A short trip to Sai Kung in Hong Kong with my wife and I decided to take the Leica X Vario with me. Weather was great with a clear blue sky and direct sunlight. Checking and working on the outputs back at home, I realized there is a distinct learning curve when shooting with the Leica X Vario outdoors.

Straight out of the camera, the files often look too bright. The camera has a tendency to overexpose, pushing the histogram to the right.

At first glance, this can be frustrating.

However, this is not necessarily a flaw. By exposing generously, the sensor actually gathers more shadow data than I would expect.

The result is a RAW file that looks flat and washed out as is. But hidden within the RAW file is a surprising amount of malleable information.

This is where the heavy lifting begins in Lightroom, when you pull the exposure slider down. As you correct the brightness, the highlights regain their texture. The shadows lift cleanly, free from noise.

Only then do the colors start to emerge.

But to achieve what I want to achieve, there are a lot of adjustments to be made. I have to play with many sliders. It is only through this considerate editing—balancing the contrast and enriching the hues—that the X Vario‘s true colour appears.

Do I like this?

Not necessarily. I like the final results, yes, but not the way it’s achieved.

Thing is, digital editing tools are so powerful now that you can make a photo from a specific camera look like coming out from another one.

Too much editing makes me feel the result is a bit fake? Like the photo comes from Lightroom, not from the X Vario, if you know what I mean.

I much prefer my other cameras that don’t require this sort of heavy editing and straight out of camera you get its signature. Like my Leica M-E, the Hasselblad 907x 100c or the Fuji GFX 100RF.

*All photos above take with Leica X Vario and post processed to taste in Lightroom.