I was struck by something important to understand during my recent trip to Africa. I was carrying two new (to me) "pocket cameras," the Fujifilm X100VI and the Leica D-Lux8, alongside my usual top-end mirrorless kit.
Curiously, my initial impression of both the compact cameras changed. When I had unboxed them, I was frustrated with the Leica and familiar with the Fujifilm (uses the same menu structure and controls as the other X models, basically). As I started using both cameras, though, I started to notice little and subtle things about both cameras that began to change my original thoughts about each.
I should point out that my use of and role for a vest pocket camera such as these two models is a lot different than that of my usual safari kit. So let's start there.
On this trip I took a pair of Z8 bodies coupled with my two fave safari lenses, the Nikkor 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S, and the Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8. Those two lenses give me essentially 35-540mm at fast apertures, with a gap from 150-400mm that I control with vehicle position. The fast apertures allow me to photograph deeper into the edges of the day, as well as isolate subjects from backgrounds when I want to. If I were photographing in Kenya/Tanzania instead of Botswana/South Africa, I might be tempted to move to the 600mm f/4 TC VR S (you can't drive off road in the former, you can often do so in the latter), though that would give me a bigger gap to worry about, with less ability to position the vehicle.
Most of what I do on Africa trips can be done with my two camera, two lens kit. What can't be done with that really boils down to wider landscape/environment photos and to some degree, macro images. That's where the compact cameras come into play. But they have to be compact, because I'm already juggling too much gear in the front seat of those Toyota Hilux-based vehicles, which have very little space. They're a compact pickup truck converted to safari vehicle, after all. Room in that front seating area is extremely limited, especially since we're talking about vehicles with manual transmissions and a lo-range gear lever.
Thus, a compact camera, to be useful to me in safari drive mode, needs to fit in a pocket somewhere, typically my vest. Beyond that, it needs to be near instantly available as I take it out of my pocket.
My first impression of the Leica D-Lux 8 was that they had partly lobotomized the Panasonic LX100 it is based on. By this, I mean that the user interaction with the camera was simplified, particularly in the menus. On the plus side, Leica didn't drop the aperture ring, shutter speed dial, aspect ratio, or thumb dial, all of which are useful to have when I want the camera to do something other than what it was set for.
At first I was put off by the lack of buttons and the non-standard "menu." Let's start with the former. Beyond being very difficult to find by feel, the two "function" buttons on the back are highly limited in what they can do. This isn't helped by the PDF manual, which is mostly a mess that almost needs a manual to describe what the manual is telling you. Sometimes simplicity in design actually becomes complicated to usage, and Leica over relies upon the screen as opposed to dedicated controls (other than those already mentioned).
It took me awhile to recognize that the "menu system" is actually a three layer thing, each layer getting you into more sophisticated choices. When you press the MENU button, you're first taken to the top half of the screen, where you pick and set exposure mode, ISO, and exposure compensation (all via tap and perhaps thumb dial or direction pad). Aperture and shutter speed are also in this top group, but you only set them directly in manual exposure mode.
Below those controls is something very similar to the Nikon i-menu options (though not programmable). Nine slightly deeper controls get exposed here. Finally, the tenth touch area in this section takes you to a traditional five page menu system for even deeper control.
It was coming to grips with this setting simplification and layering that initially frustrated me. No Back Button Focus is possible, so you have to invert your thinking to AF-L, instead. No joystick, per see, and the small direction pad isn't reliable on diagonal movement of the focus area, so you have to figure out that you can set and use the touchscreen more reliably (which works just fine for right-eyed users due to the offset of the viewfinder).
The interesting thing is that as I worked my way through these simplifications and got the camera closer in operation to what I wanted, my initial impression started to flip to favorable. Sure, I can't do X, but I've surfaced everything I can do in ways that are pretty immediate and useful. Why Leica defaults to showing the histogram when it has zebra striping, I don't know, but once you track down all these little things and get the camera "set", I never dropped down into the third level of "menus." Heck, I rarely dropped down into the first and especially second level. While forced to a simplicity level I'm not used to, I was still controlling the important things just fine. Camera in and out of pocket taking photos when needed, no thinking necessary.
Thus, the initial unfavorable impression became more and more favorable the more I used the D-Lux 8.
The Fujifilm, on the other hand, had a bit of the opposite impact on me.
Yes, we have an aperture ring, shutter speed ring, exposure compensation dial, and also an ISO dial. So the basic controls I might be using are fully exposed in things I directly change. The buttons are just as difficult to discriminate by feel (heaven help me in winter with gloves on), and they have—I can't believe I'm about to write this—way too many options that can be set (nine pages worth, for the most part). Do I really want to program the AEL/AFL button to Grain Effect? Who would?
Moreover, given the complexity of the Fujifilm menu system these days, would I really want to program the Q button—which brings up a grid of 12 things that can be quickly set so that you don't have to dip into the full, brain numbing menu system—to Color Chrome FX Blue? If that really is something you need, just change one of the Q menu items you don't need (though that is a multi-step and somewhat confusing action in itself).
The irony is that the X100VI has a virally-triggered appeal to the young and influencer crowd. I'd have thought that Fujifilm would want to surface the things they want to set, which is mostly centered around substantive changes in image quality (e.g. filters and film simulations). If I were buying an X100VI for such an influencer, I'd sit down with them and find what they wanted their images to look like and change the Q menu for them completely. Otherwise, they're going to be scrolling endlessly and maddeningly in the full menus and missing images (or taking longer to get the image they want).
Fujifilm is now at the stage where their menus have sprawled, scrolling parts of the menu aren't always obvious, organization is terrible, and naming is all over the place. Moreover, Fujifilm has never noticed, let alone fixed, accessibility to some things you might use often. For example, SET UP > USER SETTING > FORMAT. Formatting is a user setting buried in another menu item? No, it's something you do pretty much every time you put a card in the camera. It shouldn't be buried. And don't get me started on the "must press the shutter release to wake camera" thing that Fujfilm seems to think is correct. It also doesn't help that Fujifilm violates the "don't mix fonts, sizes, and cases" thing. The menus look and act geeky at best, labyrinthian at worst.
For a pocket camera I'm not sure that I want the complexity of a full-fledged high-end camera. Given that I had a Z8 with me that had a 35mm f/2 lens on it (Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8), as you might guess, the Fujifilm rarely came out to play. One thing I would have liked that isn't present is the ability to virtually zoom (e.g. crop that 40mp sensor down if my subject wasn't filling the frame).
So, while my initial impression of the Fujifilm was favorable—I can set everything!—as it turns out, for my use of such a camera, Fujifilm hasn't actually helped me much. I found myself using the Leica more than the Fujifilm.
As I've noted many times before, I don't publish reviews based upon quick and casual use of a product. Initial impressions can be wrong, very wrong in many cases. I assume that if you're spending thousands of dollars for a product—both the products mentioned above are US$1600—you're likely going to be using it for awhile to get value from it. What you don't want to happen is you buy the product, like it initially, then fall out of love with it and stop using it. You're much better off with a product that makes a weaker first impression but grows on you as you use it.
One issue I've had with the Japanese companies for decades is that not enough of the engineers designing the products are actually photographers who would use them regularly and for purpose. Thus, they often get caught up in the minutiae of iteration and feature additions, and not in the actual usability of the product and suitability to purpose itself. I believe Fujifilm has fallen into this rabbit hole and needs to be extracted.
None of the above is to imply that the X100VI is a bad camera. It certainly has its pluses, and I might not be the person that it's best suited for, which is something I need to explore more before fully reviewing it. However, it is interesting to note that the X100VI is out of stock pretty much everywhere due mostly to viral and fad-based Internet hype. While it's in a different price range, I'm now going to have to take a longer look at the Leica Q3, which given it's UI design the same as the D-Lux 8, may be a more approachable and usable super high quality "compact" camera.
Note to other camera makers: (1) If you're going to now return to making a compact camera, make it compact! (2) Compact cameras need their own flexible/discoverable UI/UX, not a replication of the deep and wide top-end DSLR/mirrorless UI/UX. (3) Small cameras shouldn't mean small, impossible to find controls and buttons. (4) Don't go too far with features—e.g. Fujifilm's complex/costly hybrid viewfinder—or with pixels, as those things don't really align with actual usage that well. Finally (5) The way you go viral now won't be to just "make it nostalgic" or "make it in colors." Now you have to actually deliver a product that does a better job of getting images and videos that are compelling to social media better than the DJI Osmo Pocket does (by the way, the D-Lux 8 connects very nicely to my iPhone, and more reliably than SnapBridge).
