For years, many photographers in the community have requested Micro Four Thirds cameras that were more rangefinder-style and could cater to street photography. In fact, I could find tons of channels that asked for this on YouTube. More importantly, we’ve been asking for it for years. Finally, today, Leica is announcing the development of something that street photographers and others will possibly want: the Leica D-LUX 8. From what it seems, it’s a variant of Panasonic’s LX100 Mk II. The Mk II was a slight variant of the original LX100 that we reviewed in 2014. So does that mean that Leica is releasing a slight variant of a 10-year-old camera?
The Tech Inside: This is a Development Announcement
From Leica’s deck shared with the press. We don’t have all the tech specs or information yet, and all that is coming later on. Here’s what we should expect from the Leica D-LUX 8:
- 21MP Live MOS Four Thirds sensor, which is effectively 17MP because it is a multi-aspect sensor.
- Leica DC Vario-Summilux f1.7-2.8 Lens. 24-75mm (35mm Equivalent)
- Leica Q-interface
- Single SD Card
- Clicked aperture
- Leica FOTOS App integration
- DNG Raw: a first for this style of camera
- Manual Control Rings and Dials
- External Flash Included
- $1,595 price point. That’s a few meager dollars cheaper than the Fujifilm X100Vi. Except in this case, it might not be back-ordered.
This will make the D-LUX 8 the only current Four Thirds sensor compact camera on the market.
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Is the Leica D-LUX 8 a 10-Year-Old Camera in Disguise?
We have to be honest, this seems weird for Leica. In the world of lenses, they’ll sometimes take Sigma’s optics and then change the exteriors and motors. But cameras? That’s stopped for a while now. From what we’ve been told by Leica’s reps, Panasonic will not make a variant of this design. In fact, they insisted that the Leica D-LUX 8 is a Leica design, and it’s inspired by the Q series of cameras such as the Leica Q3 and Leica Q2.
So, is this really a 10-year-old camera? Well, it doesn’t seem so, at least when you look at it from the outside. We didn’t review the LX100 Mk II, but if we look at DPReview’s images of the product and compare them, they don’t seem to be the same camera body. On the top, the Panasonic seems much busier. When you turn to the back, the Leica D-LUX 8 seems to be missing lots of buttons on the back.
Our Leica reps tell us that more information will soon be available on the new Leica D-LUX 8 camera and that this is really just a development announcement.
Could the Leica D-LUX 8 have Leica looks available via the Leica Fotos App? Perhaps more importantly, will it include weather resistance? Cameras of this type tend to have issues with lenses and dust getting inside. That’s the case with the entire Ricoh GR series.
It indeed seems to be the older Four Thirds sensor, and Leica-Looks could give it new life.
Preparing ourselves for the fact that this camera could really just be a much older camera in disguise, we’re reminding ourselves that the Fujifilm X100VI is a nearly five-year-old camera body with two-year-old internals. I wonder if this is the way of the world for rangefinder-style camera bodies going forward. I truly hope not.