Leica D-Lux (Typ 109) Review

Construction and Handling

The Leica D-Lux (Typ 109) sports a sturdy magnesium alloy body with a very clean design and no imperfections. The only plastic parts are the two doors (battery compartment and data connections) and the cover for the Wi-Fi antenna. If you value beautiful industrial design this camera will not disappoint you.

We find the sleek Leica design very nice—the only distracting part is the viewfinder which protrudes as shown below.  It's a small price to pay, though, for the convenience of what we consider a must-have feature.

The camera body is very slim, but the lens is comparatively big even when retracted so the net effect is that this camera is not pocketable.

The smooth and clean front surface looks good, but unfortunately it's also a reason that you may want to think twice about purchasing this camera. The absence of a grip or other form of material on the front makes it strenuous on your right hand to use this camera for any extended period. Even a wrist strap is insufficient relief (unless you're cool with just having your $1,200 camera dangling loose when not in use). No, you need to use the neck strap to give your right hand some rest. That's a pity, as you lose the main advantage of a small camera if you have to use a neck strap and you might as well then carry a compact DSLR (and save lot of money in the shuffle).

External Features and Buttons

All buttons and dials are within easy reach. One-handed operation is doable unless you adjust the aperture a lot, then using both hands is preferable. Well, truth be told, while all buttons and dials can be reached with the right hand, it is strenuous to operate that way due to the lack of a grip on the front as mentioned earlier. Two-handed operation is the better way to shoot with this camera.

Let's first take a look at the front.

Front

1: Autofocus assist lamp

That was easy - there are no buttons on the front, just the autofocus assist lamp. The lens barrel is more interesting.

Lens Barrel

The D-Lux has a classic control layout with an aperture ring around the lens barrel and a shutter speed dial on the top plate.

2. Aperture ring: The lens is a variable aperture zoom. It is F1.7 at its widest focal length, and F2.8 at the longest focal length. The aperture ring is done right: if set at a marked aperture of F2.8, F4, or smaller (larger number) that's the aperture you get irrespective of which focal length you have set. If set at F1.7, you get the widest aperture possible between F1.7 and 2.8, the widest aperture depending on the focal length. If the ring is set to "A", the camera will set the aperture (P or Tv exposure mode).

3. Control ring: The function of the control ring can be customized. It defaults in most shooting modes to a step zoom ring, meaning that only specific equivalent focal lengths can be set: 24, 28, 35, 50, and so on. In manual focus mode it acts as a focusing ring, and in extended shutter speed mode the control ring sets speeds longer than 1s or shorter than 1/4000 s. Our preference was to configure the ring to control ISO.

4: Autofocus/Macro autofocus/Manual focus switch: Actual behavior of the autofocus mode (tracking, spot, etc.) is set in the menu.

5: Aspect ratio: The aspect ratio of the captured image can be set to 3:2, 16:9, 1:1, and 4:3.

The rings operates smoothly and the switches have enough resistance that they don't accidentally get knocked off their setting. This underscores our impression of the Leica as a precision instrument.

The indication on the monitor and in the view finder of focal length is in 35mm format equivalent terms rather than the actual focal length of the lens.

Top Panel

The top panels is laid out like several other retro-designed compact cameras with a prominent shutter speed dial and an exposure control dial.

6. Shutter speed dial: When set to "A" the camera sets the shutter speed (Av and P exposure modes). When the shutter speed dial and the aperture ring both are set to "A" the camera is in Program mode. When set to "1+" the shutter speed can be adjusted up to 60 s with the control ring, whereas "4000-" allows the shutter speed to be set as fast as 1/16,000 s (using the electronic shutter).  In "T" the first press of the shutter button opens the shutter, and the second press closes the shutter. It's all very intuitive.

7. On/off switch: This switch is on the small side, which makes it a hassle to operate with gloves. It is also located in a bad position. When turning the camera on, one can easily hit the "A" button (8) by accident, which then brings the camera into snapshot mode. Fortunately, there is a custom setting that can prevent this button from having any effect if it is just pushed down briefly.

8. Snapshot mode toggle: In snap shot mode the aperture ring and shutter speed dial have no effect - the camera behaves as if both are in the "A" position. Various other settings are also disabled. EV compensation is still enabled.

9. Shutter release: Half press to turn meter and autofocus on (AF can be customized to be always on).

10. Exposure compensation.

11. Filter button: brings up the menu of available filters on the LCD monitor from where a filter then can be selected and customized.

12. Zoom toggle. Customizable. In the default mode one can zoom past the longest focal length of the lens and into the digital zoom area. Digital zoom can be set to top out at 150 mm or 300 mm eqv.

13. Stereo microphone. There is no provision for an external microphone.

Back

The back is pretty busy, but the buttons are well laid out and easy to find and to operate. Even with the many buttons there still is space for a 3 inch monitor and a view finder.

14. Wi-Fi status light

15. Wi-Fi Button: Press to set up a connection either to a smart phone or to the phone via a computer network. In either case, images can be transferred in the moment they are captured, or the contents of the SD card can be transferred to the phone (transfer to a PC is not possible). The smart phone can also function as a remote control including live view with the free "Leica Image Shuttle" application (Android and IOS only). Getting a Wi-Fi connection to work is somewhat cumbersome and system errors are common.

16. Movie record button: Press to start recording a movie, press again to stop recording.

17. AF/AE button: Autofocus/Auto exposure lock. Can be customized as follows:

• Locks exposure only
• Locks focus only
• Locks focus as well as exposure
• "AF-ON": Performs autofocus (as an alternative to using half press of the shutter button to achieve focus)

18. Quick Menu: Brings up frequently used settings which then can be changed without having to use the main menu.

19. Delete/cancel: Delete images or return from menus without making changes.

20. Fourway controller: The center button enters the main menu system or confirms a change to a setting. The rim can pressed in calling up a sub-menu or turned as a secondary command dial. The four-way controller works well without being overly sensitive and it has a good tactile feel to it.

21. Display button: Press repeatedly until the monitor shows a level of information to your liking. Also turns off the rear monitor thus enabling viewfinder-only shooting.

22. Playback: Review images or movies captured.

Viewfinder

The D-Lux has is a 2.7 million dot electronic view finder ("EVF"). The lag is hard to notice except in rare circumstances, such as when you use the viewfinder while changing settings. The viewfinder has excellent brightness and resolution and is thus convenient to use. Even tracking moving objects works well thanks to a sufficiently high framerate. Almost the entire viewfinder is viewable while wearing eye glasses.

23. Eye sensor: When your eye is near the sensor, the viewfinder automatically turns on and the rear monitor turns off. It is possible to leave the rear monitor turned off at all times when in shooting mode. The viewfinder still comes on only when needed. We found this way preferable and suspects that it extends the battery life as a bonus. The eye sensor works well.

24. Diopter adjustment for the viewfinder.

25. EVF button: Switches between these modes: Eye sensor control (as described under '23' above), EVF always on and monitor off, EVF off and monitor always on. Since the eye sensor works flawlessly, this button can safely be used for something more useful and its function is customizable. We set it to bring up the file format menu.

LCD Monitor

The LCD screen is bright and has an ample resolution of 921,000 dots, the same as what you would find on most current DSLRs. The monitor doesn't tilt but it is viewable from an wide angle. The information shown on the monitor can be customized, and the monitor can also be kept off in shooting mode.

The monitor is quite viewable outdoors even in bright light, but for composing a shot the viewfinder is preferable.

Sensor

The D-Lux uses a 16.8 MP four thirds sensor with the dimensions of approx. 17.3 x 13 mm, but in the interest of keeping the lens relatively compact for its speed and range, the D-Lux only utilizes a part of the sensor, approximately 15 x 11.3 mm per our calculations in the 4:3 aspect ratio and 15.6 x 10.5 mm in the 3:2 aspect ratio. The resulting effective resolution is 12.7 MP and 12.2 MP, respectively, a significant reduction from 16.8 MP.

Compared to an APS-C sized sensor which some enthusiast compacts like the Ricoh GR use it becomes evident that the effective area utilized by the D-Lux is less than half the area of APS-C sensor.

Click image to enlarge

An enthusiast camera like the 28 mm (eqv.) fixed focal length 16 MP Ricoh GR will have better image quality at that focal length due to its  larger sensor and possibly even in its 35 mm eqv. crop mode. But of course, the GR lacks the flexibility of The D-Lux's zoom lens and also lacks a built-in viewfinder.

Camparing the Leica sensor to the widespread 1 inch sensor found in many similar cameras:

Click image to enlarge

Size-wise the D-Lux sensor has the edge over 1-inch sensor cameras like the Sony RX100 III, but not by much, and the latter boasts a 20 MP backlit sensor for more resolution.

Lens

The lens is a fast 3.1x optical zoom lens. The focal length range is 10.9 to 34 mm, or, in 35mm camera format ("full frame") equivalent terms, 24-75 mm.  It offers approximately the same field of view as the typical 18-55 mm kit lens on a Pentax DSLR, though the maximum aperture is a fast F1.7 at the wide end and a respectable F2.8 at the long end. Zooming as well as focusing are motor driven, and there is no sluggishness in the operation. The current focal length is displayed in 35 mm equivalent terms in the viewfinder and on the monitor.

When retracted, the lens is quite bulky for a small camera and it is the main reason that this camera isn't pocketable.

The lens has 11 optical elements in 8 groups. Several elements are aspherical and there are 2 ED elements.

Shake Reduction

The D-Lux has optical shake reduction. A group of lens elements "floats" and compensates for minor movements of the camera. We found the system very effective, but one must remember to turn it off when using a tripod. Unlike what is common on Pentax cameras, the shake reduction does not get turned off when the self timer is engaged. It is possible to save a "self timer/no SR setting" in one of the camera's three custom memories so that one doesn't forget to disable and re-enable SR.

Shutter

The shutter is a combination of a mechanical leaf shutter inside the lens and an electronic shutter (cutting off sensor read-out at the appropriate time). It is most convenient to enable both shutters and let the camera pick which one to use. This combination is rated from 1/16,000 sec to 60 sec. Thanks to the electronic shutter, the range of available speeds is not restricted at large F-stops (such as F2) as is otherwise typical for many compact cameras.

The impressive top speed of 1/16,000 sec has the benefit that large apertures can be used also in bright light and a narrow depth of field thereby be obtained without the deployment of an ND filter.

As mentioned earlier, shutter speeds that are beyond the markings on the shutter speed dial are set with the control ring on the lens.

Flash

The D-Lux has no built-in flash. Instead, a small external flash is included. We don't mind the lack of an internal flash: the camera can be made smaller, the external flash sits further off of the optical axis, and when it isn't mounted it can't accidentally fire and embarrass you!

The external flash is very compact and draws power from the camera. The flash has the modes of operation that one would expect: Auto and auto/red-eye reduction (in snap shot mode only), forced on, forced on/red-eye reduction, slow sync, slow sync/red-eye reduction, 2nd curtain, forced off. The flash can synchronize all the way up to 1/16,000 sec. Flash exposure compensation is a wide -3 EV to +3 EV.

The flash has a range up to 14 m when the lens is at F1.7 (i.e. at its widest), but reaching this far also requires Auto ISO be engaged and that the camera be allowed to boost the ISO all the way op to 25,000.

Flash exposure is determined by a pre-flash metered by the sensor. The flash works remarkably well with well-exposed images, refer to the page with sample photos.

SD Card, Battery and Tripod Socket

The D-Lux takes all three types of SD cards: SD, SDHC and SDXC, and is UHS-I card compatible. Since it can record 4K video, it supports some of the fastest cards currently on the market.

The battery and SD card are located behind an access door on the bottom of the camera. This door is plastic, but looks sturdy enough. The sliding lock doesn't inspire confidence that it will stay locked, however. The lock is recessed, though, which should help prevent accidental opening. In any event, the battery is held in place by a locking tab so it cannot fall out.

For video, Leica recommends SDXC cards of class 4 (or better) except for 4K video where a card with a 30 MB/s minimum write speed is required. Here Leica recommends UHS-I speed class 3.  This speed class guarantees a minimum sustained writing speed that's sufficient or large video files.

The tripod socket is placed off the optical axis next to the door so access to the battery and card is not possible when the camera is mounted on a tripod. We have seen cameras with a more user-friendly bottom plate.

The tripod socket is made of metal so you run no risk of stripping the threads; clearly, this camera is designed to be used!

USB & HDMI Ports

On the right hand side, you'll find the USB 2.0 and Mini HDMI connectors behind a small but sturdy door made of hard plastic that matches the camera body.

Verdict on Construction and Handling

The Leica D-Lux (Typ 109) is built well and has a nice, sleek design. All buttons and dials are conveniently placed and can be operated with the right hand. We're pleased to see so many buttons and dials on a small camera, since it is so much easier to operate than having to go into the menus for those shooting settings that you frequently adjust.

The classic layout with an aperture ring, a shutter speed dial and an EV compensation dial makes the camera easy and intuitive to use. If you opt to have the control ring set ISO, you hardly ever have to go into the menus during a shoot and you can leave the rear LCD monitor off thus extending battery life.

Speaking of battery life, it is short. Indeed, it's too short unless you leave the monitor off. Just about 320 to 350 images per Leica's specifications, shorter if you use flash. We got less than 200 images on a charge even without flash, but we also chimped a lot.

The viewfinder is a big plus with its ample resolution, brightness, and responsiveness. All relevant shooting parameters can be displayed, and so can the menus and image playback.

The lack of a grip on the front is the only negative we could find. To not overtax your right hand you'd want to use the included neck strap and operate the camera with two hands even though the button layout allows for one-handed operation. 

Zooming can be done with the lever around the shutter release or with the control ring. It is thus a power zoom but it works well. It is easy to arrest the zooming action exactly where you want unlike some other cameras with power zoom, which will overshoot the position you intended.