communicate :: collaborate :: commemorate

Why is this thing so expensive?

by Volker Weber

50% more than its ugly twin. How hard do we have to slap some designers so they finally understand that their job is to remove stuff, and not add it. Remove the Leica badge and the writing around the lens, and it would be even nicer!

Comments

reminds me of my DP1. I like Sigmas devilish nonconformistic insistence on pushing the FOVEON chip, which accounts for some great postproduction editing options I haven´t seen anywhere else. Raw format required to use it to its full capability.

I feel strangely compelled to point out that the famous three word review of the film I am a Camera, sometimes attributed to Kenneth Tynan, seems appropriate in this context too.

Tynan is said to have written simply "me no Leica."

Chris, you lost me there.

@vowe - Me no Leica could also be read as pidgin English for I don't like it.

In the context of that famous (if possibly apocryphal) review of I am a Camera it is doubly clever as it carries a second meaning - I am not a Leica or more generally I am not a camera - simultaneously flatly contradicting the film title and telling the reader all he needs to know about the reviewer's opinion of the film.

It works here for similar reasons. I don't like it - or at least I don't like the price - and it isn't really a Leica anyway.

Thanks. Now I understand better.

And indeed, this is a Panasonic. Which is not a bad thing. If Panasonic designers could find their ass, or if Leica wanted to actually sell these things to non-idiots.

Take a Picture with the Leica and the Panasonic.
Then compare the (jpg)Pictures.

There is a big difference in the coloring.

Leica pictures have more natural colors.
Panasonic pictures have more candy-like colors.

And you think that is because Panasonic cannot figure this out and that Leica "enhances" the Panasonic device? Dream on.

Both cameras have a Film Mode in their REC menu. There are nine presets and two user modes. You can set any parameters for contrast, sharpness, saturation, noise reduction. What you are seeing is a different saturation level.

I've asked my photo dealer, what is the difference between the Panasonic Lumix Series and the (on first sight) similar Leicas. This was her answer:

The Panasonic lenses are produced by Panasonic, based on construction and optical calculation by Leica. The lenses of the Leica-brand models are made in Solms. The in-camera calibration of the Leica models are based/profiled on Fuji Velvia colors. So there is a noticable difference between the two brands, when it comes to skin tones.

So, Panasonic makes a Leica lens and puts the exact same markings on it, as Leica puts on their Leica lens? And the Panasonic Leica lens is of a lesser quality than the Leica Leica lens?

The "in-camera calibration" is done in software. There are nine presets and you have two user modes. Both firmwares have been updated to 1.2. And although Panasonic makes all of the pixel pipe, they cannot figure out the parameters that the ingenious engineers at Leica have figured out?

Dude, the D-Lux 4 is made by Panasonic. In the same factory, from the same parts as the DMC-LX3.

Ceci n'est pas un blog

vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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