Good looks.

Poor pics.

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...)

Customer Service

None need.

Similar Products Used:

Canon Elph Jr.

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)

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.

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.

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.

Similar Products Used:

minolta vectis 2000
Nikon Nuvis 75i
Nikon Pronea 6i
Elph sport

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.

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.

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.

Customer Service

NA

Similar Products Used:

Leica Z2X (35mm)
Leica Mini III (35mm)
Canon Elph LT (APS)