Leica has just launched a camera called the V-Lux 5.
It's a superzoom camera designed for “explorers.” The camera is not a brand new
model but in fact, it's a rebranded Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 II superzoom camera,
which some minor design changes. It's available now for pre-order at a price of US$ 1,250.
The camera has a 1-inch, 20.1-megapixel sensor with
16x optical zoom. Given the size of the sensor, this gives you an equivalent focal
range of 25mm to 400mm. The aperture ranges from F/2.8 at the wide end, to f/4
at the telephoto end. The V-Lux 5 has an ISO range of 80 - 12,500 and burst
shooting of up to 12fps. With just the electronic shutter, you can shoot 50fps
too. The camera can shoot video up to 4K video at up to 30fps and supports RAW
stills.
You get various types of focus tracking methods such
as face and object tracking and well as eye detection. It features a 3-inch LCD
TFT display with touch support. There's also a 0.39-inch OLED electronic
viewfinder, stereo audio recording, and support for a single SD card (up to
UHS-3 speeds). Leica also boasts of a fast autofocus for the V-Lux 5 thanks to
its DFD (Depth From Defocus) focusing system, which lets it lock focus in 0.1 seconds.
The camera also has built-in Wi-Fi, which syncs with
the Leica FOTOS app on Android and iOS. You can share photos and videos
directly from the camera to phone or even control the camera settings from the
app, for remote shooting. In terms of battery life, the camera is rated to
deliver around 360 shots per charge.
