grober Posted April 11, 2007 Share #1 Posted April 11, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) As a four-decade Leica M-shooter, I always pooh-poohed and successfully avoided using SLRs as my "weapon of choice" although I continue to mantained a Pentax film system for infrequent long-tele or macro work. When Leica announced the Digilux 3 (built by Panasonic), I politely yawned but pursued my preferred Leica dealer for an early (and sucessful!) position on his M8 list last November. Today, for the first time, I handled the Leica D3. In short: I was completely surprised and very impressed. So here's the idea baking away in the rear of my ever-fertile brain: what are the issues if I were to select the D3 as a backup to my M8. Hey, gang, the D3 with a lens is 50% of the cost for that second M8 body. That's compeling enough to seriously consider. Your thoughts? Please, let's not stagger through the boring nits and bits of one technology over the other. Just give us your broad brush impressions about potentially using both these cameras in a tag-team operation where the M8 is still the primary with the D3 playing a supporting role. Would this duo drive me completely nuts or just might it work? (Think weddings, family groups, portraiture and light industrial work.) -g Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 11, 2007 Posted April 11, 2007 Hi grober, Take a look here Leica D3 as backup for the M8? Thoughts?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
dugby Posted April 12, 2007 Share #2 Posted April 12, 2007 I think you've come to a similar conclusion as myself on the D3. Being a 30+ yr veteran of rangefinders/SLR and more recently a D2, I have money ready to buy a M8.......But as I live in quite a remote part of the world.....and the nearest 'reasonable' Leica service center....being 10,000km to Solms.... I've opted to "watch this space"....on the M8. I have recently used an M6, Blad and OM4 and D2 and can say that the L1 I bought whilst my D2 was in the Solms hospital (for me was a 8 week visit)....... is surprisingly very Leica - like. As I've stated previously the shutter sound of a D3 is a "click-wizz" sound, whereas the M6 I last used was "click".....the click part sound is similar. There will be a bunch "RF eees" who will pooh-pooh this notion. I make no claim that the images are equal,....however those from the D3/L1 Vario-Elmarit lens are very very good. (Particularly those JPEGs generated from the RAW images). The 1st sample images of the 25mm f1.4 Summilux look like they may well give some M Summiluxes a real challenge. The Olympus D 7-14mm images displayed so far are quite exquisite (see pbase.com) for these. Interestingly the L1, just got some new Firmware this week, ie V2.0 and Panasonic Engineers waved their magic wand over what I initially considered was quite 'bad' in-camera generated jpegs. Despite Panasonic not documenting this.....I feel that the new FW seems to have cleaned up the in-camera JPEGs. So given the lesser price of the D3/L1, I feel it does make a sensible backup / alternative to an M8, on the understanding that it is a lower cost camera....that takes superb shots Be interesting to read the followup on this thread to see those opinions who have an M8 and who've really used a D3/L1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kissov Posted April 12, 2007 Share #3 Posted April 12, 2007 Dpreview has just posted an indepth look at the Panasonic version of the Digilux 3, an interesting read, and Walmart in the US has them for $1600.00. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted April 12, 2007 Share #4 Posted April 12, 2007 I like the D3 quite a bit and it may be a good choice for you. My backup for the M8, however, is an Epson R-D1. Cheers, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wattsy Posted April 12, 2007 Share #5 Posted April 12, 2007 Hey, gang, the D3 with a lens is 50% of the cost for that second M8 body. If the price is as close as that I'd think I'd rather squeeze the extra from somwhere and get the second M8. Personally, I think a back-up should be quite similar to the camera it is backing-up. In the case of the M8 I think this means another M8, a film M body or an RD-1 (though the latter does mean carrying a bunch of different batteries and charger). My own choice at the moment is an M7 but I will probably migrate to another M8 at some point this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grober Posted April 12, 2007 Author Share #6 Posted April 12, 2007 Good thoughts by all. Thanks! I'll check out the Panasonic information provided. Yes, I have a film body, the Bessa R2M, standing by as a "poor man's backup" to the M8. But the more I shoot and learn digital, I'm thinking I'd be better off with a digi-cam as a secondary camera. (Sorry, Mr. Gandy.) Recently, eBay carried a used M8 that sold for $4K but I'd be very careful before buying a used Leica at that price level without a legitimate warranty. I'm very wary of the Epson since its clear their support is zilch. The $2500 D3 or, perhaps, the $1600 Panasonic version may be in our future. Any thoughts about how to achieve a consistent white balance "look" between the M8 and D3 if they were both used on the same shoot? I'm only beginning to understand how difficult this may be. (The D3 and/or Panasonic "equivalent" doesn't come with C1, does it?) -g Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
spylaw4 Posted April 12, 2007 Share #7 Posted April 12, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) Good thoughts by all. Thanks! [snip]...............[/snip] Any thoughts about how to achieve a consistent white balance "look" between the M8 and D3 if they were both used on the same shoot? I'm only beginning to understand how difficult this may be. (The D3 and/or Panasonic "equivalent" doesn't come with C1, does it?) -g The L1 with the v2 firmware (extra over V1.1) has many options for manually setting WB by colour temperature - not just pre-sets. Neither L1 nor D3 come with C1 - Silkypix 2.0 SE is provided - but see the dpreview for a comparison with Adobe Camera RAW. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riley Posted April 12, 2007 Share #8 Posted April 12, 2007 i think RD1 is a more sensible option mostly because it takes the same lenses D3 is a good well featured camera but it requires investment into 4/3 as a system to get the best out of it no bad thing in itself, just different Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirvine Posted April 12, 2007 Share #9 Posted April 12, 2007 I can understand your concerns about Epson support on the R-D1, but my experience has been that it is a very reliable camera that always fires up when I need it to, accepts M lenses, and takes pictures that rival the M8 with only a slight hit on resolution and hence sharp details. We're talking the difference between 'super' and 'superlative'. Also, the Epson actually has some advatanges over the M8 in terms of easy access to manual analog controls for ISO, white balance, exposure compensation. It has a 1:1 finder, rotating LCD, etc. At around $1500 refurbished or less used, it's a good backup for an M8. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbarker13 Posted April 12, 2007 Share #10 Posted April 12, 2007 I just picked up (waiting for the mail to deliver it) a used R-D1 as a backup. As others have said, I really want to be able to use the same lenses that I use for the M8. I used one for about a year before getting my M8. Wish I hadn't sold it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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