And it's so like leica

So last week, I finally decided I needed a photo camera. I've never ever in my life owned a photo camera before, so this is a bigger decision than you'd might think. Yes, I've had mobile phones with camera's, three up 'till now, and I've even used them to make pictures, but never a real photo camera. So, what changed my mind? In short, it was a link from daringfireball.net to this page, a wonderful love story of a guy with a Leica M9, written by Thorsten Overgaard. It's described there as a mix between a DSLR and a point and shoot camera, with the goodies of both.

Leica's are hard to find around here. And it turns out that the M9 is horribly expensive. It can cost up to €6000, but in his love letter he mentioned a cheaper alternative, the Leica D-lux. So after reading the whole article, I took the plunge and decided I needed a Leica D-lux 5 for €699. However, because it would become my first camera, I needed to hold it in my hands before buying it. As it turned out, this was a good call.

Upon arriving in the photo store, the seller told me that, yes they have a Leica D-lux 5, but did I know that for €220 less I could be the owner of exactly the same camera but with a Panasonic label instead of the iconic red Leica label? He had both in stock, and demonstrated them both to me. Upon a few external design differences, they were practically the same.

So now I'm the proud owner of a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5


And it's so like leica...

Zaaf