If not D-Lux 3, then what?

[dante]

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I am going to Brazil in a few weeks and probably can't haul a camera bag in a lot of places I am going. I was looking at the D-Lux 3, and my questions are:

 

(a) how pocketable is it (i.e., is it significantly smaller than an M camera),

 

( how long does it take to power up, and

 

© is there anything else on the market that is its size or smaller that takes RAW files and also has a shoe for an optical finder?

 

Thanks

Dante

[Guest malland]

The D-Lux 3, 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 you may wish to consider the new Ricoh GX100, which 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. On my flickr site, whose url is below my signature you can see pictures with both cameras: the GX100 pictures are on pages 1-5; the D-Lux 3 pictures are on pages11-12.

 

Sean Reid has good evalutions of both cameras on his (pay) site; and his views, which are worth reading, are similar to mine.

 

—Mitch/Paris

Flickr: Photos from Mitch Alland

[Maggie_O]

and at ISO 800 the files from the D-Lux 3 is a hit or miss affair.

 

Mitch is pretty much on the ball, with the single exception of ISO 800 files from the D-Lux 3. It takes a little while, but pretty soon you get so that you can shoot ISO 800 files that are consistently fine. Many of my favorite D-Lux 3 photos are ISO 800 now.

 

If I were buying today, I'd have a hard time making the choice, as the Ricoh wins on features, but the D-Lux 3 has some fantastic glass and the 16x9 format is, to me, very appealing.

 

Here's a collection of photos taken with my D-Lux 3.

 

That said, now that I've got a couple of external viewfinders, the Caplio would be very, very tempting.

[nhmitchell]

Maggie:

 

Wow. You're night shots are great, particularly the dancing/fighting sequence. Very impressive! Please share some insights into how you are shooting these and what settings you are using on the D-Lux 3.

 

Thanks so much,

 

Nick

[Maggie_O]

Thank you, Nicholas!

 

The settings I used on the night shots in Southwark are a bit counter-intuitive: I shot JPEGs (the RAW buffer is too slow for the sort of quick shooting I was doing) at ISO 800, with the in-camera noise reduction set to its lowest setting. I had the image stabilizer set to its #2 setting, where it only applies OIS when the exposure is made. I used program mode and the autofocus that night, though I've often used a zone prefocus on manual for similar work.

 

I use the LCD to get a rough idea of the framing and sort of keep one eye on the screen ad one eye on the action in front of me. It's a bit weird at first, but I got used to it fairly quickly. I think Mitch works in a similar way with his Ricoh GR-D.

 

For the B&W shots, I would use either Photoshop's channel mixer or, if it worked for the shot, iPhoto's saturation slider- I'd just slide it all the way to the left and desaturate the photo. Most shots were sharpened in iPhoto (which uses the same code as Apeture, BTW) anywhere from 10-50% along the slider. I avoid NR like bird flu, because I like the grain-like texture of the noise.

 

I like my D-Lux 3 and the way it draws on the small sensor so much that I used it exclusively in Berlin, as I felt that sort of image captured the spirit of the city better than the smoother style of my M8. Horses for courses, wot?

 

Thanks again for the kind words!

[Guest malland]

Maggie, I've now had a chance to look at your pictures and must say that you're doing the ISO 800 thing very well, expecially in colour — and bravely, I must say, in he light of the extent of pixel-peeping there is these days: I was walking the other das in the Marais section of Paris and came cxross a gallery with some beautiful silver prints by various photographers, including Flor Garduno. Most of these prints were photographed on fast film, probably Tri-X andhad the type onf imperfections, grain and cmpressed shadows, for example, that the pixel-peepers rail against.

 

Although I like your ISO 800 shots but stil like the grain somewhat better at this speed from the Ricoh GR-D, which you've seen in the Tsukiji fish market pictures of my Tokyo series (the other pictures of the series are taken wirh the GX100):

 

Mitch Alland's slideshow on Flickr

 

Since we last correspended on this subject I've started to sharpened even much more aggresively than I did before, when I applied Usharp Mask at 20/50/0 once or twice to bring out mid-tone contrast. Now I add another unsharp mask layer at 100/5/20, although sometimes I pull back on the 5 to 1.5 - 2.5. The following picture, shot at ISO 400 with the GX100, uses 20/50/0 twice and also 100/5/20:

 

 

 

 

... as does the following one, shot also with the GX100 at ISO 100:

 

 

 

 

I started using the agressive 100/5/20 move when I compared the JPG of a landscapethat had a lot of detail shot with the GX100 to my RAW version, and found that I could only get the look of the JPG with this much sharpening. The GX100 files seem to be a little softer than those of the GR-D, whose files are probably also a bit sharper than those of the DLux 3. You might want to try this type of sharpenign and see the results you get. If you get a chance to try this please let me know.

 

Incidemtally, the above pictures are "developed" and processed in LightZone, whose Sharpen tool uses the same calibration as Unsharp Mask in Photoshop.

 

—Mitch/Paris

Flickr: Photos from Mitch Alland

[dugby]

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Dante, on a recent trip to Brazil, I took a compact APS camera, rather than my SLR. and can say I felt much more comfortable without my SLR. I presume you are already aware of the self-security concerns that a foreigner in Brazil should prepare for.

 

The above concerns of D-Lux3 digital noise, has been discussed previously, whereby the older D-Lux2 suffered to a lesser extent. There are some interesting comparisions of the same scenes capture by both LX1 and LX2, the "genetic donors" of both the above cameras on pbase(dot)com as seen here:

<http://www.pbase.com/viztyger/camera_specs>

 

I bought a D-Lux2 instead of a D-Lux3 for these reasons.

[lesh]

Dante - how pocketable?....depends on how capacious your pockets are - my solution is a small soft cheapo case with a belt loop, it's then just a little bulkier than a cell phone on your hip.

 

Maggie - super pics, you have a great eye for a shot - quite a collection, the sheer number suggesting you have a low rate of discards. Must give iso800 a try - is your approach switch to that when the sun goes down? Intrigued to see that the Borough Market has become a centre of yuppiedom.......and how do you find such cool accomodation in Lon/Paris?

 

....and yes wouldn't it be great if there was an evf attachment for the D-Lux like the Ricoh has.

[Maggie_O]

Maggie, I've now had a chance to look at your pictures and must say that you're doing the ISO 800 thing very well, expecially in colour — and bravely, I must say, in he light of the extent of pixel-peeping there is these days: I was walking the other das in the Marais section of Paris and came cxross a gallery with some beautiful silver prints by various photographers, including Flor Garduno. Most of these prints were photographed on fast film, probably Tri-X andhad the type onf imperfections, grain and cmpressed shadows, for example, that the pixel-peepers rail against.

 

Thanks, Mitch!

 

As for bravery, I owe some of that to you, as you were the person who turned me on to Harry Gtuyaert's work. Seeing his photos reminded me that the picture is the point of photography and that noise (or grain) is/can be as beautiful as any other pictorial element, if used with intent and mindfulness.

 

Here's the link Mitch gave me:

 

Magnum Photos :: Magnum Ad

 

I heartily endorse taking a look at Harry Gtuyaert's work.

[Maggie_O]

Maggie - super pics, you have a great eye for a shot - quite a collection, the sheer number suggesting you have a low rate of discards. Must give iso800 a try - is your approach switch to that when the sun goes down? Intrigued to see that the Borough Market has become a centre of yuppiedom.......and how do you find such cool accomodation in Lon/Paris?

 

Thanks!

 

Yeah, I pretty much switch to ISO 800 after dark and shoot at either ISO 100 or ISO 400 during the day, depending on light and situation.

 

You know, we found the apartments from a couple of different short-let apartment websites. I forget which site got us which, though. Michael is the travel and accommodation guru; I just shoot the photos!