Leica Digilux- anyone tried it?

[Doug]

Has anyone had any experience with the new Leica Digilux camera that is designed to work with their scopes? I understand it can take 4 shots per second and has a much larger screen. It is over £700 but I am wondering if it is worth it?

[Andy Bright]

Avoid!! May be a nice camera for general photography but a disaster for digiscoping.
I tried it out at last years birdfair and it was embarrassing to see the Leica guys trying to sell it next to the Nikon stand with their set-up.
Suffers from lots of vignetting, even with the Leica recommended 20x eyepiece... shudder to think about it's performance on a 30x 0r 20-60x zoom. Vignetting clears as you go back to full wide angle on the camera (opposite to Nikon cameras), so you only get a vignette free image at low magnification.
The camera's zoom control was awkwardly positioned for digiscopers at the front of the camera.

Screen is nice, and cute sunshade for it. It's quite rapid in operation... which fits into Leica's reputation for great reportage cameras.
A certain individual who has ties with Leica is currently advertising the Leica digiscoping set-up.... odd how he uses a Nikon in real life.
Andy

[Doug]

That's all I need to know, Andy. You have just saved me a lot of Money!! So would you what scope would you recommend with the Nikon digital camera's?

[Andy Bright]

Unlike cameras, most scopes are perfectly suitable fo digiscoping.... take your pick. At the top end you should be looking at Swarovski ATS80HD, Leica APO77, Zeiss 85FL, Kowa TSN823/824, all of these can produce excellent results. Try lower powered eyepieces 20x/30x ... I'd only recommend a zoom eyepiece if you buy the Swarovski.
Regards,
Andy