Lately I have been contemplating buying an advanced point and shoot camera, and deciding between Leica D-Lux4 and Panasonic Lumix LX3.
These two cameras have identical technical specifications except the external design, but Leica costs double of the Lumix. One would assume it is an obvious choice between the two. Quite the contrary, there are many people willingly give the extra $400 for Leica thinking they are buying the better camera.
There are many reviews online and even postings of comparison of photos taken by these two cameras, if you take away the caption, it is impossible to tell the difference. But why do people pay double of the price for an almost identical camera? The magic is the image (the camera's appearence).
Leica has a cleaner look than Lumix. It has it's lengendary red leica icon on the camera case. One reviewer said, knowing the same specifications of these two cameras, he still went for Leica. He felt when he was using Lumix, he was taking pictures, but when he was using Leica, he was creating images. This pretty much sums up the reason why people still fall for Leica when it is so much more expensive.
I have to confest that I have a fair share of the struggle of deciding between the two. It is not only the image of Leica that is appealing, but also the image of being seen using Leica - a lengendary camera brand, is appealing.
The power of brand is the power of image.
well said/observed. What stuns me about the 2 cameras is that either of them is using a leica lens. It seems, it's only the wrapping that's different then.
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