Travel with a D-Lux 6

[Les_Sismore]

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For several months I travelled with a D-Lux 6 through Europe, Turkey and parts of the former Soviet Union. Approximately eight thousand kilometres and ten thousand images later, here is a brief summary of my experience with this travelling companion:

 

The good

· The lens – f1.4 at 24 mm equivalent. Excellent for wide-angle interiors without a flash. Too bad that the f stop is not constant over the zoom range

· The 24mm equivalent wide angle is excellent for engagement in the scene / getting close to the action / getting a lot on the screen (in the picture)

· Exposure compensation works well

· Light weight is a benefit when trekking at high altitude

 

The bad

· The camera strap is gaudy, cheap and nasty, and uncomfortable in use (sharp edges irritate and cut), aka the crap strap

· The absolutely silly lens cap attached by a loopy string that seems to always be entangled with the strap

· Start-up and operation times are lethargic

· Only one SD card slot is in the camera – it is far better to have two, user definable

· Raw files, in Leica’s RWL format from this camera, do not appear to be uncluttered clean raw files – Lightroom shows that they have some prior “in camera” image processing, e.g. sharpening, and there are no camera settings to adjust or remove this

· RWL files and jpg files (if both are recorded) are interwoven on the card. Separating these out for subsequent processing becomes a PITA after about the first thousand or so images

· Deleting a jpg file from the card in the camera automatically deletes the corresponding RWL file.

· The battery life is poor – a fully charged spare is necessary in order to complete a day’s shooting

· The extra cost of the Panasonic filter ring, which should be provided in the box with every new camera, or rendered unnecessary by having a standard filter thread on the front of the lens

· The stupidly inconvenient and sometimes difficult to find 37mm filter size rather than 39mm

· With the extra Panasonic filter adapter ring, polarising filter and lens cap it is too big for a pocket (Mae West would be too embarrassed to ask), so a carry bag or similar is necessary

· The screen is often unusable, depending on direction of the incident light. It is too small to make any sense of the effect of a polarising filter, especially in broad daylight, when this filter should be most useful

· The miniscule, almost flush mounted, buttons on the camera are only visible and legible in broad daylight or a brightly lit interior. A very sharp thumbnail, or tiny finger, is necessary to use them. With gloves? Forget it – the switches and buttons are impossible to find and use.

· The only indication of the focal length of the lens (actual or 35mm equivalent) is a small bar graph with 1X, 2X, etc in the screen. This indicates the approximate magnification from the widest lens angle

· The camera generates simple sequential file names of the form L10x that increase by 1 every 1000 shots, regardless of their position on the SD card(s). File names cannot be changed or user-defined, e.g. ABC, LMN or whatever

 

The ugly

Image quality varies significantly in the various modes:

· P, A and S modes – generally ok, but blue skies are often rendered with poor colour gradation that appears as distinct colour bands. Some colours appear as “haute Crayola”

· Colour mode, high dynamic range (HDR) – ok in some interiors, but outside, in broad daylight (especially in early morning and late afternoon towards dusk) you sometimes wonder “what were they thinking???”

· Scene mode, “Shooting through glass” – amazing colour shifts can be created if you use this mode through the tinted windows of trains and buses

· Scene mode, Panoramic – only records in jpg, with processing artefacts and poor colour gradation as shown in the example below (1:1 ooc panorama, jpg). The shaded vertical bands correspond to the overlap / stitching of the vertical slices of the panorama, and the poor colour gradation shows as stepped / discrete colour bands in the blue sky. Fugly!!

 

The bundling of Adobe Lightroom (LR) with the D-Lux 6 (and other Leica digital cameras) is often cited as adding value to the Leica purchase, especially if you want to manipulate Leica’s RWL format files. The instructions for downloading LR v. 3.2 or LR v. 5 are in the instruction manual. However, if you are a Mac user you might be forced into the additional cost of upgrading your operating system because LR v. 5 requires OS 10.7 or higher. Otherwise you are privileged to download LR v. 3.2, but whether this old version supports the latest D-Lux 6 is not something I have not bothered to explore. Probably not, considering the age of LR v. 3.2. Adobe DNG Converter is an excellent free download for converting Leica’s RWL format into dng for post processing in your favourite software suite.

 

D-Lux 6 for travel?

As your main camera? Imho some of the camera / lens options available at comparable total cost from many other manufacturers yield far better images - with greater user flexibility and friendlier ergonomics. These options become even more attractive if you include the extra cost of the filter adapter ring and the odd sized filters (if you want to use them), the potential extra cost if you need an operating system upgrade so you can use LR v. 5 on your Mac, and the cost of an electronic viewfinder.

 

As a back-up camera? Perhaps you would like it for some discreet interior shots where a flash is not allowed, or is too intrusive. But, being realistic, do you really need to carry a special camera, with leads and charger, for those few special occasions?

 

 

Hope this helps if you're considering a small Leica digital to accompany you on your travels. As always, ymmv.

 

 

Cheers

Edited October 11, 2013 by Les_Sismore

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

For several months I travelled with a D-Lux 6 through Europe, Turkey and parts of the former Soviet Union. Approximately eight thousand kilometres and ten thousand images later, here is a brief summary of my experience with this travelling companion:

 

The good

· The lens – f1.4 at 24 mm equivalent. Excellent for wide-angle interiors without a flash. Too bad that the f stop is not constant over the zoom range

· The 24mm equivalent wide angle is excellent for engagement in the scene / getting close to the action / getting a lot on the screen (in the picture)

· Exposure compensation works well

· Light weight is a benefit when trekking at high altitude

 

The bad

· The camera strap is gaudy, cheap and nasty, and uncomfortable in use (sharp edges irritate and cut), aka the crap strap

· The absolutely silly lens cap attached by a loopy string that seems to always be entangled with the strap

· Start-up and operation times are lethargic

· Only one SD card slot is in the camera – it is far better to have two, user definable

· Raw files, in Leica’s RWL format from this camera, do not appear to be uncluttered clean raw files – Lightroom shows that they have some prior “in camera” image processing, e.g. sharpening, and there are no camera settings to adjust or remove this

· RWL files and jpg files (if both are recorded) are interwoven on the card. Separating these out for subsequent processing becomes a PITA after about the first thousand or so images

· Deleting a jpg file from the card in the camera automatically deletes the corresponding RWL file.

· The battery life is poor – a fully charged spare is necessary in order to complete a day’s shooting

· The extra cost of the Panasonic filter ring, which should be provided in the box with every new camera, or rendered unnecessary by having a standard filter thread on the front of the lens

· The stupidly inconvenient and sometimes difficult to find 37mm filter size rather than 39mm

· With the extra Panasonic filter adapter ring, polarising filter and lens cap it is too big for a pocket (Mae West would be too embarrassed to ask), so a carry bag or similar is necessary

· The screen is often unusable, depending on direction of the incident light. It is too small to make any sense of the effect of a polarising filter, especially in broad daylight, when this filter should be most useful

· The miniscule, almost flush mounted, buttons on the camera are only visible and legible in broad daylight or a brightly lit interior. A very sharp thumbnail, or tiny finger, is necessary to use them. With gloves? Forget it – the switches and buttons are impossible to find and use.

· The only indication of the focal length of the lens (actual or 35mm equivalent) is a small bar graph with 1X, 2X, etc in the screen. This indicates the approximate magnification from the widest lens angle

· The camera generates simple sequential file names of the form L10x that increase by 1 every 1000 shots, regardless of their position on the SD card(s). File names cannot be changed or user-defined, e.g. ABC, LMN or whatever

 

The ugly

Image quality varies significantly in the various modes:

· P, A and S modes – generally ok, but blue skies are often rendered with poor colour gradation that appears as distinct colour bands. Some colours appear as “haute Crayola”

· Colour mode, high dynamic range (HDR) – ok in some interiors, but outside, in broad daylight (especially in early morning and late afternoon towards dusk) you sometimes wonder “what were they thinking???”

· Scene mode, “Shooting through glass” – amazing colour shifts can be created if you use this mode through the tinted windows of trains and buses

· Scene mode, Panoramic – only records in jpg, with processing artefacts and poor colour gradation as shown in the example below (1:1 ooc panorama, jpg). The shaded vertical bands correspond to the overlap / stitching of the vertical slices of the panorama, and the poor colour gradation shows as stepped / discrete colour bands in the blue sky. Fugly!!

 

The bundling of Adobe Lightroom (LR) with the D-Lux 6 (and other Leica digital cameras) is often cited as adding value to the Leica purchase, especially if you want to manipulate Leica’s RWL format files. The instructions for downloading LR v. 3.2 or LR v. 5 are in the instruction manual. However, if you are a Mac user you might be forced into the additional cost of upgrading your operating system because LR v. 5 requires OS 10.7 or higher. Otherwise you are privileged to download LR v. 3.2, but whether this old version supports the latest D-Lux 6 is not something I have not bothered to explore. Probably not, considering the age of LR v. 3.2. Adobe DNG Converter is an excellent free download for converting Leica’s RWL format into dng for post processing in your favourite software suite.

 

D-Lux 6 for travel?

As your main camera? Imho some of the camera / lens options available at comparable total cost from many other manufacturers yield far better images - with greater user flexibility and friendlier ergonomics. These options become even more attractive if you include the extra cost of the filter adapter ring and the odd sized filters (if you want to use them), the potential extra cost if you need an operating system upgrade so you can use LR v. 5 on your Mac, and the cost of an electronic viewfinder.

 

As a back-up camera? Perhaps you would like it for some discreet interior shots where a flash is not allowed, or is too intrusive. But, being realistic, do you really need to carry a special camera, with leads and charger, for those few special occasions?

 

 

Hope this helps if you're considering a small Leica digital to accompany you on your travels. As always, ymmv.

 

 

Cheers

Oh by the way I love mine and wouldn't mind a second one.............$200 bucks then.

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[Northwest Wanderer]

Les,

I think you are doing something incorrectly when using the D-Lux 6. It's a fine camera as stated by many on this site.

As a test, take an image as you have been doing. Then set the camera to auto and take the same picture. Compare the two images. If the image taken with auto is fine, it would be you are not using the camera correctly. Hope this helps.

[jporos]

Les,

I'm sorry that you are not finding any joy with your D-LUX 6. As for me, this camera is my constant companion traveling. Here are some of my traveling photos all taken with my D-LUX 6. I would like to see more of yours...

 

John

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

Les,

I'm sorry that you are not finding any joy with your D-LUX 6. As for me, this camera is my constant companion traveling. Here are some of my traveling photos all taken with my D-LUX 6. I would like to see more of yours...

 

John

Fantastic

[NZDavid]

The D-Lux 5 (the previous model) is also very capable. For ultimate quality, especially at large sizes, full frame or APS will beat it, but it is what it is -- a very capable super compact with a versatile fast lens. Most people will shoot jpegs. They won't bother with filters. I do agree about the LCD -- impossible to compose or adjust settings in bright light. An optical 24 VF is useful.

[MarkP]

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An optical 24 VF is useful.

 

Very much so. I use one with the old D-Lux 4.

[santila]

Learn to use the camera. Your skills isn't polished for this fine camera. Posted photo is out of focus and missing contrast.

[Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS]

Learn to use the camera. Your skills isn't polished for this fine camera. Posted photo is out of focus and missing contrast.

+1

[MarkP]

Before you run down the OP's photographic skills has it crossed anyone's mind, including the OP's, that the camera may be faulty. It should still function as a fairly robust P&S camera.

 

We haven't heard anyone before run down this camera's performance so it may be the camera which is faulty.

 

Les, please post some representative photos.

[stephan_w]

I use the D-Lux 6 quite often when I'm traveling, or on short excursions or walks. As much as I like the compactnes and usability, I have to say that the outcome is very unpredictable, especially when photographing people or other moving objects. For Landscapes it is top, but for the rest just a bit "so-so", especially when you are running out of light. This may have to do with the stabilisation, or maybe even because I'm holding it not firmly enough. This said, I love this camera and I try to understand better what is happeing there

[Rosebud55]

Hi Les,

Sorry to hear you are not getting on well with this super little camera. I use my on aperture priority most of the time and it's just great. Recently I have also used both the sport mode and baby face mode and it's great. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Maybe yours is faulty and you should get it checked at your local Leica store.

Good luck.

Rosie

[jhc]

Hi Les,

 

Sorry to hear of your disappointment with your D-Lux6. I am a recently retired pro photographer with a stable of Nikon's and a large array of of lenses. The only camera I carry with me now is my beautiful D-Lux6 except when I need very long focal length situations and then I use one of the Nikon's with a long telephoto plus the Leica. I must say to you that when I return from a photo session the Leica results are usually astonishing and supply my ugly face invariably with a huge grin of joy.

 

Les, have you downloaded Alexander White's superb guide to the D-Lux6? It's all there and worth every penny.

 

Good luck,

 

jhc

[MarkP]

Hello Les!

 

Where are you?

Is anybody out there?

[santila]

Something wrong with my D6. It takes awesome photos. JPGS directly out of camera.

The OP should reevalute his tecnique or send it in for repair isntead bashing the unit, Nothing is perfect but this camera is AWESOME!

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[NZDavid]

The D-Lux is brilliant, but cannot compete with full-frame if you super-size prints, simply due to the sensor size. 12" x 19" should be good at 200dpi.

[santila]

May be so. But will print brilliant A4 (8x10) size @300dpi on my Fuji ASK4000 printer.

[HeinzX]

The D-LUX 6 is a very good camera, which I virtually always have with me, when I do not intend a special photo session and am just walking around, Of course it is not as

capable as a M or another full frame camera - but within some limits (high ISOs, distortion at 24 mm) it is very useful. And it does not attract Attention very much.

And never forget - the best camera is, you have with you - and the D-LUX 6 you can often have with you...

[MarkP]

Hello Les.

Where are you?

Is there anybody out there?

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica Lux

[rbakhoum]

· Raw files, in Leica’s RWL format from this camera, do not appear to be uncluttered clean raw files – Lightroom shows that they have some prior “in camera” image processing, e.g. sharpening, and there are no camera settings to adjust or remove this

· RWL files and jpg files (if both are recorded) are interwoven on the card. Separating these out for subsequent processing becomes a PITA after about the first thousand or so images

 

I'd like to know more about this particular item... I can't ever seem to replicate the JPEG by editing the RWL file... no matter how hard i try... Do we know what settings the camera applies to the jpegs from the RWL? How does one tell that the raw file is "cluttered" vs. "uncluttered" in Lightroom... Do we know what adjustments are made to the images? Are they constant, or do they change per image. I wish the DNG matched the appearance of the jPEG but still had the information of the RWL.