Review: Leica X1

Leica X1 review: overviewLeica's foray into the digital world may have been at a slower and more considered pace than what we're used to seeing, but working in partnership with Panasonic has nevertheless meant that it's managed to saturate a healthy range of the camera market. For more everyday use the company's point-and-shoot C-LUX and enthusiast D-LUX ranges sit at the base of its stable, while the M9 rangefinder and S2 medium format model lie at the other end to cater for professionals. In between the two, and among a handful of intermediate models, sits the X1, which can safely be considered as the company's answer to the growing popularity of compact system cameras. In many ways the model is unique, or at least it was upon its launch in September 2009 and its recent firmware upgrade improves upon the original performance. It begins a new series for the company, pairing a 12.2MP APS-C format CMOS sensor with a 24mm f/2.8 fixed lens, the combination of which produces a camera with an effective focal length of 36mm in 35mm terms. It's targeted at the enthusiast who requires a solid, high-quality model with dependable image quality in a pocketable form, albeit it one who will be willing to part with around £1400 for the privilege. The camera offers a capable feature set, but rarely does it go out of its way to offer any additional niceties. The sensitivity range, for example, is restricted to a reasonable span of ISO 100-3200, with no extension settings are either end, while metering patterns comprise the standard multi, centre-weighted and spot options. Five colour settings are on hand, including two black and white flavours, while the camera records all raw images in the Adobe DNG standard, which makes them immediately compatible with Adobe's editing programs. Image stabilization is also included, although it's neither lens nor sensor based; instead, the camera uses processing to blend two images into one to achieve a sharper result.There's a little flexibility in the camera's 11-point focusing system, with high-speed focusing options in 1-point and 11-point modes, as well as a more precise spot focus option and face detection setting, although sadly video recording - HD or otherwise - is nowhere to be found. Also a shame is the 230,000dot resolution of the camera's LCD screen, which today is bettered on models a fraction of the X1's price. At 2.7in it's hardly the largest display either, although, of course, a larger screen would necessitate a slightly bigger body. Leica X1 review: Build quality & handlingConsidering its target market, the X1 has more in common design-wise with Leica's rangefinder offerings than with its cheaper consumer-orientated models, providing the user with a more manual experience. The shutter speed dial common to the M-series, for example, is included on the top-plate, while a smaller aperture dial is provided alongside, as opposed to a more traditional lens-based aperture ring. The collar around the shutter release button is used to cycle through drive modes and power the camera up and down, while on the other side of the top plate lies a small flash, concealed under a rounded tab. Separating the two sides is a standard hot-shoe which accepts optional accessories such as flash units and an optical viewfinder.Although it's something for which Leica is well known, it's difficult to fully appreciate the exhaustive checking and testing of each model that goes on during its manufacture, which no doubt goes some way to justifying Leica's pricing. Nevertheless, the X1's build quality and attention to detail should be obvious upon handling the camera for the first time, with the all-metal construction ensuring it's as solid as needs be, and leather trim around its middle to provide a better handling. Some of the buttons on the rear may be a little too small for some, but all are clearly marked. While the camera's retro design is clearly key to its appeal, a slightly more modern menu system would be welcome. Admittedly, with its restricted colour palette and single list of options its focus is more on ease of use, and there's little chance of getting lost or confused by anything within it.At just over 300g with its battery in place the camera also puts paid to the notion that an APS-C sensor and a wide-aperture lens translate into a weighty model, and while it's certainly a little bulky it's far smaller than it's nearest competitor, Fujifilm's X100. With its lens protruding only around half an inch or so away from the main body, it can also happily squeeze into most coat and trouser pockets. Leica X1 review: PerformanceThanks to the camera's manual controls and a simple menu system, operating the camera is reasonably straightforward. It takes less than a second to fully power up the camera and around twice that time to power down, and buttons presses show the camera to be largely responsive. The focusing system lacks some of the expected fluidity in both normal and high-speed modes, and focusing speed on the whole could be better, but the camera does make it clear when it's found focus with bright green boxes over the focused areas. There's very little shutter lag once the shutter release is depressed, and the images spring up reasonably quickly on the LCD, while the iris shutter located in the lens clicks positively as images are captured. With a minimum focusing distance of 30cm, it can be difficult to fully isolate a subject from its background even when shooting wide open, much more so than with the Fujifilm X100 whose minimum focusing distance of 10cm makes this easier. The resolution of the LCD screen also makes manual focusing a little trickier than necessary, and as manual focus is performed electronically - as opposed to mechanically through a focusing ring – the off-putting unsteady nature of the focusing system makes itself known. The camera does, however, provide a distance scale to aid focusing, and also automatically magnifies the centre of the frame for more precise control. While the LCD screen may be sub-par on paper, it's perfectly usable in controlled lighting conditions; sadly, in harsh lighting conditions its usability drops significantly, to the point where even shielding it with the hand only does so much. Yet, as we would expect from any camera breaching the four-figure barrier, the X1's image quality is impressive. Metering in particular is spot on most of the time, with even tricky conditions failing to sway the camera one way or the other, while the hit rate of the auto white balance is equally impressive. Both of these are matched by superb control over noise throughout the camera's sensitivity range, with excellent results in terms of both noise and colour accuracy through till ISO 1600, and just a minor dip at the ISO 3200 maximum.Once the lens has been stopped down to its middle aperture range, there's no drop in sharpness in neither edges or corners of the frame, with detail remaining consistently high across the frame. There's a very marginal amount of distortion visible when shooting linear details, but this isn't generally too big a deal with most subjects, while chromatic aberrations are slight and only visible under close scrutiny, and bokeh as smoothly circular as is often promised.In fact, the only thing that really lets the camera down is its default JPEG output. In contrast with many other cameras, it's the raw files from the camera which are the more dynamic and vibrant, with JPEGs looking a little lacklustre by comparison. Colour tends to be a little more muted and brightness a little lower, although this latter point remedies the slightly highlight loss visible in the brighter raw files. There's definitely room for improvement with sharpness in JPEGs, although as slight noise patterning is visible in shadowy areas on all sensitivities, this should be preceded by gentle noise reduction. Of course, it's more than likely that X1 users will be processing their DNG files rather than re