Digilux 3 vs. Vlux: any advice

[Birdysurfin]

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I currently own a D-LUX2 and a Panasonic DMC-FX12. I'm thinking about buying a DSLR.

Leica has a "loyalty" discount offer running now on the Digilux 3 at $1800. I have not looked into the Panasonic equivalent. Any advice about Digilux-3 vs. Vlux-1 would be appreciated.

[spylaw4]

The Panasonic equivalent is the DMC L-1. This and the D3 are quite different beasts to he Vlux -1.

[joachimeh]

VLux1 and Digilux3 are totally different concepts (and price ranges!).

The VL is a very good all-in-one compact bridge with a lot of excellent state-of the-art features brought up to their physical limits.

What I miss is a bigger sensor, what I appreciate is the one good lens, avoiding all the trouble of dust on the sensor etc. But I will never have the choice on that camera to take advantage of special lenses available.

[rjans]

In January I was at my local dealer demo day and had the chance to use the D3 and the VL. I own a DL3. I found the VL nice to handle but it is a compact camera with an electronic viewfinder. The D3 is something completely different. It looks big but I found the handling better. Perhaps this is due to the optical viewfinder and the better built quality.

So my vote is for the D3.

[MJLogan]

In the November 2006 issue of LFI there was a reasonably in-depth comparison of the M8, the Digilux 3 and the V-LUX 1. They tested colour reproduction, resolution, fine-detail reproduction at various ISOs, noise at various ISOs, and depth-of-field control. The article used to be available online at LFI International but I can't find it there now. Happily, I have a copy of the magazine and can refer to it now.

 

The V-LUX performed admirably in colour reproduction, and almost as well as the D3 in reproducing the resolution chart. In the "real world" fine detail test (photographing a bunch of flowers with very fine details), the D3 beat the V-LUX handily. In the noise test, the V-LUX held its own at ISOs 100 and 200, but from there the D3 was clearly superior. The depth-of-field test found, not surprisingly, that it was next to impossible to get any sort of foreground/background separation with the V-LUX unless the foreground subject was very close to the camera.

 

The M8, of course, was clearly superior to both other cameras in the whole test suite.

 

The strength of the V-LUX is obviously the compact superzoom. It's an "all things to all men" sort of camera and, as a result, never quite as good at any of them as a specialized tool might be. If you do a lot of bright-light, long-zoom shooting and not a lot of low-light work--and if the idea of lugging around a couple of extra lenses gives you a backache--the V-LUX is probably for you.

 

The strengths of the Digilux 3 are its user interface (very intuitive, especially if you're used to film cameras) and its lenses. The kit lens has nowhere near the zoom reach of the V-LUX, but it's a world-class SLR lens. The newly-released 25 mm f/1.4 prime lens is even better, and a new zoom with near-V-LUX range of 14-150mm will be out shortly.