Leica Digilux 2 User Guide
View and Download Leica DIGILUX 2 instructions manual online. DIGILUX 2 Digital Camera pdf manual download.
Leica Digilux 2 for professional photojournalistic use By: Thorsten Overgaard. February 2004. Latest edit on October 20, 2017 Leica Digllux 2 pages: 1 It's the perfect camera for the young talented photographer, as well as the photographer who looks for that familiar feeling of a 'real' camera. February 2004: Whenever I go to a press event there's always one or several photographers approaching to admire my Leicas. While they most often use large Canon or Nikon gear equipped with zoom lenses and flash with external battery backup, I use the small and handy Leica Digilux 2. As I can compare our results in terms of technical quality after the event - either in the paper or online on the wire services - it's a wonder why they don't leave the heavy gear at home, and go have some fun with the Leica Digilux 2 for all those jobs which do not require large zoom or tele lenses.
In 90% of the cases a tele above 90mm is really not needed and the Digilux 2 has a 28-90mm zoom. Also, the lack of extensive zoom and large flash keeps you alert so you have much more fun - you use your talent to get the right shots, rather than relying on large equipment. 'Picture Perfect' video about Danish feature writer and photographer Thorsten Overgaard, by Emma Brumpton for Channel Four. The video was done on The Faroe Islands in 2008 during a week of photographing climate changes, when Al Gore visited the islands. A new classic It has become a classic in itself and if one looks around on the net and on the Leica Camera User Forum one will see many great examples from the Digilux 2. It has distinguished itself as a digital camera with an extremely nice lens – and as a great camera for street photography, as well as a digital camera that does pictures in black and white mode, that remind us of classic rangefinder shots.
When the Leica Digilux 2 and its counterpart, the Panasonic DMC-LC1, were being designed, it's quite clear that 'Leica was in the front seat of the development' – a fact I was told from someone who knew about their development. The philosophy is very “Leica”, and quite different than other cameras, Panasonic cameras included. A good example of this can be seen in the D-Lux 4 which is also a Leica camera with a Panasonic twin where the controls and features take over the basic qualities.
That one is more a Panasonic than a Leica, though Leica did some extra features and fine tuning on the D-Lux 4 compared to the D-Lux 3 (the Leica D-Lux 4 has a different coating, different viewfinder, different file handling, etc. Than the Panasonic twin). As a side remark, parts of the best-selling book, 'The Rise of Barack Obama' by Pete Souza, were shot with Leica Digilux 2 (along with a Nikon D2x).
Pete Souza is the new White House photographer for President Obama since January 4, 2009 and will be using Leica in the White House (Leica M8.2 along with Canon 5D Mark II according to this article). Whether he will dig out his Leica Digilux 2 as well occasionally, time will tell. Leica Digilux 2 next to the Leitz M4 in chrome from 1974.
The lens is the 50mm Summicron-M f/2.0 and I've kept a 21mm viewfinder on top of the M4 to make a point. Look at that picture and it's no wonder Leica Digilux 2 users often get surprised outbursts like 'It's digital!' Or more commonly, 'Oh, you're one of those staying with film.' Also, many confuse the Digilux 2 with the Leica M8. Now, I've kept the 21mm viewfinder that I usually use along with my 21mm Super-Angulon-M f/3.4 lens on the M4. One of the points you get to hear a lot about the Digilux 2 is the EVF (Electronic View Finder) which is a small screen inside the viewfinder. So what you see is not an acoustic picture through a lens, but a digital image.
It's bluish, not very saturated, and a bit raw in it. In playing around with my gear, I tested how the 21mm optical viewfinder (which is a $1,000 optical toy) would work on a Digilux 2. To my astonishment, my well-used 1974-viewfinder had less contrast and more odd colors than the Digilux 2's digital viewfinder. If you buy a newer model, I'm sure the picture looks nicer - but nevertheless!
The point I'm trying to make is that the EVF is not as bad as some make it sound. And as any viewfinder, you get used to it. Some old SLR cameras have a bit of a yellowish color about them, some modern dSLR have dark viewfinders (because they are mainly a peephole for framing, hence clear sight is not required as the AF takes care of the focusing). For me, the EVF has become a strong tool in that (1) it is always the same light inside the viewfinder (contrary to viewing a screen on the back of a camera in dark or sunshine), (2) the live picture give a good idea as to how contrast, exposure and all will look like in the final picture (unlike a M4 viewfinder or a dSLR viewfinder which is an acoustic representation of the scene), and (3) I get a preview of the just-taken picture in this “closed viewfinder environment' which I can use to judge the exposure and the overall picture. That the colors are not clear or correct - it's rather blue-tone, black and white almost - is the thing you get used to.
Unless you tell yourself 'I will NEVER get used to an EVF, I will NEVER get used to an EVF, I will NEVER get used to and EVF,' why, you might actually come to like it! Buy the new eBook 'A Little Book on Photography' by Thorsten von Overgaard Order now - Instant delivery. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ It's a humorous understatement to call this new eBook by Thorsten Overgaard for 'A Little Book on Photography'. It's a grand book, a history lesson, life experience, a biography and poetry book and brilliant photo book! All in one beautiful package of 180 pages to fire you up and get you to love photography. 'A Little Book on Photography' eBook for computer, Kindle and iPad.
New release March 2017. Intro price only $47 - 180 pages. Buy Now Instant Delivery Some call it 'the vintage digital camera' For a long while, the Leica Digilux 2 stayed at a relatively high second-hand price around $1,000. Only in the recent years, the camera has been available for as little as $250 - $500.
Who would have thought that a 5-megapixel camera brought to market in 2004 would still be in demand more than 10 years later? Yet it is a fact that people still search for this camera, find one they can buy and keep using it. And many who bought the camera new or while it was still being produced still use it. There are not many vintage digital cameras around. They usually get old and end up in a garbage bin somewhere.
But the Leica Digilux 2 still gets used. Compared to the modern alternatives, the Leica M8, Leica M9 and Leica M Type 240 the Leica Digilux 2 still has a lot to offer. Things are moving slow, but still faster than buying a likewise vintage Leica M4 film camera. The files from the Leica Digilux 2 are sharp, crisp, compact and easy to work with. They do not require big hard drives, a fast computer, nor do they require a great knowledge about post processing. The Leica DC Vario-Summicron ASPH f/2.0-2.4 lens Looking at the picture of the 1974-edition of the M4 and the Digilux 2 next to each other, notice the nice big clear glass on the Digilux 2 (the glass on the M4 is also nice, yes).
The Leica DC Vario-Summicron ASPH lens is actually a 7-22.5 mm lens, equivalent to a 28-90mm lens in 35mm terms. The point I want just to make short and sweet - you might philosophize further on it later - is that if the Leica Digilux 2 camera was a full frame (FF) 35mm rangefinder system, that lens would not only be HUGE but would also cost you a fortune. In fact, did you ever see a 28-90mm lens f/2.0 for sale anywhere in the world? No, and that's what you should notice. In many ways the combination of the small sensor in the Leica Digilux 2 (I'm talking size in physical terms, not the megapixels) and the fantastic detailed and light-strong lens is what make the Digilux 2 - the classic.
In wishing for a new and updated Digilux 2 - and we're a few people who want that - forget then a FF sensor. Because it wouldn't be the same camera at all. In fact, why does everybody lust for full frame (FF) sensors and medium format (MF) sensors when everything in this world - mobile phones, computers, mp3-players to name a few - is becoming smaller and smaller. Sony built the WalkMan cassette players on compactness, and I think they had for many years the philosophy that everything they made simply had to be the most compact.
So one of the small unnoticed miracles of the Digilux 2 is actually that it does great pictures with a very small sensor. So why try to get a larger sensor?
Why not try to make more pixels and better image quality in small sensors? (On next page there's a picture showing the sensors size relative to the lens). My son Oliver, July 2007, Digilux 2, 100 ISO available light, manual mode. Strengths of the camera Leica Digilux 2 is a light camera that is easy to travel with and carry around for a long time without anybody actually noticing it. It is soundless. As a trained user you will recognize the clicks, but to everybody else you are just holding a camera.
It is intuitive to use and after a few hundred shots you can use it in a dark room. It has a F/2.0 lens that does not require much light, a 28-90mm zoom that can capture most scenes you need. And auto focus - which is handy if and when you use it professionally. On top of that, you can knock out auto focus and go manual focusing.
The same goes for F-stops and shutter times. I use mine with AF but else totally manual as a general rule. But what has made the Digilux 2 a classic, besides the above, is that you can shoot JPG's straight off the camera and they look good. Black and white mode looks perhaps even greater.
It's the lens but also the way Leica decided to handle JPG files; which was not to fix them up like Canon, Sony and many others do. The Leica look is very natural, very film-like and pretty cool (the Panasonic DMC-LC1 is slightly different in it's handling of JPG's but not that far from the Leica). If you shoot RAW, it's the raw file you get, so you just enjoy the benefits from the lens, not the (lack of) fixing the pictures.
To wish for in a future Leica Digilux 2 What one could wish for in a future Digilux 2 is higher ISO speed than the 400 ISO, larger file sizes (10 million pixels or more), but mainly faster AF. One can go manual focus, which will speed up the time from focusing to the first picture, but otherwise the AF will take a few microseconds (or seconds if confused, for example by smoke on a stage) to focus.
ISO stands for 'International Organization for Standardization' and was called ASA before (American Standards Association). What ISO means, is how much light a film a digital sensor require to hit it in order to create a natural-looking picture.
It's a matter of sensibility. 100 ISO film or digital sensor requires twice as much light to capture pictures as a 200 ISO, and five times as much light as a 3200 ISO film or digital sensor. So in short: The higher ISO, the better. The ISO 400 is not bad when the lens is F/2.0. Consider this: If you get a camera with a F/3.4 lens you need 1600 ISO to compare with the 400 ISO F/2.0 Leica Digilux 2. But Leica users tend to like using available light, and the darker places they (we) can find to shoot, the better.
And even though the Leica Digilux 2 has a flash, we would never in our wildest dreams think of ever using it. So higher ISO would be nice: 1600 ISO minimum, 3200 ISO would be more desirable.
Don't expect that everything can be repaired on the Leica Digilux 2 vintage digital camera. After 11 years since introduction: Don't expect too much repair of the Leica Digilux 2 As of April 2015 Leica Camera AG has started telling customers that they don't have spare parts for the Leica Digilux 2 anymore. If I should translate that into something meaningful, I would look at what Leica Camera AG has done with other models. Take the Leica DMR digital, back when they surely ran out of spare parts from their supplier but then sometimes offered some customers an upgrade to another camera and would keep their DMR digital back for spare parts. In the Leica M9 they have also occasionally been missing sensor spare parts (but I think that has been solved now), so in periods they would offer customers to upgrade the camera to a newer model when they couldn't repair it.
I would personally send in a Leica Digilux 2, if needed, and see if they could fix it or upgrade it. Leica Camera AG can for sure glue the rubber on the camera back on again and fix several things. Some spare parts they might have, others they don't. The 'official' reply as of April 2015 to one customer was: 'Thank you for your email.
We sincerely regret to inform you that we stopped the repairs on the Digilux 2. Spare parts are no longer manufactured by our service partners. We have the option to offer an exchange to a current model at a reduced price, if you decide to send the camera in. Kind regards, Leica Camera AG Customer Care' Repair of the Leica Digilux 2 For new leather coverings, rubber eyepieces and other things, try.
They carry stock of Leica Digilux 2 and Panasonic DMC LC1 parts, I have heard (as of January 2017). Leica X Vario (2013) vs the Leica Digilux 2 (2004) Is the Leica X Vario introduced June 11th, 2013, the new Leica Digilux 2? The Leica Digilux 2 has quite a bit of charm, and is easily mistaken for a Leica M judging from the outside appearance. The Leica X Vario takes off of the Leica X1 and Leica X2 (that takes off of the original Leica O from 100 years ago), and with a design of the top plate borrowed from big brother Leica M Type 240. The similarity between the Leica X Vario and the Leica Digilux 2 is the zoom and the silent handling. In retrospect, Leica Camera AG would not put a design like the Leica Digilux 2 on the market again in 2013. Since then it has become possible to put larger sensors in the camera, and that basically - together with higher ISO - changes everything.
One of the key features of the Leica Digilux 2 is the f/2.0-2.4 zoom lens. But that lens only works when the sensor is as small as it is in the Leica Digilux 2. As mentioned some paragraphs above, a f/2.0 zoom lens on a full frame (24x36mm) camera would have to be four times as big to do the same! The 400 ISO is the new 100 ISO In the Leica X Vario the sensor is larger. It also performs at a much higher ISO. Hence, Leica Camera AG put a f/3.5 - f/6.4 lens on the camera. If you think of it, that makes the Leica X Vario outperform the Leica Digilux 2, already at 300 ISO and up (because the Leica Digilux 2 shouldn't be used above 100 ISO).
The Leica X Vario lens is less light-strong at 70mm (f/6.4) than the Leica Digilux-2 at 70mm or 90mm (f/2.4). All in all, the lens of the Leica X Vario is much, much simpler and less expensive to produce than the Leica Digilux 2 lens. This does not necessarily makes the Leica X Vario a bad lens. On the contrary, actually. Just less exotic, definitely, and Leica users like exotic lenses.
The harder to make, the better and the more expensive. But in the case of the Leica X Vario, one will have to settle with less exotic, turn up the ISO from 100 to 400 and get the show on the road. 200 ISO 1/12 1/60 1/30 f/90 400 ISO 1/20 1/250 1/60 1/18 0 800 ISO 1/45 - 1/125 - 1600 ISO 1/90 - 1/250 - 3200 ISO 1/180 - 1/500 - 6400 ISO 1/360 - 1/1000 - 12,800 ISO 1/750 - 1/2000 - As seen on the yellow markings, the Leica X Vario will perform at 400 ISO as the Leica Digilux 2 did on 100 ISO. When you zoom to 90mm you will have to go to 800 ISO on the Leica X Vario to perform as the Leica Digilux 2 at 90mm f/2.4.
DOF (depth of field) doesn't really change by adding a smaller aperture to a larger sensor (X Vario) vs. A wider aperture to a small sensor (Digilux 2). No matter what, it will be difficult to get much selective focus out of either camera. Though the Leica X Vario might actually have a better chance than the Leica Digilux 2. Now, are the Leica X Vario and the Leica Digilux 2 actually comparable? That question in itself is quite a compliment to the Leica Digilux 2.
When was the last time somebody compared a 9-year old digital camera with a current one? In many ways the Leica X Vario beats the Leica Digilux 2. On speed of operation, ISO, size of files, etc. But if the charm, the love-factor and the simplicity has been beaten. That is a highly personal and individual question only you can answer, for yourself. I've met a few Leica X Vario users over the years since 2013 who love their camera so much that they really can't understand why so few have fallen for this camera.
So there you have it: Very few Leica X Vario sold, but very popular by those who have one. Make of it what you want. For more on the Leica X Vario, visit the website of.
Aperture f/1.4 - 2.3 f/3.5 - 6.4 f/2.0 - 2.4 Lens 24 - 90 mm ASPH 28 - 70 mm ASPH 28 - 90 mm ASPH Max shutter speed 1/4000 1/2000 1/1000 EVF Extra Extra Yes Sensor 12 MP 16 MP 5 MP Frames per second JPG 2 - 12 fps? Fps 2 fps Frames per second DNG 2 fps? Fps 1 frame at the time Video Full 1920 x 1080 HD Full 1920 x 1080 HD 320 x 240 Price new $ 800 $ 2,850 1,800 $ Nickname 'Type 007' 'D2' Production 2012 - 2013 - 2004 - 2006 Size 110.5 × 67 × 47 mm 133 x 73 x 95 mm 135 x 82 x 103 mm Weight 296 g 679 g 705 g Panasonic twin Lumix DMC-LX7 Pure Leica Lumix DML-LC1 Leica Q (2015) vs the Leica Digilux 2 (2004) The Leica Q that was introduced in 2015 is another chapter in charm, and has become a real best-seller for Leica Camera AG. It doesn't have the zoom that the Leica Digilux 2 has, but it has the compact size and weight that makes it usable for daily use. A camera you can wear every day, everywhere. Read my extensive article on the Leica Q here,: Which SD-card to use with the Leica Digilux 2? Use a 50X SD-card to get optimum speed.
Above that, you are above what the Digilux 2 and the Panasonic DMC-LC1 can utilize. You might experience your computer can work faster with 130X or faster cards when emptying the cards. Here are the times I've tested from pressing the shutter until the pictures have been stored, and the camera is ready for another shot. 6 seconds Maximum size of SD memory cards in the Digilux 2 is 2GB.
The Digilux 2 needs a relative simple 2GB card which is about $7.00. Only SD, not SDHC.! I've used 2GB Kingston cards as I have good experience with Kingston RAM and Kingston SD-cards. But flash-RAM is not rocket-science anymore so I guess any brand will do these days. But buy big cards and plenty, and shoot highest quality, largest file size: If there is one thing we can be certain of, it's that there will be plenty of disk space on your future computer equipment.
And a 3 megabyte JPG file will seem like a micro-size file in year 2015. So shoot big and save it for eternity using a DAM-software (Digital Assets Management) with one or two backups of your files. Maibritt, April 2008 with Digilux 2, 100 ISO Secrets revealed I often get questions on the above photo and the photo of Hans Blix (see page 2) and if it is really Digilux 2. And it is, with selective Photoshop manipulation as described in the article. For illustration, here is the camera file and the final file side by side: For more on this, look at the Hans Blix photo on page 2.
Leica Digilux 2 Price
Leica Digilux 2 Overview Maker Leica Lens 28-90mm equivalent f/2.0-f/2.4 at the widest Sensor/Medium Image sensor type 8.8 x 6.6mm (2/3 inch type) Maximum 2560 x 1920 (5 megapixels) and Shutter 1/4000s to 8s 2.7 frames per second Viewfinder Electronic Image Processing Custom Yes General Rear LCD monitor 2.5 inches with 211,000 dots 135 x 82 x 103mm (5.31 x 3.23 x 4.06 inches) 705g including battery The Digilux 2 is a model sold by, with the body manufactured in by, which sold a variant as the. Its image sensor is a with 5.24 million total. It has a color, transreflective with 211,000 pixels, in addition to an. It has a near-focus range of 30 centimeters. The camera has a built-in.
This flash, first of its kind, has the ability to be pointed up, as well as the standard method of pointing straight ahead, in order to 'bounce' the light off a ceiling. The camera weighs 630 (without a battery).
Its dimensions are 135 millimeters in, 82 millimeters in, and 103 millimeters in depth. The camera is fitted with a Leica Vario Summicron lens of f/2 with a zoom function of 28mm - 90mm in 35mm format. The main selling point of the Digilux 2 is that it functions in a manner reminiscent of a; the Leica lens features manual zoom, aperture and focus rings and the shutter speed can be manually adjusted via a dial on the camera. Many users cite the excellent Leica DC Vario-Summicron lens as their reason to purchase. See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to. References.
Leica Digilux 2 For Sale
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