Leica Minilux Zoom Review is a compact point-and-shoot camera. It offers a 35-70mm f/3.5-6.5 zoom lens.
It was aimed at the upper classes during the 1990s. It lacks some features that other modern point-and-shoot cameras have.
Features
The Leica Minilux Zoom is a 35mm point and shoot camera that offers a wide range of features. It includes a telephoto lens, a built-in flash, autofocus, and much more.
The camera comes with a Summarit 40mm f/2.4 lens (with 6 elements in 4 groups) that is praised for its superb optical performances and the quality of its images. It also allows exceptional low-light and available-light shooting thanks to its fast maximum aperture, a critical feature for street photography.
This is an excellent zoom lens for a point-and-shoot, but it does lack one key feature that would make it better: a closer minimum focus distance. With a 70cm (2.3 feet) minimum focus distance, it’s impossible to blur backgrounds as much as some more expensive point-and-shoots can do.
Another weakness is that it doesn’t have a manual focusing dial, so it can be difficult to get the lens set correctly. Its active AF system is decent when it works, but it doesn’t always.
Design
The Leica Minilux Zoom is a very stylish and classy camera. It features a fast 35-70mm lens housed in a body of high-grade titanium.
It also includes a hot shoe mount for the optional CF flash unit (sold separately), which allows for reduced red-eye and to light up objects from greater distances. This is a good feature, since the camera can be used both in low-light situations and at night.
This camera is also quite professional: it quickly alternates between shutter and aperture speeds on the top LCD panel, so you don’t have to keep glancing at the camera’s finder for exposure information. The top LCD also blinks to indicate what the camera has measured, so you can see it while removing your finger from the shutter to check exposure.
The camera also includes a self-timer function that can be useful when taking long exposures without needing Leica’s expensive remote control. But the timer is off when you power down the camera, and its exposure compensation never resets unless you manually set it back to zero.
Functions
The Leica Minilux Zoom is a very good point-and-shoot camera. It has an excellent manual focus lens and works well in a wide range of lighting conditions, especially when the flash is used.
It is also very easy to use, with all functions locked by just half a press of the shutter button. There are no menus to fiddle with and all settings cancel when the camera is turned off.
Bokeh is fair at the wide end and dismal at the long end, but if you’re not worried about shallow depth of field this isn’t a problem. The combined shutter/diaphragm essentially blurs the aperture when it is closed down, which effectively makes bokeh much more pleasing at the smaller openings.
Unlike most cameras, motion blur is very natural-looking. The shutter opens gradually, and then immediately starts closing slowly, which produces a very soft start and stop to any blur. Chromatic aberration is also carefully mitigated, presenting itself only where it’s needed most.
Performance
The Leica Minilux Zoom is a great point-and-shoot camera that performs well for its size and price. It’s also easy to use and has a wide variety of special features that make it a good choice for amateur photographers.
The viewfinder on the Minilux is tiny and doesn’t have a viewfinder indicator, so it can be difficult to see exactly what you’re taking a picture of. The Minilux does have an active autofocus (AF) system that is quite accurate when it works, but doesn’t always work with distant subjects.
A green LED light lets you know that your shutter speed is slow, but it blinks rapidly when the camera is too close to a focus point. This feature is a great way to prevent accidental exposures when you’re not sure what you’re doing.