Leica X (Typ 113) review

Andy Westlake takes a detailed look at Leica's fast-lensed APS-C compact

Image quality

Leica X (Typ 113) Review – image quality

The Leica X uses a 16-million-pixel APS-C CMOS sensor, most likely a version of the stalwart Sony design that’s been used for over three years. This is in no way a bad thing, as it’s a very good sensor indeed. It may look dated in comparison to newer 24-million-pixel designs, but the X’s excellent lens makes the most of the pixels, giving sharp images across the frame.

To get the most from the camera, though, you need to shoot raw and process yourself, which will reveal more detail than Leica’s somewhat unrefined JPEG processing. Few modern camera show such a large disparity between JPEG and raw.

Resolution

It’s in our resolution tests that Leica’s JPEG processing most clearly shows its limitations. At around 2600l/ph at ISO 100, it lags well behind raw, which can yield almost 3200 l/ph. Indeed this is essentially at the theoretical limit for the sensor, implying that Leica hasn’t installed an optical low-pass filter. The large APS-C sensor means that resolution doesn’t suffer immediately as the sensitivity is increased, only dropping to around 2800 l/ph at ISO 1600 in raw. Thereafter it falls more quickly, to about 2200 l/ph at ISO6400, and 2000 l/ph at ISO 12500.