Kathy & I are visiting friends in Eastern NC this week, and I am trying out this Leica D-Lux 7 that I rented.  The more time I spend with the camera the more used to it I get, and it is overall pretty comfortable to use.  A few observations so far:

– Just because it is a non-interchangeable lens does not make it impervious to sensor dust.  Dust is quite evident in solid skies at f-stops smaller than f11.

– I’ve been very happy with the files, and pleasantly surprised to find that Lightroom handles the processing of RAW files very well.  In fact, this is the first time that I have consistently imported a bunch of files, added the Adobe Camera Natural Profile, hit the Auto Exposure button and didn’t need to touch them further, other than straightening horizons or cropping slightly.

– While the camera is very light to tote around, it is well built and feels like a “serious” camera in my hands.

– I like having all of the manual controls this camera has – exposure compensation, aperture, shutter speed and auto/manual focus are all mechanical.

– The menus are no worse than any other unfamiliar digital camera, and seem like something that would be easy to navigate with a bit more time.

I’ve got a few more days to mess around with this camera before I box it up and send it back.  I’ve come to no conclusions or purchase decisions yet.  Frankly I’m seriously considering renting the latest Fuji body, which coincidentally is about the same price as this Leica, to see if upgrading my body that uses all of my existing lenses would make a better choice.  We’ll see!