Tried another roll of film, Fuji Superior 400 this time, in sunny conditions. Yup, definitely a few shots which are soft, especially if the subject is some distance away. When the subject is closer up, ie more zoomed in, the camera can focus better, with more pictures having sharp subject, but still a wee bit soft. The active autofocus, although seemingly fast and responsive, needs to be more accurate. Yes I suppose the infinity mode can be used, but for testing purposes, I left all settings on Auto, since that will be the setting I use most of the time for point and shoot...
Colours, contrast, exposure are good however. In conclusion, I still say above-average results for a point & shot, but not necessarily justificable the cost when looking at other alternatives. I would believe the Yashica T zoom with Carl Zeiss T* 28-70 lens can't do much worse than this, for half the price, so it will probably be a better buy for the money. Yes, the leica c3 has bigger (faster) aperture, but not so important a factor now to me when the image sharpness leaves something to be desired. So given that, I now think the smaller size of the Yashica is more important (after all, you buy a compact point and shoot more for its portability and convenience, for more creative control, i guess most of us still have our SLRs or medium format). Otherwise, if you look for SLR quality and sharpness, look at higher range Minilux zoom or Contax TVS III, or a fixed lens compact.
All these are my personal subjective views, of course, just listing them down in case it helps others who are going through the same decision making process that i did. Hope it helps somewhat, but pls don't ask me to do more scientific testing of variables, etc, haha.
I will be returning the leica c3 for either 2 yashica tzooms, or fork out a bit more for a contax tvs III.
Dear Adrian, pls don't take this as bashing the leica c3 and pls do continue loving your C3. It is overall, still a very good camera, probably as good as or even better than the Yashica Tzoom, but you see, I just want to get my full money's worth while I still can!