{"id":170,"date":"2006-06-21T07:29:11","date_gmt":"2006-06-21T14:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/2006\/06\/21\/digital-leica-not\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T15:36:10","slug":"digital-leica-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/2006\/06\/21\/digital-leica-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Leica – not!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Panasonic disappoints with the L1<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I should preface this by saying I have not used the newly announced Panasonic L1, so it’s really premature to criticize, but a review of the specificationss underwhelms.<\/p>\n

I was really looking forward to this camera, hoping it would be the digital Leica all ex-Leica M users like me are waiting for, at a non-Leica price. They will sell for $2,000 with the Leica zoom lens. Not bad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The disappointing Panasonic L1<\/i>.<\/center><\/p>\n

Now the ergonomics look promising. A real shutter speed dial, a pretty exciting Leica lens (alternatively designed by Leica or Panasonic, depending on where you read on the Panasonic web site) with manual zoom and iris controls, and a nice M-look camera body. Throw in image stabilization, a vibrator to shake off sensor dust and a 16:9 widescreen picture option and what’s not to like?<\/p>\n

How about a lousy viewfinder? The L1 shares the prism optics of the Olympus E-330, which uses a side flapping mirror (like their Pen F half-frame film camera did some thrity years earlier) and mirrors in lieu of a pentaprism to turn the image right way round. Result? A very dim image. Don’t believe me. Check out the on line reviews. <\/p>\n

How about a lousy sensor? Use it above 400 ISO and all is lost in noise. It’s the same sensor used in the E-330. Don’t believe me. Check out the on line reviews.<\/p>\n

How about a very small image in the finder? It’s the same optics used in the E-330. Don’t believe me. Check out the on line reviews. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just look through a Canon 5D after trying a Rebel or 20D\/30D. I have. Night and day. The L1\/E330 is like the Rebel in this regard.<\/p>\n

As for all that ‘live preview’ nonsense, why did they waste their time? No one needs this in a professional grade camera. And the E330 does it better, if you must have it, for less.<\/p>\n

Too bad. I was kind of excited about that Leica lens. Guess we’ll have to wait for the Digital Leica M but, no, I’m not holding my breath. I’m just holding on to my wallet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panasonic disappoints with the L1. I should preface this by saying I have not used the newly announced Panasonic L1, so it’s really premature to criticize, but a review of the specificationss underwhelms. I was really looking forward to this camera, hoping it would be the digital Leica all ex-Leica M users like me are … Continue reading Digital Leica – not!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cameras","category-leica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41974,"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/41974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pindelski.org\/Photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}