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Sean Reid's X1 Review Part 2 is up

FYI. Sean (www.reidreviews.com subscription site) has posted another excellent review. This time it is a follow-up on the X1 and it includes critical look at things that matter to me such as AF speed, shutter lag, image quality, etc. I am already familiar with the most important feature of the X1 which is its small size having handled the camera at PhotoPlus.
 

Christopher

Active member
I thing that camera is a waste of money. I know I will get flamed for it, but how does Leica dare to bring such a camera without IS ? Without a state of the art display ? I mean you are paying 2k for that thing. I have read both "reviews" and what I read, wasn't anything special at all. Yes it has a bigger sensor, but so far that is the ONLY thing which could give a reason to buy such a camera, than again, if I want real image quality I get a real SLR, if I want a pocket camera, I can spend way less and live with the consequences. If I spend 2Ks for a pocket camera, I expect more than Leica delivers. Than again, it looks like I always expect to much of a company which is struggling to survive.^

In the end I would say, fantastic image quality where the rest is missing.
 

ashrafazlan

New member
Yeah, for a camera that relies on an lcd for focusing and composing, leica sure dropped the ball with the screen specs.

Then again even the M9 uses a ****ty lcd, so I guess that's just not leica's thing
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Reading all reviews, specs and posts, my conclusion is that the X1 is not worth the money.

Better to go for either a E-P2 or GF1 with pancake lens and you are done very similar quality but much higher flexibility in terms of exchangeable lenses.
 

retow

Member
Both LL and Sean Reid's review are up.
IQ, ie high iso performance is very impressive, yet AF and single shot to shot speed (shot to shot speed hardly betters the dp2) are disappointing, nowhere near the GF1's performance.
GXR with large sensor/fast pancake could be the winner.
 

Woody Campbell

Workshop Member
Both LL and Sean Reid's review are up.
IQ, ie high iso performance is very impressive, yet AF and single shot to shot speed (shot to shot speed hardly betters the dp2) are disappointing, nowhere near the GF1's performance.
GXR with large sensor/fast pancake could be the winner.
Slow shutter response is very disappointing and probably a show stopper for me.
 

retow

Member
Compact size (jacket pocketable a la DP2 and x1) plus high IQ seems no longer the limiting factor.
But compact size, high IQ plus high functionality remains as a challenge.
 
G

greggebhardt

Guest
I do not know about the others but I am getting cold feet on the X1.

The more I read the more I am not feeling it will produce the images that I expected from it.
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
The best camera I ever saw was the one I could not get yet.
But in this case, put me on the thumbs down side of the fat tail
-bob
 

retow

Member
The best camera I ever saw was the one I could not get yet.
But in this case, put me on the thumbs down side of the fat tail
-bob
Am on the fence, my name is still second on the list of a NYC Leica dealer. Maybe I should make #3 happy.
 

Terry

New member
I find it very interesting that Michael only looked at it from a AF point of view and mentions nothing much at all about the manual focus capability. Sean spent a lot of time in using it in manual focus and seemed to get a lot more out of it for street shooting.

For instance if you are doing street shooting with an M8 and refocusing all of the time then I can't imagine that you can focus in less than a second or two. So, we prefocus and are ready to go. That's what Sean seemed to be doing with the manual focus.

For sure he has things for Leica to fix but I think there is a pretty big gap between the way the two tested it and how street shooters would use the camera. All that being said even more admiration for the way that Panasonic has worked out their CDAF considering both compared the X1 to the 20mm lens, which is the slowest focusing lens of all the Panasonic made m4/3 lenses.
 
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