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Why from D2 to D3?


jackart

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Leaving aside M8, why to upgrade from D2 to D3????

 

I found only 3 reasons:

- Usable ISO's over 200

- Shooting speed, RAW buffer 6 shots and unlimited with jpeg

- more film-like DOF

 

What doesn't matter:

- resolution is practically the same in 2:3, so no reason for upgrade

- D2 lens is ok for me, not going to shoot birds

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I too am contemplating this question.....

 

1. OIS

2. potentially new range of different focal length lenses

3. Optical viewfinder

4. improved Venus-III chip

5. vastly better images over D2

 

vrs

 

1. Mirror Slap

2. losing an f-stop (f2.0 Sumicron versus f2.8 Elmarit)

3. Heavier (D2 is 705g, the D3+Vario elmarit, I'm guessing is about 1300g)

4. 3x price of the value of my D2

 

 

Looks like my D2 has just become a compact Digilux ....!!!!

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5 MP on a 2/3" chip vs. 7.5 MP on a 4/3" chip. That should be a substantial improvement in pixel size, and Panasonic/Leica are to be praised for not engaging in pixel-stuffing.

 

The leaked roadmap for D lens development promises an f/1.4 25mm prime next year!

 

An optical viewfinder (even if it's a small, rather dim one due to the porro mirror system) is a blessing vs the tiny television in the D2 eyepiece.

 

Better, faster raw performance (although Leica had better fix a flaw in the Panasonic version's software, which lacks a dynamic buffer).

 

OIS

 

Those are ample reasons, I think.

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Indeed, the D3 is a vast improvement across the board over the D2. I just have one reservation (if price is no issue). Switching from a silent, small and lightweight compact to a noisy, bigger dSLR is a step not everyone is prepared to take.

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Jaak remember the D-System started from the Digilux 1. The Digilux 2 was a big step away from the original D1. Leica has only furthered this tradition.

 

I agree with Rob. The D2 is a very stealthy camera.

 

Ed if my memory serves me the evolution chart posted some months back showing the Pana L1 lenses coming down the pike the primes were listed for 2007. Though the 25mm(?) prime may have been listed to possibly be announced late 2006.

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Has anyone had any information as to the likely availability of the D3 at Photokina. I sold my D2 about 6 months ago and I am suffering withdrawal symptoms. The Sony R1 I am using takes very good photos but it is a nasty plasticy thing plus it has no IS.

 

Wilson

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I shall wait till the primes and smaller lens surfaced before I decide. At an SLR level, I've just so many choose...

Yes, that's why I am pondering skipping the D3 altogether and going the "heretic" way from D2 to 5D (full-frame Canon dSLR). :rolleyes:

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well~ I'm still thinking as well... Somehow for me my Digilux2 is a forever camera, but I also have E1...

 

Not to upgrade:

- Digilux3 is heavier

- Digilux3 has only 1 lens to use now

- Digilux2 is Summicron

- 5MP is good enough (Both Digilux2 and E1)

- Digilux2 looks nicer (somehow the lens on Digilux3 plus the body looks strange to me)

- Not so interesting lens roadmap except 25mm Summilux, but that's next year

- ... ... I have E1 already...

- I don't know about Digilux3, but E1's auto-focus is really bad, slower than Digilux2...

- ... ... I already has the same focal length lens (14-54)

 

Reason to upgrade:

- OIS

- Optical viewfinder

- Better white balance

- Leica Lens

 

So... for me... Maybe I won't buy it...

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While the Digilux moniker has been applied to a very diverse range of cameras, each dramatically removed from the previous, Leica really hit on something new, yet very philosophically Leica like with the Digilux 2 and now has lost it with the Digilux 3.

 

The Digilux 2 opened up new doors and photographic possibilities that could be applied to and compliment Leica’s traditional domain of reportage type photography. Silent non-obtrusive operation, immediate interaction, compactness and an enhanced ability to capture live action at non-eye level perspectives.

 

Will a Digilux 4 be as equally different as a photographic tool from the Digilux 3? Would Leica then abandon the SLR approach for something as equally diverse, or will they let it settle down and learn to refine and enhance what they have rather than take a reinventing the wheel approach? This has all been very un-Leica like.

 

Leica did not need to reinvent the Digilux. They had a diamond in the rough already. The new and exciting capabilities discovered just needed to be polished, not discarded.

 

While the new Digilux 3 finally provides Leica with an needed auto-focus SLR solution, this is not the role that I believe the Digilux label was to assume. One valid solutions was simple sacrifice for another.

 

I, myself will be transitioning to a M8 system. Originally, I had transitioned from a SLR setup to a M2 setup but I found it just, if not more liberating in going from the M2 to the Digilux 2. Back to the future.

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indeed I think the name is a little misplaced

and it leaves no room for a issue resolved Digilux 2 which I would have preferred

give as much as what 7 or 8Mp

maybe an interchangeable lens to 4/3, maybe, or just a tad wider fixed zoom

or just plain deal with the noise and offer higher iso and a free LCD

so I suppose the M8 is the ultimate upgrade as was pointed out

 

Riley

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Exactly my thoughts, Geoff. Digilux 2 has been fine, uniquely Leica product. It deserved refinement, beefing up and updating - not replacement. Switching an entire concept to a dSLR was a sad miss on the part of Leica Camera. I think that the D3 is an excellent product, but it doesn't belong in the Digilux line. :confused: Perhaps they didn't want people to be distracted from their new digital "M" line?...

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For many reasons I doubt I will upgrade my D2. Where it fails to meet specific requirements I resort to scanning my M3, M6 and CM slides which give far superior results to any currently available and affordable digital camera.

 

You can tell that I am a conservative photographer who enjoys using tried and tested well-proven equipment.

 

David

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Why it comes up to the current D3? It is Panasonic which holds the product development of this line. And their interest is on 4/3 DSLR rather than a compact D2 refinement, IMHO.

 

D2 will be a classic of its own niche, one of a kind, maybe right until Leica launches its own Digital CL/CM, if even they plan to in future.

 

Best

Matthew

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"For many reasons I doubt I will upgrade my D2." Neither will I as there is nothing to upgrade to##!!!!. As far as I am concerned the camera is a DSLR and they can call it a D2.8765 for all I care but it's not a upgrade and a completly different camera. Atleast the D1 and D2 were members of the same genus

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