new at photography

[homelife96]

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i'm new to photography but i was thinking of buying a leica d-lux3. i looked at picture quality and i was impressed by it. the only thing is noise problems i read. anyway some questions i have are is if i was to buy this is it worth the 600 dollars or is something else out there thats better. ive always heard of leica being the best all around cameras. also is the dlux4 going to be coming out soon. hopefully with upgrades of current dlux3. thanks

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[Guest malland]

Well, this D-Lux 3 Leica is really the Panasonic LX2, with slightly different firmware for JPGs; if you shoot RAW it's the same camera. It's a good camera but the new Ricoh GX100 is substantially better for the following main reasons:

 

• The "stepped" zoom facility, which allows you to step through from 24 to 28, 35, 50 and 75mm EFOV in discrete steps, makes it feel that it's the equivalent of having a camera with five prime lenses. You're then shooting at the same focal lengths that you get to know if you don't already. It's a brilliant idea and it's surprising that, in all these years of production of zoom lenses, no other manufacturer has thought of this.

 

• The GX100 file quality is better: the D-Lux is virtually unusable at ISO 1600, because even in RAW, there is some in-camera smoothing which results in "smearing"; and at ISO 800 the files from the D-Lux 3 is a hit or miss affair.

 

• The removable electonic viewfinder is quite good — even though some people prefer an optical viewfinder — and is much better than other EVF with which I'm familiar, those of the V-Lux 1 and Digilux 3. Moreover it can be tilted up so that you can look down into it when taking low-angle shots. It displays all the shooting information that is available on the LCD and of course has 100% coverage of the frame. In my view this is also a brilliant solution. The D-Lux 3 has no viewfinder; nor does it have a hotshoe where an external optical viewfinder can be mounted.

 

• The GX100 has better-designed controls than the D-Lux 3, although the latter's are fairly good.

 

I have both the GX100 and the D-Lux 3 right now and will probably sell the latter. I have felt that the Ricoh GR-D and GX100 are cameras that Leica could or, rathert, should, have designed if it were an innovative company and had the R&D funds. You can look at my Tokyo series of 28 photographs — the Tsukiji fish market pictures were taken with the GR-D and all the others with the ZX100:

 

Mitch Alland's slideshow on Flickr

 

And the Ricoh site with GX100 information is here:

 

Products & Solutions / Caplio GX100 | Ricoh Global

 

Sean Reid's (pay) site has excellent detailed reviews of both cameras and it would be worth it for you to read them, considering the cost of the cameras:

 

http://www.reidreviews.com/

 

—Mitch/Bangkok

[mrtaber]

Mitch,

 

You have me intrigued. Is the Ricoh supported by Lightroom or Aperture? (I have both, still deciding on which). The Ricoh's RAW files are DNG, but sadly, unless the camera is listed as supported, quite often, DNG or not, it won't import into those programs.

 

Mark

[Guest malland]

The Ricoh GX100 works with Lightroom and Photoshop, which both use ACR, LightZone, SILKYPIX, Raw Developer, but probably not Aperture.

 

—Mitch/Bangkok

[mrtaber]

Thanks very much. I *am* intrigued. Hmmm.

 

Mark

[wda]

... I have felt that the Ricoh GR-D and GX100 are cameras that Leica could or, rathert, should, have designed if it were an innovative company and had the R&D funds. You can look at my Tokyo series of 28 photographs — the Tsukiji fish market pictures were taken with the GR-D and all the others with the ZX100:

 

—Mitch/Bangkok

 

Mitch, you make some interesting points. I use the GRD a lot with success. You may recall that Ricoh actually made the GR lens (essentially the same in the GRD) with a Leica fitting and it was sold for Leica cameras. I particularly agree with you comments on handling. The GRD feels more like a Leica than many current PanaLeicas and I specially admire the ergonomics and controls. They are in a class of their own.

 

David