Sunday, June 28, 2009

First Impressions

Here it is Sunday and it is going be very hot today 100+ is what is predicted. I have had my Leica for about 10 days I'm going to share my first impressions with you. I purchased the camera through Amazon and tried the next day delivery option for the first time. It was great the camera arrived within 24 hours as promised.
The only option I purchased with it was a 4 gig Extreme 3 SD card by San Disk. I'm currently using the Extreme 3 cards in my Nikon D300 and have been very satisfied with the speed and longevity of these cards. The card comes with a offer from San Disc to download their recovery program Rescue Pro. I have not had to use it but I do recommend having it on hand just in case.
One of the first things I did after unpacking the camera and putting the battery in the charger was to go to the Leica site to register my purchase. After completing the owners registration I was happy to learn that Leica was extending my two year warranty to three years. One additional year just for signing up and registering my purchase. A very good deal especially for someone who had considered purchasing the Panasonic Luminx DMC-LX 3 which is nearly identical to the Leica D-Lux4. The Panasonic comes with a one year warranty and if you want to extend the warranty it will cost you over $100.00.
The next project was to down load the current firmware upgrade and install it on the camera. This firmware upgrade took less that 15 minutes and you are ready to use the camera. Today I'm sharing a few of the test shots that show the potential of this little camera. (click on images for larger view}

This shot was taken my daily walk and is of a trail map. It had a plastic cover over the map to protect it from the weather. As you can see the detail is excellent and the colors are true to the original.

This shot of my cable remote was taken indoors with no flash again note the clarity and lack of distortion.

This may look like a silly picture of a glass but click on the image for a larger view and see the clarity and the depth of field. So far so good that is all for now next week I will have more to share.