Leica C-Lux 3 Digital Camera (Black)
by Leica
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Category: Digital Camera
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Digital product summary information
Manufacturer: LeicaRelease Date: 2009-11-30
Model: C-Lux3 Black
Color: Black
Product features:
- Leica quality
- Sharp Leica Lens
- Easy operation
- Extremely compact size
- Large brilliant veiwing screen
- Serif PhotoPlus X3
- Aperture 3
- Manfrotto 7302YB M-Y Tripod with Ball - Replaces 725B
- Pixelmator [Old Version]
- Adobe Photoshop CS5 Upgrade
Digital camera reviews of Leica C-Lux 3 Digital Camera (Black)
Digital camera Review: Almost perfect. Small size, easy to use, beautiful camera
Summary: 5 Stars
Overview:
Let me start by saying that I LOVE this camera. With that in mind, it's not perfect (I'll explain later). This camera begs you to use it and I've used this camera more in the last few weeks than I used my last camera in a year. The design is beautiful and the camera fits nicely in a jeans pocket. I've been carrying it almost everywhere when I travel. With my old camera, I almost never took it with me because it was just too big.
The camera itself:
The dial has photo and video and there is a switch for pictures/video or playback. The options are pretty basic, but the camera seems quite good at figuring out what to do by itself. It takes almost every picture at ISO 100 or ISO 160. The ones at higher ISO settings (400+) are noisier, but you can also set a maximum ISO for it to use. Image stabilization works well. It defaults to snapshot mode where there are limited options and almost everything is automatic. There is also a program mode that lets you choose and play with a few more settings. The self timer has 2 and 10 second options. The 2 second option is only available in program mode. There are also many more flash options available in program mode. For 95% of my shots, the standard snapshot mode is perfect. Turn it on, point, shoot. For the other 5%, the program mode is easy to get into and navigate around. In general, this is a camera that just wants you to take pictures and not worry about settings.
Performance:
One word- versatile. This camera is awesome at city landscape shots. The lens is fairly wide and the zoom is enough for virtually all of the shots I have taken. The quality of these shots (color, sharpness, noise, etc.) is very, very good even when zoomed in to a pixel level. For interior/people shots, this camera is usually good. The wide angle can be really useful to get the whole room and the flash is good, but sometimes the shots come out fuzzy or with quite a bit of noise. Some of the inside or low light shots I have taken were excellent and others were merely okay. Surprisingly, this camera is quite good at night shots, but you will need a tripod or other stabilized surface to make the most of it.
The 720P video mode is also nice, but the camera won't zoom while taking video. The videos files are large, but a free program like Handbrake can convert them into any form/size you want. The benefit of the video files is that they can be played in virtually any media player. Some cameras use AVCHD. It's a much more advanced codec that results in smaller size files for the same picture quality. The down side is that very few program can play AVCHD and it's a real mess to try to edit. You're not missing out on anything by not having AVCHD.
Comparison with Canon S50.
Yes, the Canon S50 is an OLD camera. It's from when 5 megapixels was considered too much. However, with it's big sensor (1/1.8"), it takes excellent shots. I did indoor side by side comparisons. Sometimes the S50 was actually better and more detailed, sometimes the C-Lux was. The much wider lens on the C-lux 3 meant that when zoomed out all of the way, the S50 and C-lux 3 had roughly the same area per pixel (Roughly twice the area, 35mm vs 28mm, and twice the pixels, 5 MP vs. 10 MP). When zoomed in all of the way, the C-lux 3 shoots the same area, but with twice as many pixels. In the end, I considered indoor picture quality to be a wash. Outside, I prefer the C-lux 3.
Summary:
Would I do it again? Absolutely. This camera is fantastic. It's small, easy to use, the lens is versatile, and the picture quality is very good (though not perfect). If you get this camera, get the Leica case. It's expensive, but the case is high quality, the leather is beautiful, and it's good to have something protecting the camera. [...].
Summary of Leica C-Lux 3 Digital Camera (Black)
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