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As one would expect, the Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium looks very clean and minimalist from the front, feels substantial when held in the palm thanks to that metal exterior, yet is also lightweight enough to be carried in a jacket pocket.
The camera's dimensions are 110 x 66 x 43mm and the Leica weighs 270g with a rechargeable battery and SD card inserted. But what we miss here is anything approaching a proper handgrip. It's around 10mm wider than comparable compact cameras, such as Canon's PowerShot S100, by virtue of the fact that, like the Canon with its narrower lens ring, some functionality has been packed into the lens surround.
There are two lens-encircling switches on the Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium. One is for altering image aspect ratios with a thumb flick, from regular 4:3 aspect ratio to 3:2, 16:9 or - more unusually - 1:1, without having to drill down into the menu screens. The other is for swapping focus modes from Auto to Macro (up to 1cm from a subject) and on to Manual shooting mode.
A further time saver comes via the Panasonic-originated Q.Menu button on the back of the camera. A press of this calls up a toolbar of essential options along the top of the screen, which can quickly be tabbed through and its drop down options selected.
If we've an issue with the Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium's altogether luxurious build it's that the backplate buttons appear as if they were derived from the humble £199 Panasonic Lumix camera they undoubtedly are. Although this feels like nit picking, these are tiny and so require fingernail precision to operate.
