This is the best sub-SLR (bridge) camera there is out there.
Enough has been written about this camera by others so I am not going to go over the same things again.
Here are just a few points that I think are important, or have not been covered before.
1. I saw that some people wrote that if you want to spend this money, you might as well buy a SLR camera kit. That is a misleading idea.
Leica V-Lux 1 comes with a 35 to 430 mm original, best quality lens. There is no SLR kit on the market that covers that range at the same lens quality under $1000.00, let alone the fact that you don't have to carry two lenses to cover the same zoom range (focal distance).
2. This is the only bridge camera that offers exactly the same controls like true SLR cameras, including dial controls for aperture and speed, placed just like the controls in the Nikon SLR series. Without taking the camera from your eyes you can adjust with your index and thumb, the aperture and the exposure speed (or the Program Shift as the case may be). In the same time, with your left hand you can adjust the zoom and the manual focus rings.
3. Leica V-Lux 1, has some features encountered only in SLR-s much more expensive. In example, on the left side of the lens there is a "forced" Focus button. Even with the focus set to MANUAL mode, one can still touch with the left thumb this button and the lens focuses automatic. Then it remains further in manual mode, so you can continue to adjust it further by turning the focus ring.
3. Here is one example of how great the image stabilization works. Last week I was at my son's convocation ceremony that took place indoors in a sports arena, but it was not lit enough. My son was sitting in the middle of the stadium. I was standing all the way up. With the camera held in my hand and with the maximum zoom, I took about three pictures. One out of three came out perfectly clear. Now consider this: the exposure was 1/16sec which would absolutely require a tripod.
Further I just leaned my right elbow on a railing and then took some more pictures, and they all came out very clear at 1/8 and 1/16 sec!
4. One word of caution: If you are used to other cameras that in Auto mode allow choices on metering, focus area, etc, this camera in Auto mode offers very little options. If you want access to all the settings, you have to set it to "P" (Program Mode) which is also an "automatic" mode that allows all the settings to be changed.
5. If money is tight, but you would really like to get the Leica as opposed to the equivalent Panasonic, if you shop around you find this camera at around $750 - $800. Also, look on the Leica web site as they are offering a $150 mail in rebate (March-Apr 2008, and again July-Aug 2008, and I am sure they will offer it again), so you end up paying $600 - $650, which all of a sudden looks a lot more as a very good value.
A great, high quality camera.
Buy Leica V-Lux-1 10 Megapixel Digital Camera!
