Leica V-Lux 20 Reviews

The Leica V-Lux 20 is the first Leica camera to feature GPS tagging.For those who want to make movies as well as still images.  The V-LUX 20 camera 20 enables movie recording in HD quality.

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Compact size, intuitive handling and a high-performance 12x zoom lens make the Leica V-Lux 20 the perfect companion to have around wherever you happen to be – for every day photgraphy, touring the city or holidaying by the beach. The Leica 20 is the perfect tool with which to capture those wonderful moments in life as high quality pictures. Direct, spontaneous, and intuitive. This is made possible by numerous automatic functions and a versatile 12× zoom lens with an enormous focal range from 25 to 300 mm.

The optional manual setting of apertures and shutter speeds offers even the most demanding photographers complete creative control. With the latest advanced features such as HD movie and optional GPS image tagging, the Leica V-Lux 20 offers the greatest possible flexibility and ease of use – for still photography or movies when you are out and about, and even for archiving pictures already taken.A camera for people who appreciate quality and love to own and use something special.

Beautifully styled in a matt black finish, the Leica V-Lux 20 has been designed with simple,ergonomic controls and user-friendly menus.The V-LUX 20 includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 for quick and easy image editing.

The front of the Leica camera looks less cluttered than the Lumix, primarily because the only badge you’ll see on the V-Lux 20 is the famous red dot with the word “Leica” inscribed. There aren’t any other labels except on the optics to indicate the specifications of the lens. The V-Lux 20 is also available in black only, and with its inconspicuous design, can make for stealth shooting if the shutterbug wants to take pictures without the subject noticing.

The optional manual setting of apertures and shutter speeds offers even the most demanding photographers complete creative control. With the latest advanced features such as HD movie and optional GPS image tagging, the V-Lux 20 offers the greatest possible flexibility and ease of use – for still photography or movies when you are out and about, and even for archiving pictures already taken. A camera for people who appreciate quality and love to own and use something special.

The Leica also has an on-board GPS for geotagging photos, and it works in a similar manner to the TZ10. It also has a multi-aspect ratio sensor so it can take high-resolution photos regardless of which physical image format (3:4, 2:3 or 16:9) you are shooting in.
The V-Lux 20 takes about two seconds to start up, and shutter lag measured 0.1 and 0.4 second, with and without pre-focusing, respectively. These timings are on par with the TZ10.

This camera was quick to focus on our subjects and it felt a little faster than the Lumix. However, you probably won’t notice the difference if you were to use these two compacts in bright outdoor conditions. But when we shot at night, we felt the V-Lux 20 was snappier in locking onto dimly lit subjects.

The V-Lux 20 deliverS more consistent colours even at high ISO settings of 1600. Unlike the TZ10, which showed some discolouration at high sensitivity settings, the Leica held up well. The colour reproduction of the V-Lux 20 was also commendable. The tones looked natural and had a warm touch to them. This can probably be attributed to Leica’s image processing algorithm. Combine this with a steady image stabilisation system, and we got pretty sharp pictures even when we shot handheld at night.

Reviews

Thephoblographer  writes:

“Images are pretty sharp for a camera of this type. Colors are rendered well. The only thing that I found to be problematic was the fact that I wanted a faster lens on this camera. In good light, the autofocus is snappy. In bad lighting it still isn’t terrible but can be inaccurate at times. However, these aren’t very often as the autofocus areas are large and pretty smart.”
Rating: N/A

T3 reviews  writes:

“The camera produces the kind of images you’d expect from a prestige brand, like Leica – punchy colours that are bright but still look realistic, not cheap. Contrast is handles expertly and, as you’d expect from a Leica lens, the autofocus and image stabilisation do a great job – all of our test pictures were in-focus and without blur.”
Rating: ★★★★☆

Pocket-Lint reviews  writes:

“The Leica V-Lux 20 is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 based 12x optical zoom digital camera that provides plenty of features and shooting options within a remarkably compact body. But it’s at a greatly inflated price of over its Panasonic counterpart and a good software bundle aside, the camera can produce superb results and HD movies used well, but whether or not its worth the extra £240 to buy it over the Lumix, only you can decide.”
Rating: ★★★½☆

Stevehuffphoto reviews writes:

“The quality at 300mm is hit or miss though. You really need good light even though the lens has a maximum aperture of 4.9 when fully zoomed out. At 300mm, you need a high shutter speed to get a crystal clear shot. Hand movement, even with the optical image stabilization can screw up your photo pretty fast. Wide open at 300mm you can get some softness but overall it’s really really good, even at 4.9 and 300mm.”

Our Rating (4/5)

Good: Good image quality, accurate color reproduction, manual exposure control, quick performance, multi aspect ratio sensor, ships with Photoshop Elements 8.

Bad: Expensive compared with the TZ10, no AVCHD video compression.

Rating: N/A

Videos

Specifications:

Sensor:
• 1/2.33″ Type CCD
• 14.5 million pixels total
• 12.1 million effective pixels

Image sizes:
• 4:3 Aspect Ratio: 4000 x 3000, 3264 x 2448, 2560 x 1920, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 640 x 480
• 3:2 Aspect Ratio: 4176 x 2784, 3392 x 2264, 2656 x 1768, 2048 x 1360, 640 x 424
• 16:9 Aspect Ratio: 4320 x 2432, 3552 x 2000, 2784 x 1568 , 1920 x 1080, 640 x 360

Movie clips:
• 1280×720 pixels @ 60fps
(QuickTime Motion JPEG)
• 848 x 480 pixels @ 30 fps
(Motion JPEG)
• 640 x 480 pixels @ 30 fps
(Motion JPEG)
•320 x 240 pixels @ 30 fps
(Motion JPEG)

File formats:
• Still Image: JPEG(DCF/Exif2.21)
• Motion picture: QuickTime Motion JPEG

Lens:
• 12x optical zoom
• 25 – 300mm (35mm equiv.)
• f=4.1-49.2mm
• F3.3 – 4.9
• LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR
• 10 elements in 8 groups

Image stabilization:
• Lens

Digital zoom:
• Yes, up to 4x

Focus:
• Normal
• Macro
• Zoom Macro
• Pre-focusing (On/Off)
• Continuous AF On/Off
• AF Tracking

Metering:
• Face / AF tracking
• 11-point
• 1-point high speed
• 1-point
• Spot

Focus distance:
• Normal: Wide 50cm – infinity, Tele 2m – infinity
• Macro / Intelligent AUTO/ Movie: Wide 3 cm / Tele 1 m – infinity

ISO sensitivity:
• Auto
• 80
• 100
• 200
• 400
• 800
• 1600

Exposure compensation:
• ± 2EV, 1/3EV steps

Shutter speed:
• 60-1/2000 sec
• Starry Sky Mode : 15, 30, 60sec

Aperture:
• F3.3 – 4.9/ Multistage Iris Diaphragm (F3.3 – 6.3 (W) / F4.9 – 6.3 (T)

Modes:
• Program mode (P)
• Aperture priority (A)
• Shutter priority (S)
• Manual setting (M)
• Snapshot
• Custom
• Scene
• Movie
• Clipboard

White balance:
• Auto
• Daylight
• Cloudy
• Shade
• Halogen
• White Set

Self timer:
• 2, 10 sec

Continuous shooting:
• Full-Resolution Image
2.3 frames/sec Max. 5 images (Standard mode), Max 3 images (Fine Mode)
• High-speed Burst Mode:
Approx. 6.0 frames/sec (image priority)
Approx. 10 frames/sec (speed priority)
(recorded in 3M for 4:3, 2.5M for 3:2, 2M for 16:9)

Image parameters:
• Standard, Black & White, Sepia, Cool, Warm, Happy (only in iA Mode)

Flash:
• Auto, Auto with pre-flash (red-eye reduction), Auto with slower shutter speeds and pre-flash, On, Off
• 0.6 – 5.3m (Wide/ISO Auto), 1.0 – 3.6m (Tele/ISO Auto)

Viewfinder:
• No

LCD monitor:
• 3.0″ TFT LCD Display
• 460,800 dots
• Field of View : approx. 100%
• AUTO Power LCD mode, Power LCD mode

Connectivity:
• USB2.0 High speed
• AV Output (NTSC/PAL)
• miniHDMI
• DC Input

Print compliance:
• PictBridge
• DPOF

Storage:
• SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card
• 15MB internal memory

Power:
• Li-ion battery
• Charger included
• AC adaptor (optional)

Weight (no batt):
• 196 g

Weight (with batt):
• 218g

Dimensions:
• 103 x 62 x 33 mm