Still getting used to the xVario. Very nice in the hand. Excellent for all kinds of casual and candid shots and in general, also for manually focused close-ups. Still gathering equipment for the latter. Beginning to try it on orchids (my current specialty), and other floral close-ups.
The fixed lens defines this as an alternative to the all-out professional product, but at the same time, it has a lot of important qualities. I’m in process of determining if it will serve my purposes without going to the M-240, which I have on order in case of need.
The electronic viewfinder does away with mechanical mirrors and all the associated overhead, and manual focus assist (MFA) is an excellent focusing aid. This brilliant, new feature first comes to notice when turning the manual focusing ring, but read on.
At a range of about 30 cm there is no difficulty using MFA to refocus on different elements separated by 2 cm in range. Due to the high magnification, there is a degree of noise/jitter in low-contrast areas of the MFA image (even with a tripod), but it does not take long to learn to ignore that. There is no hint of noise in the downloaded, developed image.
MFA shuts down after 3 s., possibly to conserve power(?). It comes right back on after pressing the Delete/Focus (D/F) button. Also, when D/F is pressed, the position of the MFA window is steerable within the limits of the viewfinder, by use of the silver, all-purpose direction pad. Consistent with energy-drain limitations, Leica might consider adding a setting to increase the life of the MFA window.
Leica should add to user’s manual: the “steered” MFA position is persistent shot-to-shot. This is very useful when making multiple shots with a tripod. The way to ensure persistence is to set auto power-off (APO) to a longer time, up to max. available (15 min), but of course, when done, user should remember to reset APO to its preferred, shorter value, in order to conserve battery life.
After power-down/up, the MFA position is again at its default (centered) location in the viewfinder screen
Manual p. 137 describes a sub-menu setting for MFA, but this setting was not found.