Leica V-Lux 30 (2011)

Name: Leica V-Lux 30
Brand: Leica

The Leica V-Lux 30 is a compact travel-zoom digital camera announced on May 26, 2011, at a US price of $749. It was widely noted at the time as a rebadged Panasonic. The guts were nearly identical to the Panasonic ZS10 (or TZ20), which sold for roughly $350 less. The Leica version added its own styling, a red dot, and bundled Adobe editing software. Outside Online (June 2011) put it this way: "Get it if you'd use the software and you prefer, say, an Audi to a Volkswagen. Otherwise, go Panasonic."

The camera is built around a 14.1-megapixel effective CMOS sensor (1/2.33″ format, 15.1 MP total) and a 16x optical zoom Leica DC Vario-Elmar lens. The lens covers a 35mm-equivalent 24-384mm range at f/3.3-5.9. It shoots Full HD 1080 video with optical zoom during recording, does burst shooting at 10 fps at full resolution, and has built-in GPS that writes coordinates to Exif data. The 3-inch touchscreen LCD has a 460k-dot resolution. It also has a 3D capture mode, 21x extended zoom via Intelligent Resolution, macro focus down to 3cm at wide-angle, and built-in optical image stabilization.

The body measures 104.9 × 57.6 × 33.4mm (W×H×D) and weighs 219g. It runs on the BP-DC 7 lithium-ion battery, rated at 260 shots CIPA, and takes SD, SDHC, and SDXC cards up to 64GB.

Reception was mixed, but generally positive on the hardware. T3 called it a "stunning luxury pocket zoom camera" that "we squeezed... into our pockets without too much trouble," with "clean and crisp visibility thanks to the 460k dot resolution on offer." It also said the camera "cost a small fortune for a point and shoot." ePHOTOzine praised the 16x zoom starting at 24mm wide, build quality, high-speed shooting, macro performance, auto white balance, and built-in GPS.

No production years beyond the 2011 announcement are documented. The record on long-term reliability, common failures, and current collectibility is thin.