I have been busy finishing up recent books and taking care of other matters, so I didn’t notice until today that Leica recently released an upgrade to the firmware of the D-Lux 5 camera.  This was expected, because Panasonic upgraded the firmware of the Lumix LX5, which is very similar to the D-Lux 5, in September 2011.

Here is a link to Leica’s site where you can download the upgrade to version 2.0 of the firmware and the instructions that accompany the upgrade.  The upgrade should be quite worthwhile, based on my knowledge of the upgrade to the Panasonic LX5.  Among other things, it adds improvements to the focusing and white balance capabilities of the D-Lux 5, and it adds a new “Miniature Effect” setting that lets you take photographs and videos of full-sized scenes in a way that makes them look like table-top miniatures.

I unfortunately no longer own a D-Lux 5 camera myself (it’s not possible for me to keep every camera I write about), so I can’t provide an update that’s written specifically for Photographer’s Guide to the Leica D-Lux 5.  However, I did write an update for the book about the Panasonic Lumix LX5, which should provide just about the same information.  As is usual, Leica presumably has used slightly different names for some features and menu items, but the functionality of the features in the upgrade should be very similar, if not identical, to that for the LX5.

So, you may find it useful to read the Addendum I wrote concerning the upgrade to version 2.0 of the firmware for the LX5.  It is available for download by anyone free of charge.