I had not intended to purchase any more older cameras for a while but sometimes a bargain is too good to pass up, in my case, the chance to dip my toe into Leica waters, the Panasonic / Leica collaboration, D-Lux 6.
There is some debate in photographic circles about this being a ‘true’ Leica, arguments aside, for me, it is an affordable way of getting my foot in the door.
Yes, I would love a ‘Q’ or ‘Q2’ but I wonder if the price would force me to over protect the camera and not use it as it should be used.
To all intents and purposes it is a Lumix LX7 minus the grip and a slight difference in the internal software, costing a few hundreds pounds more in its day than the ‘7’.
I had made a decision just a few days before to sell my LX10/15 on, it simply was not getting the use it deserved, so I was potentially in the market for something else.
The purchase was made and the new kid on the block was waiting for me on my return from a few days away near Cheltenham, I could not wait to try out my latest recruit.
The controls are not much different from my LX5, just exposure compensation being controlled from the rear dial rather than the D-pad and the addition of the dedicated ND filter button and aperture controlled from the lens barrel, a feature I really like.
I have had a couple of outings already, one around Dartmoor where I took just a few shots in between rain showers and a longer amble around my home town of Exeter earlier today.
I think the colours are slightly more muted than the LX5 but the lens sharpness is as good if not better, the camera is just a joy to use, true Leica or not.
Andy's Photography blog 