Selling my Leica X Vario

I've decided to sell my larger Leica camera, the X Vario. I haven't used it much since its shutter was replaced last summer. Instead, I've reverted to my older, smaller and lighter Leica D-Lux 4, and that versatile little camera has performed nobly since getting back into full-time harness from early June 2025 - in fact I've taken 16,000-odd pictures with it since then. The total number of shots I've taken over the years with the D-Lux 4 - since buying it in 2009 - is now over 114,500, rather more than you'd expect from an old model that ought to be long retired. But it shows no sign whatever of faltering. It has technical limitations, of course, but my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra phone can step in as necessary to handle shots beyond its capabilities. 

Bottom line: the X Vario has become redundant, and I might as well turn it into cash. It was made in November 2013, and I paid £599 for it in May 2023. mpb.com have offered £455 for it as a first response on their website. I don't think they will necessarily give me that when they examine it, but I should get something for the three accessories I added to enhance its appearance and user-pleasure: a handgrip, a leather carrying strap, and a hot shoe cover, all of them proper Leica parts. So maybe I'll be offered £250 to £300, taking it all together - useful money that I have an immediate use for (as I will explain shortly in my next post).

Here are shots of my X Vario and the accessories I added. It's a handsome camera, although the metal lens hood on the front of its zoom lens doesn't add any beauty. That hood has, however, always been a great protection for the lens. 

Its lines are classic Leica, and more than once this camera has been mistaken for the one of the famous (and mega-expensive) Leica rangefinders. It was a camera that would attract notice from photo enthusiasts and appreciators. But it also occurred to me that one day I would be the victim of a mugging, on the assumption that I was carrying a camera and lens combo worth thousands of pounds. Not a comfortable thought. Another reason for our parting. 

Until recently I was very much onboard with Leica. Certainly, the little Leica D-Lux 4 showed what the brand's products were capable of. But in fact that long-lived, robust and completely reliable camera is at heart a Panasonic, and was made at the Panasonic factory in Japan - and not at Wetzlar in Germany. Many Leica enthusiasts are sniffy about that. Yes (they say), it may have a very good Leica lens; and yes, it may have been made to Leica's quality control standards using 'pick of the parts bin' components; and yes, it may have Leica firmware installed; but (they will say) it wasn't made in Germany, at Leica HQ, by dedicated craftsmen! 

All true; but does it matter? And in any case, the little Leica has never let me down. But the X Vario - a Wetzlar product - has stumbled, and has needed a vital replacement part after a shorter life, and only 69,000 shots in my hands. It may look good, and feel marvellous, and turn out very nice pictures, but it hasn't stood up to heavy use. The shutter was replaced, and the camera is working again. But what else might fail? Its long-term reliability is now in question. In fact, I can't trust it any more. So selling it is the right thing to do, at least from my point of view.  

The Leica-enthusiast website Macfilos has a long-held axiom: never sell a Leica X Vario. But I'm going to. And I don't feel that I should be seen as a Leica renegade. Once faith in a product has been lost, it's no good. Time to discard it and move on. 

So it'll be hello to another brand, probably (depending on my needs) Nikon or Ricoh, but not until the little D-Lux 4 shows unmistakable signs of senility. And, like me, it's not there yet.  

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