I've had time to use the Leica DLUX8 a lot. It's a fun camera. It's a good camera. There are a few niggles that could be improved. None of them rise to "dealkiller" status.

Kirk by John Camp. His first trial of the DLUX8.

It's easy for people to dismiss the Leica D-Lux 8 compact camera as just a re-badged, ancient Panasonic but just as with the naysayers of Leica's rangefinder cameras the vast majority of people doing the dismissing have never used one. Never touched one. Never spent a week with one. Never shot a couple thousand images in mixed light, good light and bad light with one. They look at a few specs and move on toward cheaper fare. And, for them, it may be the right decision. It can be painful to pay more for incremental quality embellishments. Not everyone is as sensitive to bad user interfaces or too much complexity in their imaging tools. Not everyone believes that cameras can be different enough to prompt the purchase of a luxe camera. Even a smaller and less expensive one than the rest of the camera company's product line.

I thought I would skip buying the DLux 8 until I handled one "in the flesh." I liked the very good EVF, liked that the menus pretty much matched those in other Leica cameras I know and use and offered a small, lightweight package that packed a lot of great imaging potential for a fraction of the cost of Leica's bigger offerings. I looked through the viewfinder and decided it was a camera that I'd get a lot of use from.  When a pristine used one showed up at a good camera store, complete with all the accessories I would have paid more for if I purchased the micro system bit by bit, I clicked "buy." 

I've mostly used the camera in the 3:2 aspect ratio and mostly as a Jpeg instrument (although I have been shooting DNG+JPEG, just in case) so I'm getting about 16.5 megapixels of data per frame. Not the 24 megapixels I've been accustomed to but more than enough for all electronic applications I generally encounter. Website content, social media, online galleries, etc. I haven't tried printing work from the files but they should be absolutely fine up to 13 by 19 inches. I say that because when I've post processed various files from the camera they have had a very high level of detail. More than I expected after hearing endless disses of the "ancient" zoom lens that comes bolted to the camera.

You should know that the camera is small. In its naked form it's just a little too small for me. But that may be because I have been cursed by the muscle memory that comes from handling much bigger cameras for years and years. The remedies for the small size are relatively simple. Get a thumb grip for the hot shoe and buy a half case that has a grip on the front. Pretty much problem solved. 

I've included samples below and I have more samples here: https://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com/2025/04/yes-ive-spent-some-time-with-leica.html

What I didn't know when I purchased the camera is just how good it is as a flash camera. The camera comes with a small, simple flash that sits in the hot shoe. (Yeah, you'll lose the rear thumb grip...). I didn't expect much from the combination of the camera and flash but decided it was worth giving it the old college try. My first extended use of the combination was during a rooftop reception for my client. The DLUX8 consistently outperformed the SL2-S + SF64 flash combination when it came to automatically delivering just the right amount of light to balance fill flash with sunlight. Part of that is probably down to the fact that the smaller camera uses a leaf shutter which goes a long way toward being more flexible about using higher shutter speeds and more open aperture settings. Regardless, it outperformed the bigger and far more expensive set up so I ended up putting the big camera in the bag and using the D-Lux 8 and its companion flash for the rest of the evening reception. I shot over 300 images with the combination and had only a handful of technically poor files which were probably a result of me rushing the process. 

If you like the idea of using the small flash and the leaf shutter to do fill flash outdoor images just be aware that the flash is powered by the battery in the camera which could mean, depending on how much you chimp and what apertures you need, that the battery will run out of juice more quickly. Still, to make it through an hour and a half reception, using flash was 100% of the time, while cranking out over 300 shots, is a good performance. The surprising thing was that the battery still had about half a charge left!!! 

The camera came with two batteries and I bought two more before I had this experience with it. Had I known it was such a good performer I might have passed on the additional batteries. But... in my experience you can never have too many batteries. 

The camera came with a Leica supplied wrist strap but I've never been a comfortable user of wrist straps. They always seem to make sense to me but fall short when it comes to actual handling of cameras. Your experience may vary but I immediately reached into the drawer of my desk and grabbed a fairly thin, leather camera strap. Ahhhhh! Just right. 

Here's one point I have against the camera and it's totally an aesthetic consideration, not an operational one. When I have the camera turned off the retracted lens looks just right in proportion to the camera body but when you turn the camera the lens extends to its full length and more or less stays there until it powers back down. It just looks....inelegant. But I'm guessing if you want a 24mm to 75mm, fast lens on a very small camera you have to make a compromise or two. If you are positioned behind the camera you probably will rarely notice the erect lens but from the side it looks as if the camera is overachieving...

The camera I bought came with a 46mm B&W UV filter which I've kept on the lens. After all, with a fixed lens camera, if you totally screw up the front element of the lens it's not like you can replace it with another one....for less than a fortune. 

Another annoying tendency is endemic to compact zoom lens cameras; when the camera powers down the zoom retracts and so adds additional time when you want to re-power the camera quickly. This isn't so much of an issue as a compromise. If you have enough spare batteries you can set the power down time to "off" and as long as there is life in the battery the camera and lens will remain fully operational. A balance between instant availability and an ever declining power reserve. Your choice. And yes, there is middle ground. You can set the power off time for two minutes, five minutes or ten minutes as well. 

For me, there is no middle ground. I either use the full on power saving mode (two minutes) or I submit and use the camera with the power setting at "off." 

There are three user set-able profiles to choose from. I have a raw setting setup, a color Jpeg setup and a high contrast monochrome (B&W) setting and it's a quick way to use the camera. Especially if you move from one kind of photography to another. The one "flaw" with the system is when you are using a profile, change a setting and then subsequently turn off the camera when you restart the camera whatever change you made while shooting is not retained. Of course, if you decide you like whatever you changed you can just go into "user profile manager" and resave that profile. I finally figured that out and now I'm basically happy with the system. It does work. 

Two more small complaints; both having to do with the strength of detents on two settings. Every time I put the camera into a small camera bag I seem to knock the EVF diopter out of adjustment. It does have clicks between settings but it could use just a touch more resistance. I've had to readjust the diopter several times over the course of the week. The same with the aspect ratio switch on the top of the lens. It could be a bit more resistant as well. But these are small things in comparison to the fact that the camera delivers very good noise reduction and high detail in the files I've shot with it. 

The decision to eliminate a bunch of buttons and physical controls was the right one. It's rare on this camera for me to brush or accidentally mash a button unintentionally. That's great. And it goes along with a menu that's simple and easy to navigate and understand. You may never have the level of customization that some people like on other cameras but I find that most of the changes are just made by users because the options exist, they've been paid for and it would seem wrong not to use them. Like a diner who pays for a meal, is completely satisfied but keeps eating to painful excess just because....the food is there and... they paid for it. Same with endless customization options in the typical camera menu. They are mostly analogous to an "all you can eat" scenario. Not so with the little Leica. It's got just enough and not too much. Balance is good. 

Some have complained that the process of zooming from wide to tele and tele to wide is too slow. While everyone would probably prefer a manual ring for zooming I can't think of any other fixed, zoom lens compact camera that has one so I have no idea what they are comparing with. The zoom works fine once you understand the operating limitations. I've never found a situation in which the speed of the zoom has been a problem. Slower than a physical ring? Sure. Slower than the competition? Dream world of complaints. 2.6 seconds from 24-75mm. Timed it just now...

So, what we have here is a nice camera that's very well built, small and beautifully designed. Beautifully designed physically and also operationally. The interface is great. The EVF is current state of the art for fixed zoom lens compacts and the color science is mature and delivers great results. The battery life is good. The choice of .DNG as a raw file is efficient for post processing. And the detachable flash implementation is almost perfect. The only stumbling block I can really see for some users is the price. That's pretty inflexible and everyone will have to decide for themselves whether the camera provides good value for them.

My client in Santa Fe loved the images and complimented the output from the camera repeatedly. Yes, I had bigger and more "impressive" cameras and lenses with me but as I have said many times, actual corporate clients don't give a fuck what camera a professional photographer uses as long as they deliver the results they expect. And that was certainly the case over the course of this week. You could do a lot worse.... 

I have a soft spot for m4:3 cameras. I did fun, good work in Iceland with a pair of G9s back in 2018. I've used OM cameras to make great videos. There's nothing wrong with the format and a lot that is right. Especially when it comes to size and weight. Before you trash the D-Lux 8 why not borrow one and try it out for a week. I think you'll be surprised. 

Change is tough for a lot of people. I get that. Many are highly resistant to change even when it may benefit them. That's okay. Maybe you don't even need a new camera. That's financially efficient. But we only get one shot at existence (at least in this form) and we might as well maximize our fun quotient. Right?

Another in Kirk's endless series of selfies...

the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe.

Pasquale's Restaurant. A perennial favorite.

At a reception late in the afternoon. Full sun. With flash on camera.

Yes. I've spent some time with the Leica DLUX8. Good acquisition or big mistake? As usual, I actually used it before I decided.

 Added on Sunday after seeing many Jpeg files: Good Acquisition? Yes. Very much so.

I bought the Leica DLUX8 camera. It came in on Thursday. I had already read the manual and watched the smarter influencers on YouTube talk about what they liked and didn't like. I was pretty sure the camera would be capable and nicely designed. I wasn't prepared for how tiny it is "in person." It's small. Really small. Which makes me happy that mine came with a half case that has a built-in front grip. I also got a thumb grip that fits into the hot shoe. Together they make the camera a better fit for my medium sized hands. 

I guess the reason I thought the camera was bigger is that on YouTube the "influencer/reviewers" are constantly holding the camera in front of themselves out toward the filming camera; the filming cameras generally have short focal lengths and so the size relationships are all skewed. It's an odd thing, expectations. But really, if you are one of those tender users who can't bear to walk around with a camera heavier than a creme filled donut you'll like this one. Used on a strap I constantly had to check and see if the camera had floated away. It's pretty light...

After four years of lugging around the brick they call The Leica SL2  I suppose it will take me some time to get used to its opposite. 

I know some photo bloggers love to get those links reviews out to the public before they have ever seen or touched a particular camera or lens. Perhaps it's more fair to say that they have made new camera introductions just a jumping off point that triggers a long flood of writing about something else. But I guess the point I've made for years now is that the only way to really get to know how a camera works, how well a camera works, and how well a camera will work for you is to get one in your hands and give it a spin. Use it the way you use your other cameras. Shoot the same kinds of stuff so you end up with some sort of basis for comparison. Right? Passing along the consensus of other people's reviews is hardly the way to "review" a camera. 

In terms of understanding the DLUX8's operation I had a bit of a head start since so much of the menu in the new camera matches the menus in three of my other cameras. In fact, the set up, including mapping out three custom profiles, took about ten minutes. The rest of my downtime was just waiting for batteries to charge. 

I didn't think I would miss a dedicated charger but in fact I do. I'm not remarkably thrilled at having to charge the four batteries I bought, one at a time, in the camera. Mostly because it means I can't use the camera while I'm in the process of charging batteries. Drat. Ah well, I'm sure, if I really, really like using the camera a lot, I'll source a third party charger that works. In the meantime I'll make do.

I started using the camera in earnest yesterday. B&B and I all got in the studio limousine and headed toward San Antonio, Texas to meet my brother's family, and my late sister's family, and a small subsection of my brother-in-law's family at a favorite Mexican food restaurant in what would have been my younger sister's 65th birthday. A remembrance of sorts. 

I'm always mortified if I am ever late; either for a casual social event or a time limited client engagement. I presumed that there would be traffic galore on Friday afternoon and so we headed down with two and a half hours set aside to make the trip. In the old days, pre-everyone-moved-to-Austin, we could make the trip to San Antonio in about an hour. Yesterday, with multiple full stop delays, we drove up to the restaurant with two minutes to spare. White knuckle driving on a busted up highway layered with four lanes of crazy, young people in giant pick-up trucks interwoven with looming and zooming 18 wheelers.

We sat on the patio under a nice, diaphanous shade, and had a really great meal. The main attraction though was my nephew's brilliant, sharp, funny and precocious almost two year old son, Ira. He was just amazing. He got through a two hour, grown up event without a single issue and spent the whole time reminding all of us just how much fun childhood can be. He "ordered" the kid's quesadilla plate. And enjoyed tearing apart the cheese-packed tortilla before consuming it. We did not let him order from the bar. 

I was at the far end of a long string of tables from the kid but it was the perfect opportunity to break out the DLUX8 and snap away with the lens extended to its maximum focal length; a 75mm equivalent. The camera focused and metered without issue and handled a bit of backlighting with grace.

After dinner the three of us, B & B & me headed back to Austin and endured yet another atrocious trip. This time traffic on this main highway that runs north to south was funneled down from four lanes to one lane which brought all the cars and trucks to a complete stop for the better part of half an hour while people figured out how to compress into one lane without chaos breaking out. 

This morning was filled with errands and routines. Since I won't be here for most of next week I wanted to make sure bills were paid for the business and that all the jobs which had come in recently were done and dusted. Final images delivered and invoices tendered. Then I needed to go by the Apple store and pick up a new iMac for the house. My delightful spouse/CFO had been working on a hand-me-down iMac from 2013 and it finally hit the point where we couldn't upgrade the OS to anything recent enough to satisfy the security requirements of our banks and brokerages. We ordered a custom build earlier in the week... Now she's better equipped than is my studio. A new machine with an M4 processor, 24 Gigs of memory and a Terabyte of SSD storage. Nice. But, of course, I am further down in the "corporate" hierarchy so going to the Apple store and shlepping computers back to home base is part of my responsibilities. Of course I made it to swim practice, etc. 

But when all the boxes on my list had a bold check mark on them it was time to find a shade-full hat and take the new camera arrival out for a more varied spin. I set it up as a fully automatic camera for today. Program automation. i-AF engaged, Auto-ISO on tap and I headed to the ever crowded and kinetic S. Congress Ave. Home of Jo's Coffee, the Hermés shop and so much more. 

The camera is quick to operate. The automatic white balance works well --- as demonstrated by the interior shots of fluorescent lit Allen's Boot Store. The exposures were mostly right on the money --- or at least as accurate as most other cameras I've used. And the battery life was actually much, much better than I had been led to believe (running firmware 1.4).

There is only one thing I'm not really fond of with the new camera. When it's turned on the lens extends and it looks dorky that way. The package looks so nice with the lens retracted... But it's something I'm sure I'll get used to. 

I shot a couple hundred images in both .DNG and Jpeg and I did minimal processing to the ones I'm showing here. Most of which started life as raw files. The raw files in this camera are limited to 12 bits but they are actually healthy and rich. A great starting point for more involved post processing. Lots of leeway in shadow lifting and what not. I processed in Lightroom Classic.

I am happy enough with the results so I'll toss this camera and its little flash into the camera backpack and take it along with me to Santa Fe on Monday. Might press it into use for some social, candid photos at one of the receptions. Talk about stealthy....

As far as file size goes the Jpegs out of the camera will be just right. I'll shoot in raw and Jpeg just to be sure. That's about all I can tell you about this little camera right now except for one more thing... the EVF really is as good as most fans of the camera say it is. Nice, bright, sharp and detailed. Just what this photographer asked for. Does that make it "worth the purchase price?" As always, that's your call. 

Some captions interspersed below.

Allen's Boots. No need for the macro setting, the lens focuses nice and close in its normal mode. 

all of the boot details shots were done handheld, depending on the image stabilization to save me.

Mostly as combinations like 1/25th of a second shutter, f2.8 aperture, ISO 400. 

Detail in the Hermés show window. Standing in my own shadow to block glare on the glass.

I never remember the name of this little shop but they always do great decor. 

A wreath of colored eggs for Easter! Again, I was excited to work close in and get details (below) without having to resort to the macro mode on the camera. 

and, of course, it was vital to ensure that the new camera could do a decent job with our treasured tradition of mannequin photography. It passed. 

sure. I bet....

Family resemblance --- loving those reds!!!

Shadows, highlights, full sun. And a dog.

Open Road Stetson in straw weave. Still not approved by resident hat critic, John. 

We abide by his preferences on this having no objectivity of our own...

And we end this blog with a quiet contemplation of cappuccino. 

Heading to Santa Fe, NM. early tomorrow morning. Looking forward to the change of venue.

Spring time in Texas. That wonderful two weeks between Summers...

 When I work on things like events or commercial shoots with their "laundry lists" of shots that need to be captured I have a camera in my hands for hours at a time. That may be why the feel of a camera, for me, takes precedence over cutting edge technical specs for cameras, and why I've been hesitant to change brands after finding a system that feels right to me. One would imagine that after six, seven or eight hours with a camera in hand or hanging over a shoulder on a strap, the last thing I would want to do is carry a camera around with me when I'm "off the clock." 

But it seems nothing could be further from the truth. When B. and I went to the Austin Epicure for breakfast this morning (just around the block and down a bit) I had the new, little Leica DLUX8 (which I recently claimed I would probably never buy.... yes, the gods punish even commercial hubris) which I use to take a few quick photos. Mementos. Notes. 

The image accompanying the type here was taken just before dinner at the house of best friends. They are amazing entertainers. One half of the partnership is a brilliant three dimensional designer who loves to set a beautiful table -- usually outside in their gardens.  The other half is a professional whose side hobby is cooking. He's a veteran of dozens of cooking classes and schools and when you are asked to dinner the only response that makes any sense is: "Oh Hell Yes!!! What kind of wines should I bring?"

When I leave the house I always take a camera with me. I walked into their backyard and saw the table and fell, visually, in love with the entire presentation. And, of course, I was motivated to take photographs so I could later send a small batch to my hosts as an incidental "thank you." 

This image was taken with a Panasonic S1R. The first 47 megapixel camera I owned. Accompanied by a 50mm lens. Likely the Zeiss ZF version I've owned for at least a decade now. The shot was reflexive. The composition quick and casual. When I look at it the image reminds me of a great dinner, great friends, and the kind of Spring evening that starts out a bit close and ends up with a coolness at night filled also with the soft, yellow glow of light bulbs strung across a garden and people pulling sweaters on against the chill but at the same time having too much fun to go inside. The host lighting a wood burning fire in a close by fire pit as candles flicker on the table with their dance cascading off every reflective surface.  From the wine glasses to the silverware. And it all starts with a well set table and flowers, freshly picked from the garden.

And for just those two weeks between Summer and Summer we get to have weather that requires nothing but an ability to feel pleasure.

The camera is just there to create visual keepsakes for those who might be interested. 

Oh! It must be Good Friday. 

Alien Spacecraft Discovered by the Railroad Tracks that Run Through Downtown.

 I often post images and forget to come back and caption them. I guess I'm either too lazy for this kind of presentation (blogging) or I wrongly assume that everyone thinks as I do and you immediately understand what I was looking at when I took a photograph. 

Take this image for instance. If one were acquainted with trains and train trafficking they might recognize this as some sort of device having to do with routing trains so they don't collide with each other on the same track. Kind of makes sense...I guess. I find it odd that the silver, metallic device just sits in the middle of some scrubby grass next to a largely unused parking lot near the middle of Austin. I can't imagine why it needs the rocketship nosecone apparatus at the top. I look at the bottom and see the device supported by four legs which keep it about a foot off the ground. I am further mystified as there is no writing, no labels and no logo on the device that might speak to its provenance or aim us toward its owners. It is, to me, an enigma. A mystery. 

When I look at it while walking with a camera I respond to the bright silver finish and the odd rocket-esque device on the top and I stop trying to figure out what it's actually use is. Why it was made and placed in a little plot of almost indestructible, native Texas grass. I'm sure I could do a search online and find its exact reason for existing but as I may have mentioned before, I am quite lazy. 

Instead, when I look at stuff like this I tend to regress to a time in my life when I spent most Summer days lounging around the house (after swim practice, of course!), soaking up the air conditioning in my parent's house, and reading science fiction books. Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and scores of others. Reading about robots gone awry on the surface of the planet Mercury, lonely astronauts adrift and powerless in the depths of space, hard-headed experts working out the faux science of hyper-space travel. Robots grappling with the idea of self while still hewing to the three laws of robotics. And then there is the ancient law that says those who can't enjoy an occasional science fiction novel are doomed to be boring...and fatuous. 

And when I regress to that state of mind everything looks like an alien object put here for a reason we don't yet know. Like the Monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey". And so I photograph the found object in order to catalog the presence of alien life all around us. Relics from the cosmos...

When I look at the image above I think perhaps that the top part, the rocket ship shaped, torpedo inflected appurtenance might be the actual space craft of a tiny species of highly advanced beings from another universe. Like the people who lived in the bus station locker in the movie, "Men in Black." 

Then I notice another clustered unit just to the right and about forty feet back from the "mother ship" and I wonder what the relationship is between the two objects. And I wonder if it would be scary to see these things at night, hiding from the liquid glow of a greenish-yellow streetlight. Would they be more interesting photographed in color after the sun sinks over to the west towards Fredericksburg and then hides just past Marfa? Would the colors of the urban space reflect off the shiny surfaces in a peculiar way? Would it seem odd to people passing by to see an old, grizzled photographer setting up a last century tripod in order to capture something special about something very mundane and casual? Would they call the police? Would they just shake their heads and remember something about eccentricity and aging? 

I walk around the device several times and let my subconscious decide the angle from which I'll take the final photograph. I'm using a small camera with a wide angle lens. I used to photograph things like this with a longer lens but when I started celebrating the idea of object strangeness I started to see the perceived distortion of the wider lenses as being a partner in my art/science fiction/documentation. And I found I liked it. 

I chose to shoot in black and white because, in color, the image was boring. How do I know? Well, I tried shooting it in color and....nothing. Contrasty black and white? Much nicer. Now if I could only come up with a short, concise caption that would sum up what I was feeling and how I interpreted what I was looking at I'll be set and ready to share. 

Just a thought about an image. It's important that, if you want to have fun while photographing, you have the mindset to make things fun. And sometimes that means interpreting the things you see around you in a different and sometimes sillier way.