Leica X1 Street Photography Score
Leica X1 has a score of
53 for Street Photography which makes it an
AVERAGE candidate for this type of photography. If Street Photography is important for you, we recommend you to check the Alternative cameras at the bottom of this page.
Read our detailed Leica X1 Review
Leica X1 Street Photography Detailed Analysis
Manual Focus Mode
You can use the manual focus mode of your camera to Zone Focus which is a popular technique used in street photography.
Live-view
Live view lets you take photos without using the viewfinder which makes you less obstrusive and this works very well during street photography where you don't want to get people's attention.
Face-Detection Focusing
Face detection focusing mode is very helpful in the street scenes where you focus on a face, since you can concentrate on framing and other adjustments while the camera handles the focus for you.
Fast Lens at Wide: f2.80
Wideangle is used more common then the tele angle in street photography. A larger aperture will give you extra shutter speed without boosting the ISO in order to reduce blur in low light conditions which is a common scene in street photography.
RAW shooting capability
RAW files contains much more color information compared to JPEGs, and gives you more room for post processing without significant quality loss. They provide wider dynamic range and option to recover shadow and highlight clipping to some degree.
Small Body
Small body of Leica X1 will get less attention from the people in streets and give you an amateur look, which is indeed an advantage for street photography.
Large APS-C (23.6 x 15.8 mm) sensor
Large sensor in Leica X1 ensures a good low light image quality compared to smaller sensor, and it also provide shallow depth of field and a nice blurry background when needed.
No Built-in Viewfinder
In the lack of a a viewfinder, holding the camera away from the body while using live view is not very stable, especially with heavy camera bodies and lenses. Besides, LCD screens are very hard to read under bright sunlight.
No Image Stabilization
An articulated screen gives you the flexibility to shoot in non traditional positions such as waist level, which helps you to be more creative and unobtrusive in the streets.
35 mm - Poor Wide Angle Coverage
Lack of Image stabilization may result in blurry photos especially in long exposures and at long focal lengths
You may also be interested in these reviews:
Leica X1 for Portrait Photography Leica X1 for Sports Photography Leica X1 for Carrying Everywhere Leica X1 for Landscape Photography