Exploring Paris with old little Leica X1

It was one morning on a lazy Saturday when me and my wife are having breakfast at a local cafe near our house, we heard a classic song: “April in Paris” by Louis Armstrong. And my wife said to me: it sound like Paris is special in April!. Fast forward, we decided to visit Paris in April and I brought my old little Leica X1 with me to document our curiosity.

When we arrived, it was still cold, cloudy, and grey. But I can see that the spring is pushing in; one moment is a cloudy sky, and one other moment the sun is piercing through while the rains are still falling. I think I made the right decision to bring X1 because it’s small and the lens quality is superb for almost any kind of light situation. In this lighting changing condition, I have decided to fix my aperture to 2.8 and set the ISO and shutter speed to Auto to allow the camera to compensate for changing lights condition so that I can focus on moment and composition.

Low lights

The photograph below is taken during the situation where sunlight and rain are coming together. The Elmarit lens is superb to capture a subject with strong backlight, and one best thing with this camera is the capability to capture the lighting mood as I see it.

Paris street | ISO 100 at 1/320 sec

Below two photographs of Notre Dame and the Eiffel tower during sunset are also another showcase of the Elmarit’s superb quality in low light.

Notre Dame | ISO 200 at 1/250 sec

TIPS: To get your picture at the right exposure during an extreme light situation, you need to be able to find a spot on the scene where it can represent the right balance between the darkest and the lightest shade. In the example of the Eiffel Tower scene on the left, I pointed the spotlight meter on the brightest part of the statue body. It also depends on your preference, if you wanted your picture come out darker, then you need to point your spot meter on the slightly lighter area, or vice versa. Of course, you can also use the camera exposure compensation feature, but it will take time because you need to go thru the camera menu/button and do a few test shots. And by that time you might have lost the opportunity to capture your subject. This skill requires lots of practice and experience, there is no shortcut. Besides, you have to make a quick decision in finding this spot in order not to lose the capturing opportunity, it has almost become an instinctive act.

Eiffel | ISO 400 at 1/640 sec

Candid

The X1 is small and quiet enough to be ignored by most people. When comes to taking a candid photo, it is very important to have a camera that is not intimidating but also producing a high-quality image. The other thing that I enjoy using X1 is the direct access to aperture and shutter speed, for me these two settings are crucial and I need to access it without seeing the menu screen. The only thing that I dislike about this camera is autofocus which sometimes very slow and hard to focus. To counter this, I often tried to focus on other objects at the same distance as my main object, and once it focused then I can lock the focus and back to my original composition.

Gendarmerie | ISO 800 at 1/60 sec

Louvre | ISO 1600 at 1/100 sec

Mona Lisa | ISO 1600 at 1/250 sec

Tourists | ISO 100 at 1/1250 sec

Wedding shot? | ISO 100 at 1/1000 sec

TIPS: The trick that I often use to take a photo of people in their natural state, is to visually let them know that you are around and wait till they “used to” your presence. At that time, you can take a few shots without their notice or they might not bother. In the two pictures above: the Policeman and group of tourists, I was standing near them but did not take any pictures… I wanted them to see me and get comfortable with my presence. Once they no longer bother with my presence, then I can start to take pictures for a few shots.

Urban landscape

Capturing urban landscape with X1 is a breeze. The 24mm Elmarit is wide enough to capture cityscape or street scenes without distortion. I found that F5.6 is the “sweet spot” of this Elmarit where you get the sharpest images at all corners and distances. Thus for capturing the urban landscape, I often use F5.6. The X1 is small and light, with the fixed lens it means that I don’t have to bring a few lenses as an option. This is very important when you are exploring a city like Paris, you will have to walk for hours, and having a camera that light and can be used immediately is very crucial.

Louvre | ISO 100 at 1/320 sec (F5.6)

TIPS: The X1 “sweet spot” lens at F5.6 is the sharpest and ideal for capturing landscape scenes. However, it doesn’t mean that other apertures are useless. I found that sharpness is become relative, especially if you have a strong story or subject to highlight within your scene. I encourage you to experiment with a wider aperture when capturing landscape, which often gives a distinctive look as shown on the two pictures above.

Paris street | ISO 200 at 1/640 sec (F5.6)

Conclusion

I am really having fun with Leica X1, it’s small, light, and yet it has high image quality even for today's standard. So far I don’t find anything bad with this camera, apart from the slow autofocus which I understand since this is considered an old camera but it was manageable. Do I recommend this camera for the city explorer? absolutely!

Photos are adjusted in DxO PhotoLab 2 and Silver Efex Pro 2. I wanted to keep this article short, light, and fun. Feel free to leave comments below if you have any questions or wanted to know in detail about some particular part of this article.

Thank you!

_{I am currently working on Monochrome Fine Art Prints projects, and they are available at the following:
Fine Art Chromogenic Catalogue & Print:}

Printed on Fine Metal:
Tshirt prints:
Visit my STUDIO & GALLERY in Metaverse:

[//]:# (!pinmapple 48.863417 lat 2.345976 long  d3scr)