Cameras

Field Review: Leica D-LUX 5 (Day 3)

Chris Gampat
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11/17/2010
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 07/20/2011 by Chris Gampat

So how does the D-LUX 5 do in low light situations? I went out with a bunch of friends the other night and tested out the focusing and high ISO abilities of the camera.

Focusing in Low Light

Focusing of the D-LUX 5 in low light is slow but bearable. Granted, it will use the red light emitted from the camera to help with focusing so don’t expect a stealthy shot even with the lack of a flash.

Manually focusing isn’t very worth it because of the lack of a higher detailed screen. It can be very hard to do and I actually wish that the camera had a smooth focusing dial around the lens like the Canon S95 did. To boot, the camera also needs a higher resolution screen.

For most people, the focusing speed will not be an issue. For high end Nikon and Canon DSLR users that are spoiled (like me) and used to much faster focusing speeds with F/2.0 and greater lenses, it will take getting used to.

High ISO and Raw Versatility Results

The images on the left are straight JPEG converts and those on the right were edited using Lightroom 3. Color correction, slight vignetting, noise reduction, sharpening, and resizing were done. As you can see, the versatility of the RAW files is actually pretty darn incredible for a point-and-shoot.

Also, note just how incredibly powerful the flash is. Unedited on the left, edited on the right.

 

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Are you convinced you should get it over the LX-5 or the S95? Also let us know if we were correct so far in our evaluations just linked.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.