Leica Digilux 2 for professional photojournalistic use

By: Thorsten Overgaard. February 2004. Latest edit on August 24, 2022.

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Digilux 2 review and user report by Thorsten Overgaard

It's the perfect camera for the young talented photographer, as well as the photographer who looks for that familiar feeling of a "real" camera.

February 2004: Whenever I go to a press event there's always one or several photographers approaching to admire my Leicas. While they most often use large Canon or Nikon gear equipped with zoom lenses and flash with external battery backup, I use the small and handy Leica Digilux 2. As I can compare our results in terms of technical quality after the event - either in the paper or online on the wire services - it's a wonder why they don't leave the heavy gear at home, and go have some fun with the Leica Digilux 2 for all those jobs which do not require large zoom or tele lenses. In 90% of the cases a tele above 90mm is really not needed and the Digilux 2 has a 28-90mm zoom. Also, the lack of extensive zoom and large flash keeps you alert so you have much more fun - you use your talent to get the right shots, rather than relying on large equipment.

"Picture Perfect" video about Danish feature writer and photographer Thorsten Overgaard, by Emma Brumpton for Channel Four. The video was done on The Faroe Islands in 2008 during a week of photographing climate changes, when Al Gore visited the islands.

Leica Digilux 2: A new classic

It has become a classic in itself and if one looks around on the net and on the Leica Camera User Forum one will see many great examples from the Digilux 2. It has distinguished itself as a digital camera with an extremely nice lens – and as a great camera for street photography, as well as a digital camera that does pictures in black and white mode, that remind us of classic rangefinder shots.

When the Leica Digilux 2 and its counterpart, the Panasonic DMC-LC1, were being designed, it's quite clear that "Leica was in the front seat of the development" – a fact I was told from someone who knew about their development. The philosophy is very “Leica”, and quite different than other cameras, Panasonic cameras included. A good example of this can be seen in the D-Lux 4 which is also a Leica camera with a Panasonic twin where the controls and features take over the basic qualities. That one is more a Panasonic than a Leica, though Leica did some extra features and fine tuning on the D-Lux 4 compared to the D-Lux 3 (the Leica D-Lux 4 has a different coating, different viewfinder, different file handling, etc. than the Panasonic twin).

As a side remark, parts of the best-selling book, "The Rise of Barack Obama" by Pete Souza, were shot with Leica Digilux 2 (along with a Nikon D2x). Pete Souza is the new White House photographer for President Obama since January 4, 2009 and will be using Leica in the White House (Leica M8.2 along with Canon 5D Mark II according to this article). Whether he will dig out his Leica Digilux 2 as well occasionally, time will tell.

Leica Digilux 2 next to the Leitz M4 in chrome from 1974. The lens is the 50mm Summicron-M f/2.0 and I've kept a 21mm viewfinder on top of the M4 to make a point.

Look at that picture and it's no wonder Leica Digilux 2 users often get surprised outbursts like "It's digital!" or more commonly, "Oh, you're one of those staying with film." Also, many confuse the Digilux 2 with the Leica M8.

Now, I've kept the 21mm viewfinder that I usually use along with my 21mm Super-Angulon-M f/3.4 lens on the M4. One of the points you get to hear a lot about the Digilux 2 is the EVF (Electronic View Finder) which is a small screen inside the viewfinder. So what you see is not an acoustic picture through a lens, but a digital image. It's bluish, not very saturated, and a bit raw in it. In playing around with my gear, I tested how the 21mm optical viewfinder (which is a $1,000 optical toy) would work on a Digilux 2. To my astonishment, my well-used 1974-viewfinder had less contrast and more odd colors than the Digilux 2's digital viewfinder. If you buy a newer model, I'm sure the picture looks nicer - but nevertheless!

The point I'm trying to make is that the EVF is not as bad as some make it sound. And as any viewfinder, you get used to it. Some old SLR cameras have a bit of a yellowish color about them, some modern dSLR have dark viewfinders (because they are mainly a peephole for framing, hence clear sight is not required as the AF takes care of the focusing).

For me, the EVF has become a strong tool in that (1) it is always the same light inside the viewfinder (contrary to viewing a screen on the back of a camera in dark or sunshine), (2) the live picture give a good idea as to how contrast, exposure and all will look like in the final picture (unlike a M4 viewfinder or a dSLR viewfinder which is an acoustic representation of the scene), and (3) I get a preview of the just-taken picture in this “closed viewfinder environment" which I can use to judge the exposure and the overall picture.

That the colors are not clear or correct - it's rather blue-tone, black and white almost - is the thing you get used to. Unless you tell yourself "I will NEVER get used to an EVF, I will NEVER get used to an EVF, I will NEVER get used to and EVF," why, you might actually come to like it!

Anja with her Leica Digilux 2. © Thorsten Overgaard.

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Young owner of the Leiac Digilux 2. He bought one online in 2020 with macro adapter and filters for a really good price. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Some call it "the vintage digital camera"

For a long while, the Leica Digilux 2 stayed at a relatively high second-hand price around $1,000. Only in the recent years, the camera has been available for as little as $250 - $500.

Who would have thought that a 5-megapixel camera brought to market in 2004 would still be in demand more than 10 years later?

Yet it is a fact that people still search for this camera, find one they can buy and keep using it. And many who bought the camera new or while it was still being produced still use it.

There are not many vintage digital cameras around. They usually get old and end up in a garbage bin somewhere. But the Leica Digilux 2 still gets used.

The Leica DC Vario-Summicron ASPH f/2.0-2.4 lens

Looking at the picture of the 1974-edition of the M4 and the Digilux 2 next to each other, notice the nice big clear glass on the Digilux 2 (the glass on the M4 is also nice, yes). The Leica DC Vario-Summicron ASPH lens is actually a 7-22.5 mm lens, equivalent to a 28-90mm lens in 35mm terms.

The point I want just to make short and sweet - you might philosophize further on it later - is that if the Leica Digilux 2 camera was a full frame (FF) 35mm rangefinder system, that lens would not only be HUGE but would also cost you a fortune. In fact, did you ever see a 28-90mm lens f/2.0 for sale anywhere in the world? No, and that's what you should notice. In many ways the combination of the small sensor in the Leica Digilux 2 (I'm talking size in physical terms, not the megapixels) and the fantastic detailed and light-strong lens is what make the Digilux 2 - the classic.

	A look inside the zoom lens in the Leica Digilux 2. The lens consist of 13 elements, two of them have asperhical surfaces. The first group of lens elements remain stationary over the entire zoom range. The rear group focusing design makes it possible to focus quickly and without camera shake.

In wishing for a new and updated Digilux 2 - and we're a few people who want that - forget then a FF sensor. Because it wouldn't be the same camera at all. In fact, why does everybody lust for full frame (FF) sensors and medium format (MF) sensors when everything in this world - mobile phones, computers, mp3-players to name a few - is becoming smaller and smaller. Sony built the WalkMan cassette players on compactness, and I think they had for many years the philosophy that everything they made simply had to be the most compact. So one of the small unnoticed miracles of the Digilux 2 is actually that it does great pictures with a very small sensor. So why try to get a larger sensor? Why not try to make more pixels and better image quality in small sensors?
(On next page there's a picture showing the sensors size relative to the lens).

My son Oliver, July 2007, Digilux 2, 100 ISO available light, manual mode.

Leica digilux 2: Strengths of the camera

Leica Digilux 2 is a light camera that is easy to travel with and carry around for a long time without anybody actually noticing it. It is soundless. As a trained user you will recognize the clicks, but to everybody else you are just holding a camera. It is intuitive to use and after a few hundred shots you can use it in a dark room. It has a F/2.0 lens that does not require much light, a 28-90mm zoom that can capture most scenes you need. And auto focus - which is handy if and when you use it professionally.

On top of that, you can knock out auto focus and go manual focusing. The same goes for F-stops and shutter times. I use mine with AF but else totally manual as a general rule.

But what has made the Digilux 2 a classic, besides the above, is that you can shoot JPG's straight off the camera and they look good. Black and white mode looks perhaps even greater. It's the lens but also the way Leica decided to handle JPG files; which was not to fix them up like Canon, Sony and many others do. The Leica look is very natural, very film-like and pretty cool (the Panasonic DMC-LC1 is slightly different in it's handling of JPG's but not that far from the Leica). If you shoot RAW, it's the raw file you get, so you just enjoy the benefits from the lens, not the (lack of) fixing the pictures.

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To wish for in a future Leica Digilux 2

What one could wish for in a future Digilux 2 is higher ISO speed than the 400 ISO, larger file sizes (10 million pixels or more), but mainly faster AF. One can go manual focus, which will speed up the time from focusing to the first picture, but otherwise the AF will take a few microseconds (or seconds if confused, for example by smoke on a stage) to focus.

ISO stands for "International Organization for Standardization" and was called ASA before (American Standards Association). What ISO means, is how much light a film a digital sensor require to hit it in order to create a natural-looking picture. It's a matter of sensibility... 100 ISO film or digital sensor requires twice as much light to capture pictures as a 200 ISO, and five times as much light as a 3200 ISO film or digital sensor. So in short: The higher ISO, the better.

The ISO 400 is not bad when the lens is F/2.0. Consider this: If you get a camera with a F/3.4 lens you need 1600 ISO to compare with the 400 ISO F/2.0 Leica Digilux 2. But Leica users tend to like using available light, and the darker places they (we) can find to shoot, the better. And even though the Leica Digilux 2 has a flash, we would never in our wildest dreams think of ever using it. So higher ISO would be nice: 1600 ISO minimum, 3200 ISO would be more desirable.

Don't expect that everything can be repaired on the Leica Digilux 2 vintage digital camera ...

After 11 years since introduction:
Don't expect too much repair of the Leica Digilux 2

As of April 2015 Leica Camera AG has started telling customers that they don't have spare parts for the Leica Digilux 2 anymore.

If I should translate that into something meaningful, I would look at what Leica Camera AG has done with other models. Take the Leica DMR digital, back when they surely ran out of spare parts from their supplier but then sometimes offered some customers an upgrade to another camera and would keep their DMR digital back for spare parts. In the Leica M9 they have also occasionally been missing sensor spare parts (but I think that has been solved now), so in periods they would offer customers to upgrade the camera to a newer model when they couldn't repair it.

I would personally send in a Leica Digilux 2, if needed, and see if they could fix it or upgrade it. Leica Camera AG can for sure glue the rubber on the camera back on again and fix several things. Some spare parts they might have, others they don't.

The "official" reply as of April 2015 to one customer was:
"Thank you for your email. We sincerely regret to inform you that we stopped the repairs on the Digilux 2. Spare parts are no longer manufactured by our service partners. We have the option to offer an exchange to a current model at a reduced price, if you decide to send the camera in. Kind regards, Leica Camera AG Customer Care"

Repair of the Leica Digilux 2

For new leather coverings, rubber eyepieces and other things, try Aki-Asahi.com. They carry stock of Leica Digilux 2 and Panasonic DMC LC1 parts, I have heard (as of January 2017).

Michael Juffart with his Leica Digilux 2. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Leica X Vario (2013) vs the Leica Digilux 2 (2004)

Is the Leica X Vario introduced June 11th, 2013, the new Leica Digilux 2, people asked.

The Leica Digilux 2 has quite a bit of charm, and is easily mistaken for a Leica M judging from the outside appearance. The Leica X Vario takes off of the Leica X1 and Leica X2 (that takes off of the original Leica O from 100 years ago), and with a design of the top plate borrowed from big brother Leica M Type 240.

The similarity between the Leica X Vario and the Leica Digilux 2 is the zoom and the silent handling.

In retrospect, Leica Camera AG would not put a design like the Leica Digilux 2 on the market again in 2013. Since then it has become possible to put larger sensors in the camera, and that basically - together with higher ISO - changes everything.

One of the key features of the Leica Digilux 2 is the f/2.0-2.4 zoom lens. But that lens only works when the sensor is as small as it is in the Leica Digilux 2. As mentioned some paragraphs above, a f/2.0 zoom lens on a full frame (24x36mm) camera would have to be four times as big to do the same!

The 400 ISO is the new 100 ISO

In the Leica X Vario the sensor is larger. It also performs at a much higher ISO. Hence, Leica Camera AG put a f/3.5 - f/6.4 lens on the camera. If you think of it, that makes the Leica X Vario outperform the Leica Digilux 2, already at 300 ISO and up (because the Leica Digilux 2 shouldn't be used above 100 ISO).

The Leica X Vario lens is less light-strong at 70mm (f/6.4) than the Leica Digilux-2 at 70mm or 90mm (f/2.4). All in all, the lens of the Leica X Vario is much, much simpler and less expensive to produce than the Leica Digilux 2 lens. This does not necessarily makes the Leica X Vario a bad lens. On the contrary, actually.

Just less exotic, definitely, and Leica users like exotic lenses. The harder to make, the better and the more expensive. But in the case of the Leica X Vario, one will have to settle with less exotic, turn up the ISO from 100 to 400 and get the show on the road:

ISO makes up for a slower lens	Leica X Vario 70mm f/6.4	Leica Diglux 2 90mm f/2.4	Leica X Vario 28mm f/3,5	Leica Diglux 2 28mm f/2.0
100 ISO	1/6	1/30	1/15	1/45
200 ISO	1/12	1/60	1/30	f/90
400 ISO	1/20	1/250	1/60	1/180
800 ISO	1/45	-	1/125	-
1600 ISO	1/90	-	1/250	-
3200 ISO	1/180	-	1/500	-
6400 ISO	1/360	-	1/1000	-
12,800 ISO	1/750	-	1/2000	-

DOF (depth of field) doesn't really change by adding a smaller aperture to a larger sensor (X Vario) vs. a wider aperture to a small sensor (Digilux 2). No matter what, it will be difficult to get much selective focus out of either camera. Though the Leica X Vario might actually have a better chance than the Leica Digilux 2.

Now, are the Leica X Vario and the Leica Digilux 2 actually comparable? That question in itself is quite a compliment to the Leica Digilux 2. When was the last time somebody compared a 9-year old digital camera with a current one?

In many ways the Leica X Vario beats the Leica Digilux 2. On speed of operation, ISO, size of files, etc.

But if the charm, the love-factor and the simplicity has been beaten ... That is a highly personal and individual question only you can answer, for yourself.

I've met a few Leica X Vario users over the years since 2013 who love their camera so much that they really can't understand why so few have fallen for this camera. So there you have it: Very few Leica X Vario sold, but very popular by those who have one. Make of it what you want.

Specifications comparison	Leica D-Lux 6	Leica X Vario	Leica Diglux 2
ISO	80 - 12,800	100 - 12,500	100 - 400
Aperture	f/1.4 - 2.3	f/3.5 - 6.4	f/2.0 - 2.4
Lens	24 - 90 mm ASPH	28 - 70 mm ASPH	28 - 90 mm ASPH
Max shutter speed	1/4000	1/2000	1/1000
EVF	Extra	Extra	Yes
Sensor	12 MP	16 MP	5 MP
Frames per second JPG	2 - 12 fps	? fps	2 fps
Frames per second DNG	2 fps	? fps	1 frame at the time
Video	Full 1920 x 1080 HD	Full 1920 x 1080 HD	320 x 240
Price new	$ 800	$ 2,850	1,800 $
Nickname		"Type  007"	"D2"
Production	2012 -	2013 -	2004 - 2006
Size	110.5 × 67 × 47 mm	133 x 73 x 95 mm	135 x 82 x 103 mm
Weight	296 g	679 g	705 g
Panasonic twin	Lumix DMC-LX7	Pure Leica	Lumix DML-LC1

The Leica Q, Leica Q2, Leica Q3 are the replacements for Leica Digilux 2

The Leica Q that was introduced in 2015 is another chapter in charming cameras, and has become a real best-seller for Leica Camera AG. It doesn't have the zoom that the Leica Digilux 2 has, but it has the compact size and weight that makes it usable for daily use. A camera you can wear every day, everywhere.

Read my extensive article on the Leica Q here, "To be, or not to be, that is the Q":

Layla Bego with the Leica Q2 Monochrom (2021). © Thorsten Overgaard.

Which SD-card to use with the Leica Digilux 2

Use a 50X SD-card to get optimum speed. Above that, you are above what the Digilux 2 and the Panasonic DMC-LC1 can utilize. You might experience your computer can work faster with 130X or faster cards when emptying the cards. Very likely. Here are the times I've tested from pressing the shutter until the pictures have been stored, and the camera is ready for another shot:

Maximum size of SD memory cards in the Digilux 2 is 2GB

	The Digilux 2 needs a relative simple 2GB card which is about $7.00. Only SD, not SDHC..!

I've used 2GB Kingston cards as I have good experience with Kingston RAM and Kingston SD-cards.

But flash-RAM is not rocket-science anymore so I guess any brand will do these days. But buy big cards and plenty, and shoot highest quality, largest file size: If there is one thing we can be certain of, it's that there will be plenty of disk space on your future computer equipment. And a 3 megabyte JPG file will seem like a micro-size file in year 2015. So shoot big and save it for eternity using a DAM-software (Digital Assets Management) with one or two backups of your files.

Maibritt, April 2008 with Digilux 2, 100 ISO

Secrets revealed

I often get questions on the above photo and the photo of Hans Blix (see page 2) and if it is really Digilux 2. And it is, with selective Photoshop manipulation as described in the article 100,000 Exposures Later - Part III - Dodge and Burn.

For illustration, here is the camera file and the final file side by side:

For more on this, look at the Hans Blix photo on page 2.

Leica Digilux 2: Designed by Achim Heine

The Leica Digilux 2 is designed by Adhim Heine (*1955) who runs a design agency, Heine/Lenz/Zizka, founded in 1989 with offices in Frankfurt and Berlin. The agency's customers include Alape, Bosch software innovations, the Deutsche Museum, Messe Frankfurt and Leica Camera AG. He did the design of the Leica CM, the Leica Digilux 1, Digilux 3, the Leica D-Lux 1 and more.

Michael Juffart with his Leica Digilux 2. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Digilux 2, by the way, is not the new Digilux 1 either!

For comparison, check out the Leica Digilux 1 examples (where there's two Kira shots at the bottom of the page from the same session as the D2 here).

Oh, and don't confuse the Digilux 2 with the Leica D-Lux 2!

They might sound the same, but the Leica D-Lux 2 Leica D-Lux 2 is a compact pocket camera that looks and act way different than the Leica Digilux 2.

Battery and charger for Leica Digilux 1, Digilux 2 and Digilux 3

The Leica Digilux 1, Digilux 2 and Digilux 3 all use the same beyyer, BP-DC1 and BP-DC3-U

The battery charger Leica BC-DC4 is part no 424-015-001-000 and is the battery charger for Digilux 1, Digilux 2, and Digilux 3 Cameras.

The Panasonic batteries for DMC LC-1 and the charger also works for the Leica.

Using these numbers and names you should be able to find 3rd party batteries and chargers that will work for the Digilux 1, Digilux 2, and Digilux 3 Cameras. There are very few original batteries and chargers around.

The Leica Digilux Family Tree

Leica Digilux (1998: 1.5MP) Leica Digilux Zoom (1999) Leica Digilux 4.3 (Aug 2000: 2.4MP) An enthusiastic introduction of the very first digital Leica camera - and an entirely different take on how a camer body can look. Sister-camera is Fujifilm 4700Z. It altso featured an Digicopy acessory for digitizing film. 2.4MP / $ / 55,000 pcs made of the three / 300g.		Leica Digilux 1 (Feb 2002) This is a beautiful camera, charming and had images that was film-like.  Panasonic made a sister-camera, the Panasonic DCM-LC5. Read my article on Digilux 1 here. 4MP / $1,500.00 / 36,000 pcs. made / 460 g.
Leica Digilux 2 (2004) The camera this article series is about. The darling of many, and a very unique Leica Digilux camera in a family album where the different Digilux cameras doesn't have much in common. As if they had the same father, but different mothers. 5MP / $1,700.00 / 31,000 pcs made / 705g.		Panasonic DMC-LC1 (2004) The sister-camera to Leica Digilux 2 that Panasonic made. In short, Leica Camera AG designed the camera and it's specifications, and Panasonic got to do their version of it as well. Many of the spare parts, filters, batteries, chargers, etc that the Panasonic version uses, can also be used for the Leica Digilux 2 (which is relevant as spare parts gets harder and harder to find).
Leica Digilux 3 (Sept. 2006 - 2009) After the success with the Leica Digilux 2, Leica Camera AG got the idea to join the then new 4/3 lens concept cameras together with Panasonic, Sony and other camera producers. I'm showing it from the top as well, so before you fall		in love with the Digilux 3, you realize it's an entirely different creature. Besides larger lenses that are less lightstrong, the camera features a noisy mirror and a lot more buttons. It looks close to the Digilux 2, but is in fact far from it. 10MP / $1,600.00 / 13,000+ made / 960g w/lens

Leica Digilux 2 downloads

For D2 manual [GERMAN and ENGLISH PDF in same file] click here.
For the technical specifications [PDF] click here.

Various downloads from Leica for the Digilux 2 are available here [remote control software, firmware, original brochure, manual, etc.]

Doing assignments in 2012 with the Leica Digilux 2

I must admit that while I hardly ever use my Digilux 2 anymore, but instead use the Leica M9 for almost anything (the same for why I hardly ever use my Leica dSLR either), I still get lots of enthusiastic mails from people who are new to the Leica Digilux 2 or simply have been using - and still are using - the Leica Digilux 2.

One such is photojournalist Simon Wakelin from Los Angeles who - amongst other projects such as recording video on the Leica Digilux 2 - did this printed 12" x 9" front cover and imagery inside, for legendary director Tony Kaye in shots magazine.

Frontpage of Tony Kaye for the magazine shots. Photo by Simon Wakelin using Leica Digilux 2 on JPG setting

Leica Digilux 2 tips and tricks

Focusing

The Digilux 2 isn't a fast-focusing camera. When you look through the viewfinder, there's a green blinking spot in the middle indicating that the camera hasn't focused yet. And then when the green dot is stable on, and not blinking anymore, the camera has obtained focus.

Now, an error one can do is to point the camera, press the shutter, and then experience a delay before the camera take the picture. What happens is that the AF tries to find the focus, eventually finds it, and then the exposure happens. But apparently there's also a time-out, so if the AF can't find the right focusing within some seconds, the camera simply fires. Hence, you get some blurred shots.

The correct way to do it is to point the camera, press the shutter slightly down 1/2 step, which tells the camera to focus, and then WHEN the green dot is on and the camera is in focus, you press the shutter all the way down. This will give control on focus, as well as exposure without delay. This technique can be used, anticipating a certain expression or event, to be ready to shoot the camera. No matter what camera I use, I'm often following the event through the viewfinder with focus and exposure-time and all set and ready to go, waiting for the right expression or something to happen. With the Digilux 2, part of that being ready is having the finger on the shutter and the green DOT on, signaling that focus has been obtained.

Problem with AF can occur if you focus on something the camera's AF can't recognize at a distance. A white wall, a black wall, smoke (on a stage for example), bright light, etc. You can move the camera to something else on the same distance and focus, then change back to the frame you want, as the AF has already been locked. But note that the lightmetering (when on auto) will follow that. I mostly use manual, thus this doesn't affect my metering. But mostly I use the multiple field setting for both light metering and focusing (normal AF metering field).

The AF, by the way, can be either Normal autofocusing metering field (the small square in the center of the viewfinder) or the Spot autofocus metering field which is a tiny square in the center of the viewfinder, almost the size ofthe spot metering in the center.

Some use manual focusing all the time. I never do that, so I can't advise in that area.

Leica Digilux 2 x-ray photo by photographer Blake Billings, Memphis, TN.

Shooting series instead of singles

I always shoot series of three shots at the time instead of single shots. I do this as a habit I've developed, and because it has some advantages:

1) When shooting in low light you can go as low as 1/8 and 1/4 second and get pictures. The first shot in the series of three will usually have motion blur from you pressing the shutter on the camera, but there's a good chance the next two are completely still.

2) You get more selections, and by experience I can tell that face expressions can change a lot between three shots in a series. And as the files are so small, I don't mind. I use iView Media Pro (now known as Microsoft Expression) to select photos, and having 3 photos in each row, it's a matter of selecting which of the three to choose. You get used to it.

The three icons here (from left to right) are Preview, Series and Single shot. Set it to the middle, Series, and you shoot three images in a row.

A series of pictures, three in a row. Three different images; one blurred to the left, one sharp to the right. Now you got something to choose from and the guy is not going to do the walk again!

Danish film director and poet Jørgen Leth, Digilux 2, 100 ISO, 1/30 @ f/2.0 (The heavy blue fringing on the spot is not from the Leica lens but the spots own, by the way)

Leica Digilux 2: Manual exposure

I often use external lightmeter because it's more precise. But often I use the Digilux 2's lightmeter, and mostly on multiple field metering. What I do is that I shoot or measure a scene with the camera's lightmeter, then adjust the f-stop and the exposure time (and thus going manual). And I often shoot series of three exposures on a middle exposure (say f/2, 1/250 sec), then do another series on f/2, 1/125 sec, and another on f/2 1/500. Sometimes even one or two more series at f/2 1/60 sec and f/2, 1/30 if I feel it's an important shot and there might be some interesting effect in doing so. As the Digilux 2 has great JPG's but only that (not RAW where you have lots of information and data you can alter after the fact), I tend to shoot many so that I have something final I don't need to fix in Photoshop.

Look here: Metering mode is set to the multiple field metering which is the one you will get most correct exposures from using. The one above on the photo is spot-metering that only measures the light in a 2 degree center spot of the frame. The one below measures the full picture and is named center-weighted integral metering.

A side-note on metering methods

As can be seen here with this tricky lightning, the the spot meter hitting the shadow part will light up the whole thing to make that little spot look middle-grey; because a lightmeter is always set so that what it thinks it measures, is a middle-grey scenery. So if you look into a camera’s brain, what it is thinking is "if this is middle-grey, then I better set the time to 1/125 and the f-stop to f/2.0." The camera never thinks, "oh, I see a red wall darker than middle-grey, and with a highlight crossing [oh my!], so I better set time to 1/250 and f-stop to f/4.0 so as to get good contrast and both shadow detail and highlight detail." The camera doesn't think that way; that is what you are there for, the photographer.

The closest you get to this are "intelligent" metering methods such as multiple field metering, "matrix metering," "multi-zone metering" and such new metering methods where someone tries to implement this type of reasoning. Read further below how you can point that center square towards a mix of light so as to get a somewhat correct measurement.

The center-weighted integral metering is perhaps the most useless (technologies with the longest names often are) because it's almost always wrong as it takes no stand in the discussion. Come sun, rain or snow. It just measures the 'integral' (meaning the complete, or all parts), though with a little more attention to the center, as it guesses the user of the camera might point towards something he wants to photograph. It's all good for mixed scenery, but shooting a scene with lots of bright snow around a person skiing, or a portrait with bright buildings behind, this type of metering simply can't comprehend such a scenery that is not even lighted in middle-gray tones. Group photos in grey weather, or with the sun coming from behind, it can do.

The way the meter measures here shown graphically, though we don't know exactly how the multiple field metering works (where it measures and how it puts such metering together).

Manipulating the cameras logic

You can usethe spot metering to point the small cross in the center of the Digilux 2's finder towards a middle-grey area and lock the light metering (by pressing the shutter half down) and then reframe with that metering locked, before you shoot. The spot metering should then point towards a middle-grey area (or similar tonality in blue, green, brown or whatever; it's the middle tone, not the greyness that does it). If you do this you will learn a lot about light in the process, and you will always be able to see in the viewfinders digital preview if it's right or not - and can then move the cross or spot towards a slightly darker or lighter surface until you think it's right.

I do the same thing with the multiple field metering (which is the metering I use most of the time) where I point the small square in the center of the viewfinder (called normal autofocus metering field in the manual) towards that area I want to measure; because even Leica hasn't stated how that multiple field metering works, I guess it takes its primary metering within that small square in the center.

But mainly, what I do is that I see in the viewfinder (which is digital why I see a preview of the shot) what the picture will look like. So when I have shot my first series, I point that multiple field metering square towards something lighter or darker, so as to quickly and simply tell the camera to correct the metering up or down. And that's how I get three or more different lit pictures when on Auto mode with the multiple field metering on. It's not that I carefully examine the tonality of the viewfinder to get the right shot. It's more that I notice the light on the first one, and then create a lighter and a darker one, compared to that first one.

The alternative is to shoot the first series on Auto, look in the bottom of the viewfinder while shooting and notice that the camera goes for example f/2 and 1/250, then go manual by turning the shutter-wheel to 1/125 and shoot a series, then turn the wheel again to 1/500.

Maybe the multiple field metering should have been named democratic spot metering, because I guess that's how I use it. The spot metering is very precise, so if the area measured is not, the metering is off. With the multiple field metering square, you get to be a bit more sloppy as it measures the middle-value of a larger area that you point to. It's a matter of choosing the tool so that you can quickly get towards the result that you think is about right.

The multiple field metering is very often correct and on the spot, but it's you and not the camera who take the picture, so you're free to manipulate the cameras logic towards your desired result. And the above is a way to do so.

Graphic designer Charles Grant with his Leica Digilux 2 in 2009. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Rememeber:
Photography control is about doubling or halving light

Each step in f-stop is a doubling of light through the lens or a reducing of the light to the half. And each step on the shutter-wheel is the same. And ISO, by the way, is the same. Each ISO step if a doubling of light (sensitivity of the sensor) or reduction of the light to half. And that's all photography is about - technically speaking - controlling the light by adjusting those three factors: Sensitivity (ISO), light through the lens (F or aperture) and shutter time (amount of time the sensor is exposed to the light going through the lens).

If you want to keep it simple, here’s a good rule: All Leica lenses are made for optimum performance fully open. So keep the Digilux 2 at f/2.0 at all times (unless there's too much light) and use only the shutter-wheel for adjustment. And keep the sensitivity of ISO 100, that's all. One wheel to adjust and spend the rest of your artistic power on composing and timing!

Manual exposure settings: See the wheel has been turned to 1/2000 second and the f-dial to f/2.0. When the first series has been shot, you turn the time to 1/1000 second and shoot one more series, then turn it back to 1/2000 second and compensate on the f-dial to f/2.8. This way you have a series shot normal, one darker and one lighter.

Same frame quickly shot as medium, dark and light series. I do that whenever I feel I might get a better picture to work from or the effect of a over-lit or underexposed picture might be more pleasing to look at. I also feel that even though the EVF of the Digilux 2 is great, you can't always see just how many details you got in shadow or highlight. As in the above; did I get any details of the big clock on the darkest photo? You really can't tell before you get it onto a big screen.
There is a menu in the Digilux 2 allowing you to do bracketing, meaning a series of pictures where the camera automatically does this. However, you have to set it to do bracketing for each series of exposures - hence it's easier to do it manually by the use of the f-dial and the shutter-wheel, than operating the menus in the display.

To be continued ...

I hope you enjoyed my writeup on the Leica Digilux 2 camera. This article continues on the next page, and I have much more articles on cameras, lenses and photography. Sign up for my newsletter to stay in the know as to what I am up to.

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Leica Digilux 2 Definitions:

AF = Auto Focus. The idea is that the camera does the focusing itself (the word auto comes from Greek "self").

AF Assist Lamp = The little lamp on the front of the Leica Digilux 2, between the red dot and the LEICA engraving (and above the holes for microphone) will light up in dark places so as to help the Auto Focus to see in the dark. If you put a hand in front of the lens and press the shutter release button, you can see it in action. The AF assist lamp can be turned off in the menu.

Aperture = The same function as the iris and pupil has in the eye. The pupil in the eye is the dark circular opening in the center of the iris of the eye, varying in size to regulate the amount of light reaching the retina (the sensor area inside the eye).
Aperture on a camera is the f/ stop on the camera that regulates how much light passes through the lens by increasing or decreasing the hole through the lens. On a f/2.0 lens the lens is fully open" at f/2.0. At f/2.8 the aperture inside the lens make the hole through the lens smaller so only half the amount of light at f/2.0 passes through. For each f/-stop (4.0 - 5.6 - 8.0 - 11 - 16) you halve the light. The aperture of the lens is basically the focal length divided with the f/-stop = size of the hole (50mm divided with f/2.0 = the hole is 25 mm in diameter).
Besides regulating the amount of light (so as to match the correct exposure), the aperture also affects the dept of field: , which is how deep the sharpness is. To get the sough-after photos with narrow depth of field where the background is blurry, the lens has to be wide open at f/2.0 or so. Stopping the lens down to f/8 or f/16 will result on more depth of field, meaning the background will start becoming in focus. To maintain narrow depth of field, one can use the ISO sensitivity and/or the shutter speed to match the correct exposure (as aperture is only one of three ways to control the exposure; the correct amount of light).
ORIGIN: Late Middle English : from Latin apertura, from apert- ‘opened,’ from aperire ‘to open’.

The aperture blades inside the consist of a number of blades that - as the aperture ring on the lens is rotated - narrow into a smaller and smaller hole. © Thorsten Overgaard.

	The camera in Aperture Priority Mode

Aperture Priority Mode. When the shutter speed dial on top of a Leica camera is set to A, it is short for “Aperture Priority” and allows the user to set a specific aperture value (f-number) while the camera selects a shutter speed to match it that will result in proper exposure based on the lighting conditions as measured by the camera's light meter. In other words, you set the aperture as priority (f/1.4 for example), and the camera calculates a shutter speed (1/250 of a second) that matches that. If you change the aperture to f/2.0 by changing the aperture ring on the lens, the camera will re-calculate the speed to 1/125 so as to get the same amount of light to hit the sensor (f/2.0 is half the light through the lens as f/1.4 and 1/125 if twice the amount of light on the sensor as 1/250).

ASPH = (Aspherical lens) stands for "aspheric design". Most lenses have a spherical design - that is, the radius of curvature is constant. These are easy to manufacture by grinding while "spinning" the glass. This design however restricts the number of optical corrections that can be made to the design to render the most realistic image possible. ASPH lenses (a-spherical, meaning non-spherical), however, involve usually 1 element that does *not* have a constant radius of curvature. These elements can be made by 1) expensive manual grinding, 2) molded plastic, or 3) Leica's patented "press" process, where the element is pressed into an aspherical ("non-spherical") shape. This design allows Leica to introduce corrections into compact lens designs that weren't possible before. Practically, the lens performs "better" (up to interpretation) due to increased correction of the image, in a package not significantly bigger than the spherical version.

There is another Aspherical lens manufacture technique: an uneven coating layer is applied to a spherical lens. The coating is thicker on the edges (or on the center, depending). Canon "Lens Work II" calls these "simulated" aspherical lenses. Simulated and Glass-Molded (GMo) asphericals show up in non-L Canon lenses, while the L lenses have actual ground aspheric elements.

A- means non, or without. From Latin, ex.
Sphere: ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French espere, from late Latin sphera, earlier sphaera, from Greek sphaira "ball".

Normal spheric lens (grinded)		ASPH (note the shape of the glass as result of pressing rather than grinding)

Auto- means “self”. The idea is that when a camera has auto-(something), it does that (something) by itself.

Banding = Noise in digital images. Horizontal lines in a horizontal picture (if the camera is in portrait mode/vertical, the lines will obviously be vertical). It's simply noise; the result of uncontrolled algorithms working overtime with an image the sensor really can't see because it's very dark. (If your image has vertical lines in it, it is more likely that the sensor needs remapping).

This image at 6400 ISO, underexposed and then brought up to correct exposure in Lightroom, displays banding: Horizontal lines in the image. Leica M-D 262 with Leica 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH f/2.0.

Bokeh = The visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens: It's a matter of taste and usually photographers discuss a 'nice' or 'pleasant' bokeh (the out-of-focus area is always unsharp, which is why the quality discussed is if one likes the way it renders or not by a particular lens). The closer you get to something, the 'more' bokeh' you get (in that the focus becomes less for the background and foreground at close distances than at long distances). ORIGIN from Japanese 'bo-ke' which mean 'fuzzines' or 'blur.'.

Bokeh: The visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image. Photo at Bar del Fico in Rome. Leica TL2 with Leica 35mm Summilux-TL ASPH f/1.4. © 2017 Thorsten Overgaard.

C = Continuous shooting.

Camera - is today’s short name for Camera Obscura (meaning “a dark room”). Camera means Chambre and was used only as a Latin or alien word, actually only for Spanish soldiers’ rooms, until popularized in connection with photography in 1727: “Camera Obscura”. In 1793 the slang term “camera” was used by Sterne Tr. Shandy: “Will make drawings of you in the camera” and by Foster (1878), “The eye is a camera”. Camera Obscura was described by Iraqi scientist Ibn-al-Haytham in his book, “Book of Optics” (1021) and by Leonardo da Vinci in 1500; popularized and made widely known in 1589 by Baptista Porta when he mentioned the principle in his book “Natural Magic”. Johannes Kepler mentions Camera Obscura in 1604.
Camera = chambre (room), Obscura = dark (or cover).

CCD sensor (as used in Leica M8, M9, Leica S) = (Charged Coupling Devices) - The first digital cameras used CCD to turn images from analog light signals into digital pixels. They're made through a special manufacturing process that allows the conversion to take place in the chip without distortion. This creates high quality sensors that produce excellent images. But, because they require special manufacturing, they are more expensive than their newer CMOS counter parts.

Central Shutter = Some lenses, for example the Leica S lenses and the Leica Q where a shutter is located in the lens itself. In most cameras there is a shutter curtain just in front of the sensor, and in SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras there is also a mirror in front of the shutter curtain.
In the Leica T/TL/TL2 the shutter is in front of the sensor, but only acts to "refresh" the sensor. In the Leica TL2, there is a mechanical shutter curtain from 30 sec. to 1/4000 shutter times, and digital shutter from 1/4100 to 1/40,000 shutter times. A digital shutter is simply "turning on/off the recording of the sensor.

Contrast - The degree of difference between tones in a picture. Latin contra- ‘against’ + stare ‘stand.’

Normal to low contrast		High contrast

Digilux (Digital Lux) = A series of compact digital cameras by Leica Camera AG developed with Fuji from 1998, and then with Panasonic since 2002. The first models, Leica Digilux (1998) and Leica Digilux Zoom (2000) and Leica Digilux 4.3 (2000). With Panasonic, Leica Camera AG made the Leica Digilux 1 (2002), Digilux 2 (2004) and Leica Digilux 3 (2006). See my article Leica Digital Compact Cameras for more. Lux comes from Latin and means Light.

Graphic designer Charles Grant with his Leica Digilux 2 in 2009. © Thorsten Overgaard.

Digital Zoom = Refers to zooming in on a scene digitally. All that happens is that the camera zooms into the area of the sensor and records only that. The quality will be less as it's a smaller part of the same recording. Zoom is originally used for an optical zoom lens where optics move inside the lens so as to enlarge the subject optically. This does not reduce the image quality/resolution the same way as digital zoom does. Generally, digital zoom can be performed on any picture later in the computer as it's in essence simply a crop.
In the Leica Q Digital Zoom refers to the possibility to change the crop from 28mm to 35mm or 50mm (and for the Leica Q2, 75mm as well). Choosing a different "digital zoom" simply shows frame lines for the chosen focal length in the EVF and in the final image (that is in fact the full 28mm frame), there is a pre-selected crop for the chosen frame when you open the image in Lightroom or Capture One Prom.

Digital zoom is in essence a crop of the image to make the scene appear closer. © 2017 Thorsten Overgaard.

Narrow Dept Of Field in use: The face is in focus, the hand in front is slightly out of focus, the background is much out of focus and blurry, reduced to an atmosphere. Leica 50mm Noctilux f/1.0 at f/1.0 and 2.5 meters distance to subject in focus. © Thorsten Overgaard.

50mm f/1.4 lens at f/1.4.		50mm f/1.4 lens at f/5.6

	The lines on this 28mm lens indicates the DOF. Here the focus is on infinity, and if the lens is stopped down to f/1.6, objects from 1.8 meter to ininity will be 'acceptable sharp'.

DOF = Depth of Field (or Depth of Focus), an expression for how deep the focus is, or (more often use to express) how narrow the area of focus is. This is how much of the image, measured in depth or ditance, will be in focus or "acceptable sharp".

The appearance of the DOF is determined by:
1) aperture (the smaller the aperture hole is, the deeper is the depth of field, and opposite, the wider open a lens you se, the more narrow will the DOF be) and
2) distance to the subject (the farther away, the larger area is sharp; the closer the subject in focus is, the more narrow the DOF gets)..
The DOF scale measurement on top of the Leica lenses shows lines for each f-stop that indicates from which distance to which distance the image will be sharp. Shallow DOF is a generally used term in photography that refer to lenses with very narrow focus tolerance, like f/1.4 and f/0.95 lenses, which can be used to do selective focus; making irrelevant subjects in the foreground and background blurry so only the subjects of essence are in focus and catches the viewers eye).
in modern cameras like the Leica SL2, the camera has a DOF scale inside the viewfinder. As DOF is the same for all lens brands and designs, only depending on focal length, distance and aperture f-stop, the camera can calculate it and show a 'digital DOF scale" in the viewfinder.

Depth Of Field scale from Fujifilm, same lens with different aperture settings from f/2.0 to f/8.0.

Depth of Field: Focus is on the flowers and the photograph on the desk and the foreground and background is blurred as the depth of field is narrow. If one stop down the aperture of the lens from f/1.4 to f/5.6, more will be in focus. If one stop down the lens to f/16 even more (if not all) will be in forcus. Another rule: The closer you go to a subject (the less focusing range), the more narrow the Depth of Field will be. © Thorsten Overgaard.

DIS = Digital Image Stabilization. This is a feature often offered in video recorders and sometimes for tele lens still photography (so as to avoid motion blur when the lens is moving during slow shutter speeds).

	Lens distortion looks like this. The lines are not straight. Our eye uses distortion correction. Lens designers can design lenses so they have very little distortion, or they can make less complicated lens designs and "fix" the distortion in software.

Distortion = In photo optics/lenses: When straight lines in a scene don't remain straight because of optical aberration.

Lens designers can correct for distortion to a degree so the whole image field is perfect corrected and all lines remain straight. In modern lens design many designs rely on Software Distortion Correction (SDC).

The eye adjusts for distortion so we always see vertical and horizontal lines straight when we look at things. Even when you get new prescription glasses (if you use such), you will often experience distortion in your new glasses. After a few days they eyes have adjusted for the glasses and the distortion you saw to begin with is now gone. Software Distortion Correction (SDC) is far behind what the human eye can perform of adjustments. (Also see my definition on Perspective for more on the eye and optics)

DNG = Digital Negative, an open standard developed by Adobe. It is a single file that contains the raw image data from the sensor of the camera as well as date, time, GPS, focal length, settings, etc.
The alternative is a RAW file + XLM file where the RAW file contains the image information and the XML contains the rest of information about where, how and when the picture was taken.
A Camera Raw profile (that is specific for that camera) in the computer helps the software program, for example Adobe Lightroom, to translate the RAW data into the image.

A raw file (or DNG) is simply the full recording of digital data (1's and 0's) from the sensor. In the computer, the sensor data is translated into the exact colors, via a camera profile.

Depth - Distance between front and back. Distance from viewer and object.

Dynamic range. The grade of ‘contrast range’ (or number of tones) a film or sensor, or simply a photograph, possess between bright and dark tones. The human eye is said to have a dynamic range of 10-14 ‘stops’ (but because we scan area by area and compile a concept of the overall scene, they eye is often thought to have a much higher dynamic range), Film used to have 7-13 ‘stops’ and some modern sensors have up to 15-17 ‘stops’.

Elmarit = Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f2.8 . The name is obviously derived from the earlier (and slower) "Elmar" designation. Not every f/2.8 lens is called an "Elmarit" though, the most obvious current exception being the 50mm f2.8 Elmar-M collapsible lens which for nostalgia and marketing reasons has kept the original 1930's Elmar name (the 50mm f3.5 collapsible Elmar, manufactured 1930-59, was one of Leica's most famous and popular lenses). Vario-Elmarit is Leica Camera AG's name for zoom lenses.

EVF = Electronic ViewFinder. The Leica T/TL/TL2 uses the Leica Visoflex model 0020.

Exposure Bracketing = The possibility to set the camera to automatically record a series of images where the exposure is above and below what the camera measures. The idea is that at least one of the images will be correctly exposed.

Fn = Short for Function. It's a button or wheel you can program. The Leica Digilux 2 has no Fn buttons.

Focus, in - Sharp and clear in appearance. Focus - “The burning point (of a lens or mirror)”. In Latin the word focus meant fireplace or hearth. The word was probably first employed outside of its Latin literal use as “the burning point of a lens or mirror” in optics, and then came to mean any central point. The German astronomer Johannes Kepler first recorded the word in this sense in 1604.

	A 28 mm lens has a 74° viewing angle

Focal length = (also written as f-) = On the Leica 35mm Summilux-TL ASPH f/1.4 it is 35mm and originally referred to the distance from the sensor (or film in older days) to the center of focus inside the lens. Nobody uses that measurement, except those who construct lenses! For users of lenses, focal length refers to how wide the lens sees. The viewing angle, which is often given in for example 90° viewing angle for a 21mm lens, 74° viewing angle for a 28mm lens, 6° viewing angle for a 400mm lens, etc.
Each human eye individually has anywhere from a 120° to 200° angle of view, but focuses only in the center.

The Leica Digilux 2 has a sensor (a 2/3" type), which "crops" the traditional full-frame focal lengths with 4.0X. The Leica Digilux lens is 7mm - 22.5mm, but in "full frame term" it's a 28-90mm zoom.

Four Thirds - Also known as "4/3" - The Four Thirds System is a standard created by Olympus and Kodak for digital SLR camera design and development.
The system provides a standard which, with digital cameras and lenses available from multiple manufacturers, allows for the interchange of lenses and bodies from different manufacturers. Companies developing 4:3 cameras and/or lenses are Fuji, Kodak, Leica, Olympus, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sigma. See www.4-3system.com
A further development in this was Micro Four Thirds Systems.

Full Frame (FF) = The size of the sensor is 24 x 36mm which is the format Oskar Barnack and Leica Camera AG invented with the first Leica that was introduced in 1925. Many other formats invented since, such as APS, APS-C and all usually refer to Full Frame ratio, by which it means what size they have compared to Full Frame.

	Full Frame is "king of photography"

The 24 x 36mm Full Frame format is so "king of photography" that it has continued to be the ideal for all cameras. Besides this, there exists Large Format cameras such as 4x5" (100 x 125 mm) and Medium Format 6x6 (60 x 60mm amongst other sizes in that area).

ISO = Light sensitivity of the camera sensor is given in ISO (International Organization for Standardization). It's a standard that was used in film and is now used in all digital cameras also. The base ISO for the Leica TL2 sensor is around 100-150 which means that this is what the sensor "sees". All other levels are computer algorithms calculating the effect as if the sensor could "see" more (hence noise at higher ISO levels).
ISO goes in steps of doubling: When the ISO is raised from 100 ISO to 200 ISO, the camera only need half the amount of light to make the same picture. For each step in ISO to 400, 800, 1600, 3200, etc. the light sensitivity is doubled for the sensor (and the camera sensor only need half the light of the previous ISO to record the same image).

6400 ISO indoor photo. With modern cameras the ISO can go to 3200, 6400, 12,800 and even higher without loss of dynamic range and without digital noise. Leica M10 with Leica 50mm Noctilux-M ASPH f/0.95. © 2017 Thorsten Overgaard.

JPEG = A standard for picture format made in the 1990's by Joint Photographic Experts Group). Mostly referred to as JPG as in L1003455.JPG which would be the name for a JPG file from the camera.

Leica = A compound word derived from " (Lei)tz" and "(ca)mera". Apparently they were originally going to use "LECA", but another camera company already used a similar name in France, so they inserted the 'i' to prevent any confusion.

The word lens derives from lentil, because of the similar shape.

Lens - A piece of glass or similarly transparent material (like water or plastic). It has a shape so that it can direct light rays. The word “Lens” is used both for single piece of glass as well as a camera lens with several lenses that works together. The word lens if often used to refer to the entire camea lens, which is usually compose of seberal lens elements. From ‘lentil’ because similar in shape.

A camera lens consists of several shaped lens elements of glass. The lenses can also be made of simple cheap plastic as in "kit lenses" (sold with a camera as a kit to make a workable cheap package), but it is mostly very exotic glass (that can be heavy or light in weight, very hard or very soft in surface (esay to scratch or very resistant) with each optical glass recipe made to develop very specific qualities in how the glass and final lens treats light. As a general rule, high quality glass is soft, which is why some lenses has as their front and back element, a non-optical lens element that is there to protect the actual optical glass from scratches. As a side noite, Leica made their own glass laboraty, The Leitz Glass Laboratory, from 1949-1989, which deveopled 35 new glass types and took out more than 2,000 patents of glass recipes from more than 50,000 experimental melts of glass. These designs, or recipes, are still used today by the lens designers to obtain very specific optical results. Other lens manufacturers in the world of course have had their glass laboratories, and today one will find an interchange of glass patents amongst production facilities that service Leica, Nikon,, Fuji and so on with optical lens elements.

Lens hood = (also called a Lens shade or Ventilated Shade). A tube or ring attached to the front of a camera lens to prevent unwanted light from reaching the lens and sensor. In the past where lenses were not coated to prevent internal reflections inside the lens, the lens hood was often essential. These days where lenses are coated, the shade serves just as much as decoration and protection (bumper) as well.
ORIGIN Old English hod; related to Dutch hoed, German Hut 'hat,' also to hat.

Lens hood or Lens shade or ventilated shade. In the picture is a ventilated shade with clip-on mount to a 50mm f/2.0 lens. Ventilated means it has openings that allow for view from the viewfinder.

Light = Tiny particles called photons that behaves like both waves and particles. Light makes objects visible by reflecting off of them, and in photography that reflecting off of subjects is what creates textures, shapes, colors and luminance. Light in its natural form (emanating from the sun) also gives life to plants and living things, and makes (most) people happier. So far, nobody has been able to determine exactly what light is. The word photography means “writing with light” (photo = light, -graphy = writing). Read more about light in my book Finding the Magic of Light.

Live View = This is the ability to see the image the sensor see, live, via the screen, or via an electronic viewfinder (EVF).

MACRO = Macro lens. The Leica 60mm APO-Elmarit-Macro ASPH f/2.8 is both a 60mm lens for portraits, landscapes, etc. as well as a near focus macro. The Leica Digilux 2 also works as a Macro lens. The word macro comes from Greek makros ‘long, large.’

The word macro comes from Greek makros ‘long, large.’ The Leica 60mm APO-Elmarit-Macro ASPH f/2.8 is both a 60mm lens for portraits, landscapes, etc. as well as a near focus macro. © Thorsten Overgaard.

mm = millimeter(s), as in a 50mm lens. (Earlier in lens history lenses focal length was given in cm = centimeters; as in a 5 cm lens). For anyone used to centimeters and millimeters, it’s no wonder. But if you grew up with inches, feet and yards, you may have had a hard time grasping what a 50mm lens was. But as lenses were designed first in Europe, the metric system with centimeters and millimeters was used to describe lenses.
The reason a 50mm lens is a 50mm lens is that there is 50mm from the focus plane (the film or sensor) to the center of focus inside the lens. When photography was a young subject, it was engineers who made it all, and the users were expected to understand. The engineers were so into the making of the lenses, that it apparently never dawned upon them that today’s users would think of a 21mm lens as a wide angle lens rather than a lens where there is 21mm from the sensor to the center of focus inside the optics.

Noctilux = Also known as "King of the Night" because "Nocti" means Night and "Lux" means Light. The f/1.0 lenes from Leica are named "Noctilux". The first Leica Noctilux lens was the 50mm Noctilux f/1.2 which shortly after it's introduction was improved to the 50mm Noctilux f/1.0. In the current model the f-stop has been improved further to f/0.95.
"Noctilux" refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f1.0 . "Nocti" for nocturnal (occurring or happening at night; ORIGIN late 15th cent.: from late Latin nocturnalis, from Latin nocturnus ‘of the night,’ from nox, noct- ‘night.), "lux" for light. The Leica Noctilux 50mm f1.0 is famous for enabling the photographer to take photos even there is only candleligts to lit the scene. See the article "Noctilux - King of the Night"

OIS = Optical Image Stabilization. This is used in tele lenses where blurring motion of the camera from inevitable vibrations are adjusted by the lens. At low shutter speeds and/or with long lenses, any slight movement would result in a picture with "motion blur" unsharpness. The Leica TL2 supports optical image stabilization when A) OIS is turned on in the camera menu, and B) when you use lenses with OIS (the Leica SL longer lenses has OIS). An alternative is EIS = Electronic Image Stabilization, which the Leica T has. Here the problem of "motion blur" is corrected electronically after, which might lead to image degradation. However, the larger the sensor resolution, the less one will notice small 'degradation'.

Optic = Eye or vision. From French optique or medieval Latin opticus, from Greek optikos, from optos ‘seen.’

Perspective - The way objects appear to the eye; their relative position and distance. Also, selective focus (foreground and background out of focus) can change the perception of perspective (also see Three-dimensional). A wide angle “widens” the perspective and makes objects further away appear smaller than they are to the eye, and objects nearer, relatively larger than they are to the eye. A tele lens will “flatten” the perspective and often objects further away will appear relatively larger than nearer objects, compared to sizes in real life. A 50mm lens is the one closest to the perspective and enlargement ratio of the human eye.

Perspective is relative position and distance. As here where the girl in front is more than two times taller than the people walking, and 8 times taller than the people in the far background. Also, the parts of the buildings closer to the viewer are "taller" than the parts of the same building further away. Late afternoon sun in Denmark. Leica TL2 with Leica 35mm Summilux-TL ASPH f/1.4. © 2017 Thorsten Overgaard.

ROM = Digital code on Leica R lenses. It was made for the latest of the Leica R lenses in the 1990's so the Leica R8 and Leica R9 could recognize the lens; and each lens was fine-tuned with digital information for the camera to adjust exposure and other very exact. ROM contact could also be added to older R-lenses. In the Leica CL, if you have the R to L adapter and you are using ROM lenses then the camera will recognize the lens.

S = Single image. In the menu of the Leica TL2 you can choose between single image at the time, or Continuous where the Leica TL2 will shoot series of 20-29 pictures per second as long as you hold down the shutter release. In Single mode it takes only one photo, no matter how long you hold down the shutter release.

SDC = Software Distortion Correction. A correction of lens distortion (not straight lines) applied in the camera and which is part of the DNG file. In Lightroom the SDC of the camera file is applied automatically (and cannot be removed), in software like AccuRaw one can open the DNG file without the SDC correction. Sean Reid Reviews have written a good article on what SDC is and does in "Software Distortion Correction".

SDC (Software Distortion Correction): In Lightroom the correction profile for the Fujinon 23mm is applied automatically and cannot be turned off. If you go into Develop mode in Lightroom and look under Lens Correction > Profile, you will see a message in the bottom with an exclamation mark. When you click on that, you get the message above.

Sensor = A device that detects a physical property (like light) and records it. A camera sensor is a plane plate with thousands of small “eyes” with a lens in front of each, which each individually records the amount of red, green and blue light rays that comes through the lens. together Red, Green and Blue form all colors of the spectrum. From Latin sens- ‘perceived’

Saturation: How colorful, intense or pure the color is. Less saturation would be less colorful, more saturation would be more colorful. In today’s photography, desaturating a photo on the computer will gradually make it less and less colorful; and full desaturation would make it into a black and white photo.

Sharpness - See “Focus”

Shutter speed dial - The dial on top of the Leica M where you can set the shutter speed manually. It can also be set to A which stands for Aperture Priority (where the camera suggests a shutter speed; or when you move the dial away from A, the camera will show arrows in the viewfinder, suggesting which direction to change the Aperture to, to get the correct exposure).

Shutter speed dial set to 1/1000 of a second.

SLR = Abbreviation for Single-Lens Reflex; the lens that forms the image on the film/sensor also provides the image in the viewfinder via a mirror. The Leica Q has no traditional viewfinder and no mirror. the image seen in the EVF is what the sensor sees.

Summicron  - Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f2.0 . There are many guesses how this name came about, a popular one eing that the "summi" came from "summit" (summit means the highest point of a hill or mountain; the highest attainable level of achievement) while the "cron" came from "chroma" (ie. for colour). Not so: The name (Summi)cron was used because the lens used Crown glass for the first time, which Leitz bought from Chance Brothers in England. The first batch of lenses were named Summikron (Crown = Krone in Deutsch). The Summi(cron) is a development from the orignal Summar (the 50mm f2.0 lens anno 1933)

Summilux = Refers to the maximum lens aperture - here f1.4 , "-lux" added for "light" (ie. the enhanced light gathering abilities). In Leica terminology a Summilux is always a f/1.4 lens and a Summicron is a f/2.0 lens.

Three-dimensional = Having the three dimensions of height, width and depth. In photography and lens design, three-dimensional effect is also the perception of even small micro-details; the texture of skin can appear flat and dead or three-dimensional and alive. Also, selective focus (foreground and background out of focus) can change the perception of depth. Also see Perspective.

Three-dimensional = Having the three dimensions of height, width and depth. Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. Leica TL2 with Leica 35mm Summilux-TL ASPH f/1.4. © 2017 Thorsten Overgaard.

Vario- is the Leica Camera AG name for zoom lenses. Vario-Elmarit and Vario-Summicron and so on.

Viewfinder a device on a camera showing the field of view of the lens. Also known as the German word "Messucher" (or Meßsucher).
1) A built-in viewfinder in a camera that simply show the frame you get when you look through the viewfinder.
2) A rangefinder viewfinder which is also used to focus the lens. In Leica M cameras two pictures has to meet and lay 'on top of each other' for the picture to be in focus.
3) An external viewfinder, usually on top of the camera in the flash shoe, so as to show the field of view of lenses vider than what the built-in viewfinder can show (15mm, 21mm, 24mm, 28mm etc viewfinders exist)
4) Very simple "aiming-devices" on top of a camera that is simply a metal frame without any optics. Just a frame, as for example very old cameras (the original Leica), or when using cameras in diving where you can't look through the camera.