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G3 wish list

From what I've seen and read the Leica Digilux and the Panasonic DCM-LC5 are identical except for their outer casing and their price. You pay a lot for that little red dot, $220 more, in fact, on B&H. (actually you do get a 64MB SD card instead of the 32MB that comes with the Panasonic, and they throw in a free carrying case)
 
I'll pipe in by saying the Digilux has the worst shell out there. It has no grip and the shiny plastic is so slippery if your hands are sweaty or oily. I can't believe Leica isn't selling a add on grip for $50... They were so busy making it look like an M series they forgot about ergonomics...I'd be buying the Panasonic...

Poor design.

> Posted by Paul Levin on Friday, September 06, 2002 - 11:11 pm: > > I also own a Digilux and it is a fine digital camera. Panasonic may > have done the electronics on it (something Leica is not an expert in) > but the optics are Leica. It feels like a real camera to the hand not > some toy which is what my wife's Nikon 5000 feels like to me. Seems to > me most of the Digilux bashing here has been made by people who never > used one.
 
> With regard to the digilux there is NO shiny plastic. It is metal and very comfortable to hold. Having taken over 800 photos on mine in the past 7 weeks I have absolutely no complaints about this camera and would recommend it to anyone. John
 
> The value of that "red dot" may be grater than you think. Recently I upgraded from from a Leica Digilux Zoom which cost me £369 in UK back in January 2000. It was basically a 1.5 megapixel Fuji with a Leica badge and slightly different casing. On delivery of my new Digilux 1 I placed the Digilux Zoom on Ebay and it fetched £230 in August 2002. I doubt the equivelent Fuji model would have raised even £100 by then. So 7,865 photographs later and for a cost of just £139 for two and a half years usage - I wouldn't knock that red dot!

John
 
Thanks Jeff, always nice to make a fool of myself in public once in a while. I'd say more but can't seem to get my foot out.........next thing you guys are going to tell me is my Contax G2 is really a Yashica......

:-0
 
Oh and for the record, I still like my Digilux One and it's little Red Dot.

Paul

I'll shut up now.
 
After all that commentary about whether the Digilux it's good or bad, platic or metal, red dot or no red dot, this is G3 Wish List thread. The G2 still takes great pictures and I guess I'll just stick with good old film, until Contax comes out with a quality Digital rangefinder that uses my great Zeiss lenses. It's like playing poker and sitting with a straight flush; you feel like you are going to win -- every time you use your camera. That's one heck of a great feeling - quality film, a G2, and Zeiss lenses - a winning combination. Let's hope that the guys at Contax focus on getting us a digital camera, a viewfinder that covers 21mm would be nice too.
 
> > > > A friend of mine has it for 2 months now and regular use the camera you can > tell the plastic becomes polished and even shinier and becomes even more > slippery to hold. I think the Digilux should be 30% smaller and also provide > at least a CF slot as an option. The manual focus is a good feature but not > rally working well. > Brgds/Kaisern > > >
 
GETTING back to the G3 wish list... as a beginning photographer, I sure would like DOF markings on the lens. It seems like it's a lot more important on a rangefinder..

Note to Paul... You're a class act...and I'm jealous of your Digilux.

Jeff
 
Disclaimer: I´m a hobbyist with very limited photographic skills :)


I would really appreciate a digital Contax G3 with a 24x36mm sensor around 4Megapixel as an addition to my Contax G2 to save on peripherals like lenses and flash, call me cheap :)
Additionaly I would like to have an AF assist light and/or support for one in a flash. TTL fill flash would be nice, too. Usualy I don't use a flash on the Contax G2, but with low light the TLA30 suits me well, a TLA360 is on my whishlist.

The Leica Digilux misses two critical points in my opinion. No CF II/Microdrive Support and no TTL Support with an external flash.
I´ve got a Canon G1 with Speedlight 420ex, the 420 is the smallest flash with decent functions on the Canon G1/G2, and I had the opportunity to try a Leica Digilux1 for a day. The picture quality is nearly the same as with the Canon G1, except the higher resolution which doesn't matter with 4"x5" prints and I realy like the controls. In low light it is worse to focus than the Canon G1, the AF assist light is a big help then. SD/MMC Media are on a serial interface which is slower than the CF's parallel interface, so transfering the pictures to the card takes longer. Most of my digital shots are in Canon RAW Format, the closest match to this is TIFF on the Digilux and the 64MB Card holds around five pictures then. Usualy I have around 60 to 70 pictures from an evening out and that amounts to 15 SD Cards. On the G-Move in Hamburg we took around 900 pictures with two Canon D30 on the trucks and 150 with the Canon G1 in crowded clubs!

The Canon doesn´t look very pretty anymore, but it´s realy tough an can stand a blow on crowded dancefloors, the Digilux seems to be as tough but I cannot afford to destroy one, just to find out :).

I´ll take a very close look on the digital TVS at the photokina.

Regards

Volker
P.S. also I´ve mostly used SLR´s I´ve been brought up with rangefinders from my grandpa's Contessa to my fathers Robot, Rolleiflex and Linhof Super Technica :). The first SLR in the family was my Yashica FX-D in 1982 after I realized that shooting Gribraltar from a passing ship with a Rollei 35T showed a nice landscape and my friend with his Nikon F3 and 300mm with 2x converter had the girls on the beach.
 
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