Leica D-Lux Typ 109 a real live review.

As the product manager for Transcontinenta B.V. l am always the first tot try out and test new cameras and lenses. We are the distributor of many fine photographic brands like Leica, ZEISS, Tamron, broncolor and many more. After testing the great new Leica V-Lux Typ 114 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/transcontinenta/sets/72157648124916698/) I had the privilege to test the Leica D-lux Type 109. This great little camera intrigued me from the introduction on the Photokina onwards. I already used the previous models like D-lux 4 and 6 a lot and liked it because of the compact size, good image quality and the possibility to manually tweak the JPEG Output. What I missed was an electronic viewfinder and a better quality at higher ISO settings. The new Leica D-Lux Type 109 gives me all what I wished for and even more. The big 4/3 sensor gives detailed images even at high ISO, a wider dynamic range and a very nice small DOF because of the high light sensitivity of the Leica zoom lens and the large size sensor. I like the fact that it's a little bit bigger and heavier, as it's made of metal, and has classical controls. I like that you can “mechanically” set and see the aperture and shutter speed and also set very fast an over- or underexposure. You see nowadays a lot of compact zoom cameras which start at wide-angle with 35 or 28mm and then go up to about 100. With this Leica D-Lux model you have an ultra wide-angle 24 mm F/1.7 and then you can zoom in up till 75 mm with an aperture of 2.8. So great for architecture, landscapes, environmental macro shots and at the other end of the zoom tele macro and

portraits. You can see here below the effect of the zoom in the shot of the Leiden Central train station.Rotterdam field test:In the Netherlands we have lots of nice architectural buildings and structures. in Rotterdam they recently finished two new large buildings which have become already quite famous. I'm talking about the new Rotterdam Central (train) Station and the other thing is the impressive new Market Hall. This is a covered market area in a horseshoe shape which accommodates a lot of off high-quality fruit, vegetables, fish and other small stands and restaurants all covered up in a unique architectural way. This would be ideal to try and test the Leica D-Lux Typ 109 because of the different photographic opportunities from architecture to

people plus a lot of possibilities for close-ups of the foods and goods.

The camera:One of the first things you notice when using the camera is that it has a good grip/economics and a sharp and bright LCD screen. Even nicer is the build in electronic

viewfinder. To be honest I used this for about 80% of all my shots. I took about 460 pictures between 10:30 and 15:00 and managed to do all this on one battery charge. At

home I even could use the camera’s build-in direct Wi-Fi connection to send some pictures to my iPad for a fast Facebook post. Only then the battery had only one stripe left.

The focusing of this camera is lightning fast. I have used it on “One Zone” AF for larger scenes and shooting people. I could raise the camera to my eye aim it at a subject and it would focus instantly even in moving indoor “street photography” situations. I am a big fan of the “Spot” AF function. This lets you focus very precise on a tiny spot in your field of view. When you press the release half way, the centre part zooms in and you see a small “+” to pinpoint your AF focus spot. For close up or if you just want to focus on a person in the crowd, this works very nice.

Personally I have a preference for sharp and detailed images, above noiseless images. I love the fact that I can set-up the camera to get very nice SOOC JPG files. My settings for this test shoot were:•Sharpness +1•Saturation +1 •Noise reduction -3•Contrast 0•RAW+JPG

The RAW file is not recognised, at this moment, by any software, but can be edited in camera. I had never done this before but it works ok for rough edits of your files. You can boost your picture, lighten up shadows, use a effect filter and export to JPG. After that you can use the in camera crop tool as well. Than you can use the build in direct Wi-Fi connection to your phone or tablet and post your pictures on the internet. You can see here an example of the in camera RAW conversion.

I did a few 4K video shots and was very impressed with the level of detail and clarity of the recordings. You can see a very short video here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/transcontinenta/15480721478/.I see this camera as a real advanced amateur or even professional tool. The possibilities and manual settings are almost endless. Yes you can use it in full auto mode, but it will give a high end DSLR user a very capable second camera. You will definitely need to read the instruction manual thoroughly to master all the options. “Patience is in this case a virtue”, which is imho also hapens to be the essence of photography;->What can happen is that some features get disabled, when you use other functions. Say you use the automatic shadow exposure correction, then your lowest ISO will be 200. If you shoot RAW+JPG you cannot take a HDR or panorama picture, this can only be done in JPG only. Because I did not have any instruction manual it was sometime a bit hard to figure out all the correct settings for the job. The good thing is, that ones you have made all your preferred settings, you can save it under one of the three custom memory settings and recall it in an instant when needed. Also nice to “play” with are the many build-in effect filters, which even can be adjusted to your own personal style. I like the dynamic- and rough black and white and the miniature effect.

Conclusion:Personally I own an Olympus OMD with a 12mm F/2.0, a 45mm F1.8 and a 60mm F2.8 macro. After seeing all the images I took with the Leica D-Lux Typ 109, I found them equal or better then those made with my OMD. It is for me personally the first compact camera which I am willing to take with me for more serious shootings. So I hope I will be able to borrow it many more times in the future!

I have uploaded many full res SOOC JPG files to our Flickr account. Feel free to view and study them. https://www.flickr.com/photos/transcontinenta/sets/72157648999247541/

Rob van Keulen.