Customer Reviews

Leica C-1 35mm Camera (Silver)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Working in the photo industry both as a vivid photographer and a salesperson I've use Leica equipment many times. The sturdiness, quality and reliability were always a reason for me to purchase Leica product. Not this time. Slamming you brand name on the average camera to drive the price up is not a right thing to do... It's cheaply made and takes average quality pictures... From the outside it look and feels great but inside you can see right away that Leica engineers were trying to save on finishing costs. Lens is not what you expect and my old Ricoh takes better images... If you are planning to purchase this item do you self a favor and buy their Minilux Zoom model or if price is a factor buy Olympus LTZoom 105. In my opinion Leica just tries to fill the market with their name not with the quality products... It's a nice looking camera not worth your buck.

The Leica C1 is a good looking camera that fits well in the hand. But when compared to other, less expensive point and shoot cameras, there is really nothing to justify the extra cost.

The automatic exposure works well with print film but is not accurate enough to handle slides. The lens is sharp, but certainly not better than other mid-range P&S cameras.

There is no diopter adjustment, no manual overrides other than flash and a fixed +2EV setting. The "step" zoom takes some getting used to but turns out to be faster to use than a standard zoom. The camera is not weather resistent, the manual makes it clear that this is strictly a "dry always" camera.

In summary, the C1 looks nice, works well, but offers nothing new or improved over other, cheaper, point-and-shoot models.

From it aluminum body to it vario-elmar lense. I've taken several pictures and they all came out absolutely incredible, the details and contrast are picture perfect. The camera is a little big to fit in a pocket, but it is very solid feeling, and user friendly, zoom works flawlessly.

As someone who's always wanted to own a Leica camera, buying a C1 proved to be a bitter disappointment. That first moment of running the lens in and out and hearing what sounded like gravel in the lens barrel wasn't a good start. I immediately sent the camera back and got another one, same thing. A further disappointment was actually using the camera. With a lens speed about as fast as a glacier,(f10.5 @105mm), using the camera in the middle of the day, albeit overcast, with 100 ISO film trying to take a landscape, the camera was screaming for the flash. I sent the camera back and bought a Canon Z135, great camera, half the price and twice the features, (with a much faster lens). Buy anything, but this over rated "Leica wanta be"

Lets face it this is a P&S camera. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles but whatever it does, it does best. I have taken some excellent pictures with this camera. I have 2 SLR cameras and 6 lens. This camera does have some shortcomings but I like the quality.

Here are some shortcomings
When you zoom in it requires flash
Its slippery cuz it has a very smooth surface. I highly recommend the case if you are buying this camera
It does not store the settings. So everytime I disable the flash for the next pic I got to do it again

advantages
Takes SLR quality picture
Compact
Different from other camera

I bought this at an online auction which had 3 month warranty. There was some noise and I send the camera back and got a new one in a week. The customer service was excellent. This is almost a year back. I clicked anywhere from 20 to 30 roll of film on this camera. Its worth the money.