Leica Digilux 2

The Digilux 2 (2004) is remembered with unusual affection for a camera launched twenty years ago. Co-developed with Panasonic (as was common for Leica's early digital products), it packed a 5MP 2/3-inch CCD sensor behind a Leica Vario-Summicron 28–90mm f/2–2.4 zoom lens and gave photographers manual aperture, shutter, and focus rings directly on the lens barrel — not buried in menus.

In 2004 that was radical. Most digital compacts had no manual controls at all. The Digilux 2 was designed for photographers who shot with M cameras and wanted digital convenience without sacrificing creative control. Its large-for-the-era body, superb lens, and tactile controls made it a cult object among early digital adopters. Henri Cartier-Bresson reportedly used one.

For newcomers: the Digilux 2 was essentially a proof-of-concept for what the Q would become in 2015 — a premium digital Leica you could put in a bag and shoot all day. It was just doing it a decade early, on 2004 technology.