The Best Travel Camera - Leica D-Lux Typ 109

 

Above: Leica D-Lux Typ 109 - The Best Travel Camera Ever

I recently took a much needed 30-day vacation, known as "leave" in the Army and traveled back home to New Mexico to spend time with my dad and my awesome dog Oliver. Within those 30 vacation days, I also planned a short trip to Palm Springs, California to visit a few of my life long friends. I wanted to travel light but still wanted to get outstanding quality images, after all, my best buddy Matt was driving a brand new Tesla 3 Performance model, of which, I definitely wanted to grab a few snap shots and the Coachella Valley itself is so picturesque. I knew I needed a small, compact travel camera that could also deliver the goods.

Enter the Leica D-Lux Typ 109. I've owned this camera for a few years and although Leica has released a newer version (D-Lux 7), I just can justify the upgrade as the Typ 109 does everything well and that legendary Leica image quality never fails me.

The Leica D-Lux Typ 109 features a highly versatile lens with a 35mm equivalent focal range of 24-75mm, which is perfect for travel. You can capture moderately wide angle shots and a bit of telephoto zoom as well. The lens features a large, variable aperture from f/1.7 (at 24mm) to f/2.8 (at 75mm) which handles low-light situations with ease (see sample images below).

The sensor is a 4/3 (known as micro 4/3) which is the same size found in most Panasonic Lumix branded cameras such as the superb GH6. This sensor, while slightly smaller than APS-C sensors, does not leave you wanting in detail, sharpness or resolution. It's 13 megapixels are more than enough to deliver quality images even for prints of all sizes. The resolution is 4112 x 3088 pixels, so that's pretty big.

So when it comes to travel cameras, what probably most important is size. On my trip to Palm Springs I took along only a small backpack, and did not want to lug my interchangeable lens camera and lens kit around. I just wanted to focus on spending time with my friends. But a compact camera like this also let's you capture great images, and that's a wonderful convenience. It weighs less than one pound, .89 lbs to be exact and its small dimensions (4.65 inches x 2.6 x 2.17) allow it to fit in a jacket pocket or in my case, a side pocket in my cargo shorts. 

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

The trip from El Paso, Texas to Palm Springs, California requires a change at Phoenix because there are very few direct flights from El Paso to anywhere other than Phoenix, Dallas or Denver, or so it seems. But, both legs of the flight are shot and before I knew it, bam! I was in the scenic valley of the Coachella... with my Leica D-Lux Typ 109 in my shorts pocket. Ready to be whipped out at a moments notice.

I just love how Leica lenses capture the light and the colors and tones are ultra-realistic.

El Paseo is known as the Rodeo Drive of the Coachella Valley. The palm tree lined streets are dotted with art and sculptures. The weather is nearly perfect this time of year and the local mountains still have a bit of snow, the scene is picturesque.

Matt's cousin Kerri is definitely the artistic type and I had a feeling, after she showed me some of her art on her cell phone, that I would love to see and photograph her eclectic style, art and knick-knacks at her home and I was not disappointed. There were little pieces of her mixed media art pieces about the house and little positive-thinking reminders just about every where you looked.

You can tell a lot about a person by the books they keep.

Stay positive.

And finally, I got a chance to show off the low-light capabilities of this fast (1.7 - 2.8) lens when Matt and I attended a night session at the BNP Paribas Open. We got to enjoy the tennis match from a luxury suite, thanks to some of Matt's highly placed connections. 

As you can see, the Leica D-Lux Typ 109 is a fantastic compact travel camera. The little red dot on the front of the camera body exudes respect and will turn some heads for those "in the know" of cameras. The bottom line is that it is small and discreet and pretty much guarantees you'll be going home with memorable photos worth printing and keeping in your travel scrap book.

This is why you ALWAYS put a screen protector on your camera screen

JJC Tempered Glass Screen Protector Buy Now at Amazon

The gods have been good to me over the years when it comes to near disasters and near misses with dropped cameras and potentially broken LCD screens. For example: I have dropped my Sony G 70-200mm f/4 zoom lens twice with the only damage being a broken UV filter on the first occasion and a broken lens hood on the second. The lens itself went unscathed both times, as if protected by a guardian angel.

The same can be said of my Leica D-Lux Typ 109. On the flight home after completing my 3 year tour of South Korea, the read LCD screen was broken, although there was no visible physical damage to the screen or the camera body. My theory is that the damage must have been caused by some source of heavy weight putting pressure on the screen over the entirety of the 15 hour around the world flight. When I powered it on, the screen looked much like a cracked TV screen. Fortunately, the repair was covered by the 3 year warranty provided by Leica.

Fast forward to today... my good friend Keith @coffee_2_cocktails had the day off and called to inform me that he was considering the purchase of a drone, his first ever. He has been trying to decide between the DJI Mavic Mini and the new Mavic Air 2 so I invited him over to my side of town to have a go at flying my Mavic Mini.

We hopped in his Jeep and made our way via a series of desert Jeep trails to an abandoned water tower from which, looking East, provides a panoramic view of the Franklin Mountains near El Paso, Texas. The ride was quite bumpy, as Jeep trails tend to be. I had my Lieca D-Lux Typ 109 strapped and slung with a should strap. But the bumpy ride cause it to slide, unnoticed to me, to the right side of my body, where it was then caught, again unnoticed to me, between the car door and the Sig Sauer P229 pistol tucked in my holster.

As we continued on our off road journey, the jerking and swaying motion of the Jeep caused the weight of my body to press the camera, more specifically, the rear LCD screen, where it was crushed and broken. As you can see in the above photo, the damage looked pretty bad. The initial fear I felt was because I could not recall if I had installed a screen protector on it. Although this is a standard practice for all my cameras, I have too many that I could not specifically remember if I had applied one to this camera. I gave it a good inspection and my initial assessment was that I had not, this Leica model comes with Gorilla glass as it's standard and therefore, would not normally require a screen protector. As it turns out, I had indeed put on a screen protector. It took me a while to notice because I had done such a good job installing it that I could not even tell it had a screen protector. Much to my relief, I finally got a finger nail underneath the screen protector and pulled it off, revealing the undamaged built-in, factory screen below.

Well, undamaged except for a small scratch which does not affect the function nor viewing of the LCD screen. Compared to the damage that could have occurred had I not had the screen protector, I was relieved, to say the least and I'll take it any day, over a cracked screen that would have cost hundreds to repair and replace.