German, handmade, used by the most famous names in photojournalism, Leica is the original name in 35mm cameras and one that is hard to introduce without sounding like a bad advertisement.
There is one thing that Leica's most famous model is not - and that's digital. While Japanese firms have worked hard to convert existing lines, with Leica's classic M series the word is nein.
But where one German manufacturer has seen obstacles, another has spied opportunities. Known for its relatively inexpensive cameras which use Leica's M lens mount, Voigtlander has partnered with Japanese electronics maker Epson and produced the first digital camera to use Leica M lenses.
The body is a quirky mix of old and new technology. The camera still sports a manual film advance lever and a rewind knob. Of course, there is no film, but the Epson R-D1 is based on the Voigtlander R series 35mm cameras and the lever must remain to cock the shutter. The film rewind knob has been cleverly converted into a jog wheel used to select menu items on the camera's LCD.
If you like black and white, you will love shooting with the R-D1, which can simulate popular filters and can convert B&W images back to colour if you shoot Raw format files.
Both colour and B&W image quality was good but not great, similar to a Canon 20D. Best to stick with Raw files rather than jpegs as colour balance and saturation will often need to be reworked, especially when shooting under artificial light.
Of course, a Leica lens will give images a sharper edge than just about anything Canon makes but, as with the 20D, any lens will be 1.5 times more powerful, turning a very expensive 20mm lens into a rather ordinary 30mm one.