Leica X1… the journey begins….
On a recent trip to the Bahamas shooting for Teenyb Bikini company I found a new passion. Our friend Sig as always had bought a new toy and was excited to show me. At first sight I just didn’t understand… what he showed me was a camera the was new but looked as if it had been styled 20 years ago but he was so damn excited about it. I wasn’t however… thing even had no auto focus only manual… How good could it be? Then I shot it…. WOW! Color rendering, clarity, color depth, depth of field… This thing was amazing. I had to have one until I found out it was a Leica M9 and sold for $7000.
That has haunted me in the months since. Knowing there was a tool out there that would enhance my photography but also knowing it was outside my budget. Enter the X1…. not exactly cheap at $2000 but closer to my budget than the M9. Now an X1 is no M9… but it is a Leica and shares technology. A 24 mm f2.8 from either camera will have a similar look.. the frames are completely different since the M9 is full frame, M9 is also 18 megapixels vs 12 on the x1…. however if cropped to match color and clarity will closely match.
I won’t talk alot of specs here they are all over the web and most people who read this won’t care anyway. But for the record it is a 12 megapixel camera with a fixed 24mm f2.8 lens. Quality wise if shot next to me Nikon d300 both at 24mm and F2.8 the shots will be of similar quality. The Nikon will render more flat “natural” looking colors while the Leica seems to have more life to it. Additionally to my eyes the leica is just slightly sharper. However the difference in the feel or emotion in holding each is wildly different. Only description I can give is the Nikon feels like I am driving my S200 down I4 to go to work and the Leica feels as if I am on the PCH in a classic Porsche. And this is the difference that matters to me. This “inspiration” factor makes the difference between getting beautiful images and getting inspired images.
I am going to post a new gallery page on this website that is just for Leica images. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.