Review: Leica D-Lux 3 digital camera

With excellent build-quality, and a slightly retro-feel to it, the D-lux 3 looks and behaves like a serious camera.

It’s comfortable to hold, and although the lens barrel protrudes permanently from the front, it’s compact enough to carry in a pocket.

As a direct upgrade from the D-Lux 2, the new model boosts image resolution from eight to 10 megapixels and adds a 2.8in widescreen LCD. Like its predecessor, the D-Lux 3 uses a wide 16:9 ratio CCD that lets you take panoramic landscape shots and shoot video clips in widescreen formats.

A slider on the lens barrel allows you to switch quickly between three aspect ratios: 16:9 for landscapes, 3:2 to match usual print sizes and 4:3 to match traditional displays.

The top-mounted mode dial, lets you chose from a rich selection of shooting options including 17 scene modes, fully automatic and program modes.

Although the D-Lux 3 has many automatic features, it’s best suited to those who really enjoy taking photographs as much as the final result. Shutter and aperture priority modes as well as full manual control give you the kind of creative flexibility you’d expect from a high-end camera. Almost everything can be tweaked and adjusted to obtain just the look you’re after.

While the control system isn’t difficult to use, it does take some getting used to. Its design makes it easy for those who know what they’re doing to make quick adjustments, but novice users could become easily lost in its apparent complexity.

For example, both a four-way cursor pad and a joystick are provided. The latter, isn’t labelled at all, but once you know how to use it you’ll find it allows quick access to many shooting options such as metering, focus, quality and ISO settings. These functions are accessed by pushing in and holding the joystick, something you may never think of trying unless you had read the manual.

It can also be a little tricky to operate the camera in near darkness as the mode dial is rather small and isn’t mirrored on the LCD during operation.

The D-Lux 3’s ISO settings range from 100 to 1600 (3200 in the low resolution High Sensitivity mode), but while photographs taken at ISO 100 are very good, increasing the sensitivity causes a large amount of image noise – always a problem with high-resolution sensors of this size. The camera’s image processing deals with most of the noise, but it also results in a considerable loss of detail and colour.

Rare in a camera of this size is the inclusion of a Raw shooting mode. In this mode you can bypass all of the camera’s internal processing and do it yourself using the supplied Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 software.

The use of optical image stabilisation also helps you keep the ISO setting down low by helping to reduce camera shake during longer exposures. It’s also effective when shooting video.
In movie mode, the D-Lux 3 can capture video at up to a resolution of 848x480 at 30fps (frames per second) and can step up to 1,280x720 pixels at 15fps – great for modern widescreen TVs and monitors.

The D-Lux 3 crams a lot of features into a very small camera. It has all the control a serious enthusiast could ask for without the bulk of an SLR. A few problems with noise are to be expected in a camera of this size, but many tools are at your disposal to help overcome them.

The biggest drawback to this camera is its price. If you can live without the Leica name tag, then Panasonic’s Lumix LX2 is almost identical and costs around £110 less.

Also consider:
Nikon Coolpix S9
A stylish and compact digicam with some interesting features

Samsung NV7 OPS
An unusual design that refuses to join the megapixel war

Casio Exilim EX-770
An extremely capable, stylish and portable camera that’s ideal for beginners with enough photo control in a compact for more advanced photographers

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