The Leica X Vario - part three - the first results

It's time to reveal the first results. Bear in mind that I was tweaking the settings as I went along. Initially I used the setup I had with the Leica X-U - I'd written a lengthy essay for my records on my experience with that camera - but the X Vario wasn't quite the same animal, as the zoom lens had a different character that somewhat affected the look of the pictures.  

All along the comparisons I was making were not with the X-U, but with the little Leica D-Lux 4. The latter had stood the test of time because (a) it was small and light; (b) it still gave pretty good results for such a little camera; (c) it had a fast zoom lens which went from 24mm to 60mm, and let me take a wide variety of shots; but (d) it had an old CCD sensor of only 10 megapixels, fine for close-ups and middle-distance shots, but suboptimal for far-away subjects or for taking any shot after dark, when pictures inevitably suffered from excessive noise and detail-loss. 

The X Vario was larger and heftier, but had a (reputedly) cracking zoom lens of similar range (28mm to 70mm); and although a slower lens, this disadvantage was countered by a having a capable 16 megapixel CMOS sensor. The X Vario therefore promised to get me better shots of distant subjects, and ought to cope better after dark, despite the slow lens. 

If it delivered, then - finally - I would have a worthy replacement for the little Leica. I was, as you can imagine, very keen to see what it could accomplish.

By the way, I haven't given my new camera a proper name. Cameras certainly have personality, and can inspire fondness and pride of possession in their owners, and may well end up being cherished; but they are not cuddly toys or pets. They are precision tools for capturing what the eye sees, and in that sense become an extension of the photographer herself. The D-Lux 4 has been like that, and has never acquired a name, being simply (but affectionately) known as 'the little Leica'. I think - even on short acquaintance - that this may happen with the X Vario. So for now - and, who knows, perhaps forever - I am calling it simply 'LXV'. 

The first thing I did after popping in a memory card was to take a test photo of my laptop screen, just to see what number the camera gave to that picture. 

It was 1000001, which told me that the previous owner - or more likely mpb.com - had reset the camera's picture counter to zero. So my first shot had become number 1 of folder 0. The camera would now go on to accumulate 9,999 shots in folder 0, then create a new folder 1. Then folder 2 after another 9,999 shots, and so on. All as expected. But I couldn't tell from any of this how many shots the camera had taken before the reset. It could have been a few dozen or many thousands. Leica would have a way of knowing, but they don't allow owners in on the secret. The excellent condition of the camera gave no clue: Leica build cameras to last decades, and if well looked-after they will suffer very little wear and tear. I could however rely on LXV being good for hundreds of thousands of shots, and so in fact the pre-reset total hardly mattered.

To kick off my assessment of what my new camera could do, I went out into my conservatory and back garden to see what kind of macro shots it could take. The way the camera works, for macro shots you set the zoom to its telephoto limit (70mm) and then move in as close as possible. I'd still be several inches from the subject, but getting an optically magnified view which made it seem nearer. It all worked very well. Click or tap on these pictures to enlarge the and scrutinise them properly. Some clothes pegs:

Various flowers and blooms. Some of these, obviously, are crops of the larger original picture - but then that shows how much I could crop into the shot without losing crisp detail:

Well, that was satisfactory. But any camera might do well in bright sunshine. What about indoors, in subdued light? Would the 'slow' lens deliver?

That perfectly reasonable and detailed shot above of my eyes and big nose - a crop of a larger picture - was taken at a whopping ISO 4,000. Whereas the little Leica D-Lux 4 wasn't any good above ISO 400. 

This shot of the little Leica was taken at ISO 6,400:

ISO 6,400 also for this shot of a humorous card pinned up in my shady hall:

There is noise in all these high-ISO shots, but it's largely unnoticeable. 

What about LXV's evening performance? As it happened, that very night I was going next door for a meal with some friends. Proceedings commenced at 5.30pm, with sunset at 8.46pm. Here's a selection of pictures taken through the evening hours. 

That last shot of the laden tea tray was taken at 10.41pm. At 11.32pm I was was back home, and shot this in my hall:

It was handheld at 1/30th second. As there was a good ceiling light illuminating the scene, the ISO was only 640. The image quality is more than adequate - you can discern the detail on each of the things pinned to the board. I think that I should expect a similarly decent result for all indoor shots at night, whenever the subject is well-lit. (And doesn't move much!)

What about evening work out of doors? Next evening I went down to Brighton for a walkabout, aiming for street and seafront shots on the fly. How did LXV do? Next post.