with shooting at arms length is a clear no-go. And the one irritation that was obvious was that, for me, the zoom ring operated in wrong direction Other than that, it felt quite familiar in hand and seemed to be built quite ok. Manual focus was also massively improved over the X2. It's like night and day. XV's manual focus ring works great and the massively improved screen adds to it. I suppose they could have made the zoom longer though.. maybe something like a 24-120 would have been good. No "Wow factor" though. Just felt like a nice Leica in hand. //Juha Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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