I’ve had my Leica D-LUX 3
for a good year now and *love* it. I am happy to see that Leica came out with a the Leica DLUX 4 
with some great improvements. The most analog improvement of them all is that they’ve added the camera straps loops on both sides, like with the big SLRs. See the camera’s full specs list over at dPreview.
I wish it had a range-finder though…
Nov 19th, 2008 / 6:17 pm
I held one of these last weekend. The lens part is slightly redesigned, but other than the hot-shoe, it looks the same.
If I didn’t already own the 3, and if I could *afford* the new price hike, I’d seriously consider it too…
Nov 19th, 2008 / 7:31 pm
I had the D-Lux 3 for over a year and was very happy with it … but i just got the D-Lux 4 and am officially in love: the new 1:2.0-2.8 lens adds a whole f-stop in brightness, which is a critical advantage if you want to shoot indoors, without flash, and out of your hand. I’ve had significantly less motion blur and/or less grain since. Totally worth the upgrade!
Recession special: if you don’t mind the less stylish body design, you can buy the TWIN from Panasonic (Panasonic DMC-LX3, which sells for less than half if you research well). It’s the same (!) hard- and software, except that Panasonic cameras have a default saturation setting that is one step more saturated than the Leica. Easy to fix.
Nov 19th, 2008 / 9:29 pm
I had a Canon Elf for about 5 years that just broke down. How does the Leica D-Lux 3 compare? I’m not super photo smart, but can learn… Sounds like the Leica may come with more manual options?
Nov 19th, 2008 / 11:06 pm
i have the d-lux 3 as well. for the most part i have been happy with it. anytime i shoot iso 400 i have to use noise ninja on the images… it is pretty poor on the noise front.
however having a camera that shoots RAW in my shirt pocket at all times is nice… plus it’s pretty easy on the eyes.
Nov 20th, 2008 / 1:22 am
Oh my gosh. The second camera strap loop is probably worth upgrading to the 4. This guy Luigi at http://www.leicatime.com makes unbelievable custom leather cases for the D-Lux and other nice cameras. If only his website were as pretty as the product.
Nov 20th, 2008 / 2:00 am