Performance

Leica X2 review – Performance

One of the main gripes levelled at the original X1 was the sluggish autofocus performance, and this is one of the key areas Leica has worked on with the X2. While the AF performance is quite a marked improvement over the X1, it’s still not as lightning fast as we’d like, being outclassed by more affordable rivals.

The AF system has a choice of either 1 point, 11 point, spot or face detection AF. For manual focusing, the central area of the frame is magnified, and focusing is performed using the thumbwheel.
The X2 is capable of shooting at up to 5fps, managing 8 combined Raw and JPEG files before the buffer stops operation as it writes images to the card. Oddly, the X2 won’t shoot Raw files on their own.

The rear screen would be more than adequate on a budget compact, but on a camera aimed at the high-end enthusiast, it’s woefully disappointing. There simply isn’t the level of sharpness or clarity that we’d expect for a camera in this price bracket. If you opt for the X2, we’d recommend the optional electronic viewfinder already mentioned to make composition a more pleasurable experience.

Rather than split the menu up into sub-sections, the menu is one long stream of options, making finding and altering some settings slow and labourious. Not only that, but the two-tone colour scheme is also looks quite dated.