Leica C11

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5,
9 votes

Price Paid:  $149.00 from Foto Dose, Hamburg,

Summary:
Having been attracted by the brand name Leica, I could not resist buying a C11 when its price dropped to 149 € (approx. 130 $). Fed up with carrying my bulky SLR everywhere, I was always looking out for an affordable, but solid P&S camera. So now for the first time I own a camera with a red dot...?xD;?xA;The camera is designed beautifully, the first impression is that of a solid, well-built camera. I have exposed a few rolls of film since, and the pictures come out fine. There are the usual drawbacks of a mainly automatic camera, e.g. it has no exposure compensation, but colours and sharpness are okay. I like the focal range of the zoom lens (23-70 mm, corresponding to 30-90 mm in 35mm format). But make sure to use a fast film due to the available apertures.?xD;?xA;I like avoiding the flash, which is prone to red-eye due to the short distance between the flash and the lens. I''''m a bit annoyed that you have to switch the mode to the desired non-flash mode after turning the camera on.?xD;?xA;The translucent box is quite a beauty and protects the C11 well from dust or rain, but it makes the camera too big to carry it around in a shirt''''s pocket or so. So if you prefer a more compact camera, this one''''s not for you.?xD;?xA;I guess the priced dropped to that low level because of the decline of APS. So my main concern with this camera is whether films will be available for a couple of years. I''''m sure my C11 will survive the vanishing of APS films

Strengths:
Design, build quality, lens quality.

Weaknesses:
Flash prone to red eye.

Similar Products Used:
Olympus mju:1

Customer Service:
Not experienced yet.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
2 votes

Price Paid:  $250.00 from tamarkin

Summary:
Overall it is a very nice camera with a good lens and a balanced set of features. And, it looks fantastic. My only complaints are that the flash is so close to the lens that red eye is particularly bad with this camera, and that at the widest zoom setting there is considerable distortion at the edges.

All in all, this is the APS camera I would recommend unless extremly small size is important.

Strengths:
Nice fast focusing is a real plus. The high resolution lens is very nice with excellent contrast and color. The camera is very reliable and nice to look at. A very usable point-and-shoot with the benefits of APS and the resulotion one would expect from a budget Leica.

Weaknesses:
Distortion at edges in widest focal length (Do not put important subjects too close to the edge of the frame unless you are at a longer focal length).

Extreme red-eye due to flash proximity to lens. Use red-eye reduction mode (blech), force flash off when you can, or plan on retouching.

Similar Products Used:
Leica Z2X (35mm)
Leica Mini III (35mm)
Canon Elph LT (APS)

Customer Service:
NA

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $250.00 from tamarkin

Summary:
Overall it is a very nice camera with a good lens and a balanced set of features. And, it looks fantastic. My only complaints are that the flash is so close to the lens that red eye is particularly bad with this camera, and that at the widest zoom setting there is considerable distortion at the edges.

All in all, this is the APS camera I would recommend unless extremly small size is important.

Strengths:
Nice fast focusing is a real plus. The high resolution lens is very nice with excellent contrast and color. The camera is very reliable and nice to look at. A very usable point-and-shoot with the benefits of APS and the resulotion one would expect from a budget Leica.

Weaknesses:
Distortion at edges in widest focal length (Do not put important subjects too close to the edge of the frame unless you are at a longer focal length).

Extreme red-eye due to flash proximity to lens. Use red-eye reduction mode (blech), force flash off when you can, or plan on retouching.

Similar Products Used:
Leica Z2X (35mm)
Leica Mini III (35mm)
Canon Elph LT (APS)

Customer Service:
NA

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Price Paid:  $160.00 from e-bay

Summary:
I bought this camera because I like the APS format and wanted a high quality P&S APS for my wife to use rather than my big Pronea. I got it second hand. I think for the price, around $200-250, it is a good camera, but probably not the best. The colors on my vectis 2000 were richer, but it had tons of vignetting, this camera produces almost none.
I got miffed when I read a Leica news release about this camera that they made it for the APS user who really cares only what the camera looks like Vs function. I expected more from this company. The camera is nice and I am very impressed by the sharpness of indoor images and the flash is great (the best I've seen) for fill and for short range use. You have to remember to turn off the flash if your subject is more than 9-10 feet away.
The pictures don't match the quality of the pronea of course, though some of them come close, but it does well in most situations.
For my first Leica I'm not terribly impressed, but compared to other similarly priced P&S cameras it is a pretty good deal.

Strengths:
design is nice with simple controls, zoom extends and retracts smoothly and quickly, the flash(though very limited range) does a great job with fill flash. portrait type images are sharp. very little vignetting (hardly ever)

Weaknesses:
The viewfinder is a little awkward. colors are a little thin appearing but accurate, the case is cool but bulky when you take it off the camera without a strap of its own. lens is a bit slow so not great for action shots. seems to have more parallax than other cameras. I'm not a fan of automatic flashes, I prefer a camera that requires you to pop up the flash to tell it you want to use it. This camera tries to use the flash most of the time even if the subject is far out of its range.

Similar Products Used:
minolta vectis 2000
Nikon Nuvis 75i
Nikon Pronea 6i
Elph sport

Customer Service:
Warranty only good if bought from an authorized dealer, so if you get one refurbished (as I did), then no warranty. The lens cover on my unit is a little gimicky but functional.

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5,
4 votes

Price Paid:  $250.00 from Some website...

Summary:
I am not sure if it's the camera or ASP film but the pics the camera took were on par with a cheap 35mm camera. I tried ASP film from both Fuji and Kodak 100,200,400. Before this camera I had an Olympus Stylus Zoom. Now that was an excellent P&S camera. This is my first Leica, they are suppose to be good, but I don't know. The camera looks great, a little bulky but unfortunately I cannot recommend it. (I have a feeling it's the ASP though...)

Strengths:
Good looks.

Weaknesses:
Poor pics.

Similar Products Used:
Canon Elph Jr.

Customer Service:
None need.