Two years of snapping with LXV

Today is the second anniversary of LXV arriving at my front door, and being put to immediate use as my main camera. 

This is my Leica X Vario, launched in June 2013 and the world's first APS-C camera with a fixed zoom lens. I have its factory certificates. Mine completed its meticulous checking process at Wetzlar in Germany on 29th November 2013. It then found its way into its first owner's hands. I can't tell from the documentation who that was, nor where they lived, but on 16th May 2022, at breakfast time, LXV appeared on the website of Brighton-based mpb.com. I was travelling back home in my caravan on that day, and although interested I needed to hitch up and get going. But I took a closer look at lunchtime, while parked in a Hampshire layby. LXV was priced at a modest £599 because mpb.com reckoned it was only in 'good' condition. But it looked better than that. I snapped it up while still in that layby, having already seen other good-condition X Varios sell astonishingly fast. 

I did the right thing. LXV turned out to be in excellent condition, with only a dent in its metal accessory lens hood cap to bring it down. That dent was of no consequence, as I've never used the hood cap. But because of that damage to it, I got a Wetzlar-made Leica cheaply, saving perhaps £200. Lucky me! A lesson in the benefits of not dithering. I've always thought that if I'd waited until I got home, the camera would have gone, sold to somebody else.  

LXV's serial number is 4794548, and my own researches into X Vario serial numbers - I maintain a spreadsheet of cameras spotted for sale on the Internet, as Leica themselves do not publish production information - suggest that it was one of 4,000 cameras initially made. Not many more followed. Indeed, I think that altogether only 5,000 X Varios were ever manufactured. So although not rare, it's a decidedly uncommon camera. I don't think I'll ever come across somebody else using another Leica X Vario. Flickr hosts billions of photos, but I seem to be the only person in the world who, in 2024, is constantly uploading pictures taken with a Leica X Vario. I conclude that most of them languish in collectors' cabinets, and are rarely touched. A pity; they make very good cameras for travel and street photography. And they have that currently-fashionable retro vibe in spades.  

A few are always available for sale online - mostly in good or excellent condition, because they haven't been used enough to collect knocks and scrapes. The prices asked vary between £500 for beat-up examples to £3,000 for 'mint' cameras, the upper end of this price range signifying an as-new model that has allegedly never been taken out of its box. 

Quite often the seller is abroad, in Japan or the USA, and not only is there a shipping cost, but import duty to pay as well, making buying from them a rather expensive proposition. I'm pretty sure that because they were originally difficult to sell, many X Varios were left stranded on dealers' shelves for a long time until bought up by resellers, mostly foreign, hoping to make money from the collector market. Well, I wish them luck. They may have to wait quite a time to get their money back, let alone make a profit on such a speculation. 

British sellers are fewer, but the asking price is generally much more reasonable, and of course there is no import duty. Before buying LXV, I looked at several private sellers on eBay but hesitated: the warning phrase caveat emptor constantly came to mind! In the end, a proper online dealer (mpb.com) got my custom. I'm fortunate to have both mpb.com and Park Cameras nearby. With the latter, I can go and see the article in question. But you have to see the camera advertised in the first place, and so a check of what they've got, made two or three times a day, is by no means overdoing it. Good stuff shifts very quickly. Anything advertised for more than a few days is either duff or way overpriced!

Although it has now become - at least among Leica enthusiasts - an acknowledged classic and something of a cult camera, the X Vario totally bombed when first revealed back in June 2013. The pre-launch marketing raised high expectations that were immediately dashed. People thought Leica were going to offer something very different, and claimed to feel misled. These grown adults - mostly mature men of course - felt empowered to rubbish and vilify the camera to an astonishing extent. Guys, it was only a camera. Why did it matter so much? Why was the language so intemperate? Did you feel insulted? Such were the strong feelings of armchair experts, so common in the photo world, who slaughtered the X Vario on its paper specifications without, one can be sure, actually handling the thing. Leica took a kicking. After this awful start, sales never picked up, and the company withdrew the X Vario from its list of current cameras in 2017. By then it was outmoded. But it was dead long before that. 

So my camera was a one-off model with no successor. Leica never took the concept of an APS-C camera with a fixed zoom lens any further. In truth they didn't need to. They had instead the highly successful full-frame Q series on their hands. 

The X Vario has remained unknown to the general public. It's easily mistaken for one of Leica's super-expensive and very famous M series rangefinders. I am sometimes accosted by other photographers who think I am toting an M9 or M10, which when new cost thousands of pounds for the body alone, or even the current M11, for which you will certainly pay luxury money. LXV's lens, assumed to be detachable, also looks like a very expensive item. So to a casual glance I could be carrying a camera-and-lens combo worth at least £10,000, and quite possibly more. Well, it's pleasant to be thought a serious enough photographer to own such equipment, but I'm mindful that it makes me a potential target for snatch thieves. When shooting, my fingers will cover that tell-tale red dot, but otherwise it's obvious and catches the eye. That's not necessarily a good thing. Increasingly I see peril in displaying LXV too openly in the wrong place. In a run-down district, or in a crowd, I'll keep LXV hidden. I may have spent only hundreds on LXV and its accessories, but the world at large doesn't know that, and I don't want to be mugged - and probably hurt - when some drug addict needing cash tries his luck. 

That's a reason why it's wise not to take photographs with one eye squinting into a viewfinder and the other closed. In that moment, one is blind and oblivious to what may be happening in the vicinity. One needs to stay aware of dubious characters shuffling into position for a heist. 

I think that in any case it's especially good policy for a woman to retain an all-round field of view in potentially dangerous situations, and not keep her eye glued to a viewfinder. She should stick to the screen, and stay alert. I never put myself within grabbing-distance of any man unless I'm sure he's all right. In theory, I could throw, swing or shove LXV into a male attacker's face and hospitalise him, my camera being an all-metal blunt instrument with a little weight to it; but I wouldn't be too confident of getting the chance.

LXV arrived in a fancy box with drawers. The only part of the packaging missing was the silver outer case that would have fallen open like a flower spreading out its petals. Everything else I hoped for was there, including the metal lens hood. 

I quickly bought a bag to protect LXV from rain, sea spray, smoke, dust and of course prying eyes.

The next addition was the handgrip Leica made for the X Vario. This would not only protect the baseplate and battery door, but make holding LXV easier.

I also bought a Gordy leather wrist strap, and using it with the handgrip let me carry LXV in my right hand, completely secure from dropping. Something then for shots from the top of the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building! But only for that. LXV was really too solid and hefty to carry around in one hand for very long.

Next, I imported a Leica hotshoe cover all the way from New York. The duty paid on this small plastic item was ridiculous. But it looked nice.

And finally, a Leica leather neck/cross-body strap.  

So by now, after two years of ownership, I have a camera with all the accessories I want for it. This is the Entire Kit. The zoom lens is sharp and covers the focal lengths I use most of the time. I can use it effectively from dawn to dusk, outside or indoors, and at night if there is a strong light source. The sensor is well matched to this lens, and captures abundant detail and very faithful colours. Waves and waterfalls are the fastest action I ever shoot. 

And shoot I have. Although I have also taken some pictures with my other Leica (the venerable D-Lux 4) and of course with my phones, LXV has handled most of my output. That's 43,400 pictures in two years. You can imagine the processing work involved! But imagine also what a treasure-trove of shots I've added to my Photo Archive. I always say that my photography is no hobby, but a way of life. I'm not joking.

Two years of daily use and firm bonding have not inspired me to adopt a proper name for my camera. Readers will know how I tend to give names to the things I love (such as 'Sophie' for my car). But I've always been perfectly satisfied with 'LXV'. At least it's short and snappy. I'm unlikely to change it now.