LEICA SL2
Everything steps up a gear in Leica’s next-gen L Mount mirrorless camera, including competitiveness with its rivals, giving the ‘red dot’ marque more mainstream appeal than ever.
Leica has rejigged its 35mm-format mirrorless camera into a more mainstream competitor, but it still has all the classic Leica qualities in terms of styling, feel and finish. A new 47.3 megapixel CMOS sensor delivers superlative image quality.
AMIDST ALL THE HOOPLA associated with recent full-frame mirrorless cameras, it’s easy to forget that, after Sony, Leica was second into this category and the L Mount is its original fitting. Of course, it’s now shared with Panasonic and Sigma in the L Mount Alliance which, among other things, has to enhance the appeal of Leica’s products beyond its traditional customer base. Consequently, the new SL2 fits into a line-up of, currently, four other L Mount bodies supported by a wider and more diverse system of lenses.
And, particularly with the SL2, you get the sense that Leica is fully aware it needs to present a more mainstream camera while preserving what makes a Leica camera a Leica camera. But if you’re thinking of buying into the L Mount, the SL2 is definitely in the frame for its capabilities as a camera first and being a Leica second. The original SL was probably just a bit too individualistic for some tastes and Leica concedes it was probably overly “Germanic” in its styling. So its successor has been given a complete makeover.
Interestingly, compare the dimensions directly and the SL2 is fractionally bigger, but it looks a lot smaller because the proportions are now better balanced: All the edges and corners have been softened, and the viewfinder’s housing looks like it’s meant to be there, not stuck on as an afterthought. Pretty? Well, almost. The handgrip has been reshaped and the rear control layout completely redesigned so the ergonomics are much nicer. There’s also an all-new graphic user interface, with separate info displays for stills and video (or, if you want, cine). More on this shortly.
A favourite Leica party trick with its 35mm SLRs – from R4 to R7 – was to park a car on the pentaprism housing to illustrate the strength of the bodyshell. You could probably do the same thing with the SL2 as its top plate is milled from a solid lump of aluminium, and so is the baseplate. Machining may take longer (and be more costly in process terms), but it results in body covers that are many times stronger than pressed items. The chassis is machined magnesium alloy, and the weather sealing has been beefed-up to IP54 standard, meaning the SL2 can get wetter for longer. There’s also insulation to enable shooting in sub-zero temperatures down to –10° Celsius. Leica stresses the point that, when it says “all metal”, it means “all-metal” – there’s absolutely no fibreglass in the SL2’s construction. It’s also in the interests of strength and durability that Leica has stuck with a fixed monitor screen which, says the company, was
“a conscious decision”, although a tilting panel was apparently in the original design brief.
The inserts on both the handgrip and main body panels are real leather and, as you’d expect from Leica, the whole fit and finish is flawless with the all-important ‘Made In Germany’ plate on the base.
Being Different
As already noted, the lens mount is Leica’s L bayonet, and perhaps because direct comparisons with Panasonic’s Lumix S1R are inevitable, Leica is keen to stress why the SL2 is different and costs quite a bit more (although the launch price is significantly cheaper than that of the SL back in 2015).
We’ve already mentioned the construction materials and methods, and additionally, there’s no doubt Leica will be building a lot fewer SL2s, so exclusivity is a factor. And, quite simply, Leicas are different. There’s all that heritage to start with, but Leica itself prefers a more poetic explanation – “Leica cameras are for people who enjoy the journey more than the destination”. In other words, the SL2 is as much about the experience as what it can do. But will this be enough to coax the more budget-conscious L-Mount Alliance buyer away from the Panasonic camera which, to be honest, has its own experiential charms too?
There’s been even more of an overhaul on the inside – the SL2 gets a new sensor, new processor, new autofocusing system, new EVF and some key new features as well as uprated specs in most key areas.
Not surprisingly, the sensor is essentially the same as the S1R’s
CMOS imager with a total pixel count of 50.44 million to give an effective count of 47.3 million. Leica quotes a dynamic range of 14 stops. The sensor goes without an optical low-pass filter, but
Leica has also made some modifications of its own, among them reducing the number of glass layers on the front surface of the sensor from three to two in order to minimise stray reflections. There’s also a unique microlens array, primarily to ensure better performance when M Mount lenses are fitted via an adaptor (there are also adaptors for R and S system lenses).
M Mount lenses remain the Holy Grail of Leica optics and a lot of SL users fitted them to their cameras on a regular basis. The SL2 even gets dedicated metering for M lenses. There’s obviously more Leica- ness inherent in the next- gen Maestro III processor, which also gives the SL2 a speed boost and facilitates a number of important new features. Using the mechanical shutter, continuous shooting is possible at up to 10fps, but remember we’re now talking about an image size of 8368x5584 pixels and a file size essentially twice as large as before. Switch to the sensor- based ( or electronic) shutter and the top speed is 20fps. In both cases, these speeds are with autofocus and autoexposure (AF/ AE) set to the first frame. If you want continuous adjustment, then 6fps is the top speed. Buffer memory is now a handy 4GB in size, so the typical burst length is 100 for best- quality JPEGs and 78 for RAW files. RAW files are captured in the Adobe DNG format with 14- bit RGB colour. JPEG capture can be in one of three image sizes and there’s a choice of six aspect ratios
– 3: 2, 7: 5, 4: 3, 1: 1, 3: 1 and 16: 9. The camera will automatically switch to an APS-C sensor format when a TL lens is fitted ( the L/ TL relationship is the same as that of Sony’s FE/ E) and thanks to the higher- res sensor, there’s still 20.2MP on tap, giving an image size of 5504x3664. There are dual memory card slots, both supporting the UHS- II SD format.
Curing The Shakes
Arguably the most important of the SL2’s new features is its in- body image stabilisation via sensor shifting. It’s a big deal because Leica has always shied away from lens- based optical image stabilisation in order to maintain a resolution of 60 lines per millimetre ( lpm) for SL- Apo- Aspherical lenses via “perfect and constant” alignment of the elements. Obviously this isn’t possible when there’s a stabilised lens’ element groups moving around.
The SL2’s IBIS operates over five axes and delivers up to 5.5 stops of correction for camera shake ( depending on the lens focal length) and it has big implications for the camera’s low- light capabilities and its video operation ( see the Making Movies panel for the full story here). And, of course, it means image stabilisation is now available when using M Mount lenses.
Leica is emphasising the quality of the optics it uses in the SL2’s EVF, and there’s no question it’s a beauty.
Logically, Leica is going to take sensor- shifting to the next stage with a Multi- Shot ultra- high resolution mode which will capture eight frames – with half-pixel shifts – to give a massive
187MP file (that’s 16,736x11,168 pixels, by the way) in either JPEG or RAW format. It’s coming via a firmware upgrade in mid-2020.
More proof that Leica is starting to think about mainstream competitiveness for its full-frame mirrorless camera is evident in the processing options available for JPEGs. These now include a choice of Film Style presets for Standard, Vivid, Natural, Monochrome and Monochrome High Contrast. The colour presets are adjustable for contrast, sharpness and saturation, while the B&W options have just the first two. Long-exposure noise reduction can now be turned off, and there’s an intervalometer programmable for up to 9,999 frames.
In-camera lens corrections? I beg your pardon. After you see the effort
Leica puts into building its L Mount lenses – including grinding and polishing the aspherical elements by hand which takes a total of 43 hours and gives 0.1 micron precision – you’ll know that all corrections are achieved optically, thank you very much.
Wi-Fi connectivity is now supplemented by Bluetooth LE, with the Leica FOTOS app enabling remote camera operation, a live view feed to the smart device and file transfer that includes DNG RAWs. As far as JPEGs are concerned, this is all still pretty no-frills compared to the Lumix S models, but Leica has definitely stepped the SL2 up a few gears in terms of giving it wider appeal.
Subject Recognition
Leica isn’t shying away from its partnership with Panasonic which particularly comes to fruition with the SL2’s autofocusing system. It’s contrastdetection based and appears to use the same Depth From Defocus methodology as the Panasonics (although Leica uses the term ‘depth mapping‘).
There are 225 AF measuring points which give close to full-frame coverage and the area modes comprise Spot, Field, Multi-Field and Zone. Leica Object Detection is AI-based to enhance face/ eye detection and subject tracking. Body, face and eye detection can be set (and locked) as the default, but there’s a choice of additional subject settings – Children/Pets, Team Sports, Runner and Wildlife – with adjustable parameters for Depth Sensitivity, Field Movement and Shift In Direction (all with a range of settings between Fix and Responsive). You can also register the AF Tracking Start Position to Centre, Recall or Last Position. Interestingly, this goes beyond what Panasonic is offering on its Lumix S cameras. Also new to the SL2 is Smart AF which detects subject movement and automatically switches between single-shot and continuous AF modes. The touchscreen controls on the monitor panel enable Touch AF operation, with a ‘touchpad’ available when using the EVF.
Manual focusing is assisted by a magnified image (with three size settings) or a focus peaking display in red, green, blue or white and one of two intensity levels.
Exposure control is based on multizone, centre-weighted average or spot metering with the standard choice of ‘PASM’ control modes. The sensitivity range is an equivalent of ISO 50 to
50,000. There’s an AE lock, up to +/-6.0 EV of exposure compensation and auto bracketing over three or five frames with up to +/-3.0 EV of correction per frame. The mechanical shutter’s speed range is from 30 minutes to 1/8000 second, while its electronic shutter runs from one second up to 1/40,000 second, and allows for silent shooting. There’s also the option of the hybrid ‘first curtain electronic shutter’ which reduces both noise and vibration compared to when using the mechanical shutter, but still permits the use of electronic flash.
If you’re thinking of buying into the L Mount, the SL2 is definitely in the frame for its capabilities as a camera first, and for being a Leica second.
The maximum flash sync speed is 1/250 second, but the PC flash socket has been deleted from the SL2, presumably because everybody is using radio triggers these days (although the Lumix S1R still has one).
The white balance correction options comprise an auto mode, eight lighting presets, a Greycard custom measurement and manual colour temperature setting over a range of 2000 to 11,500 Kelvin.
In The Hand
This is where the SL2 has the most potential to convince the doubters. It has a look and feel like no other full-frame mirrorless camera, and both aspects are massively improved over its predecessor.
It’s a weighty beast – 835g even before you add battery, memory card and lens (and none of Leica’s L Mount optics are exactly compact) – but it still handles comfortably with great manoeuvrability.
The control layout is minimalist, but at least the keys on the rear panel now carry markings. There are only three of them now, along with the joystick navigator, an unmarked button with a default setting for EVF/monitor switching, and the rear input wheels. There’s even less on the top deck – the main dial and two, again unmarked, buttons (plus the shutter release, of course). Another two unmarked buttons are located on the front panel so you’d hardly call the external control layout cluttered, especially compared to the Lumix S1R. Yet Leica gets everything done with this very small set of controls, although it helps that the SL2 is largely no-nonsense/no-frills. However, all the unmarked buttons and a ‘Fn‘ key on the back panel are fully customisable from a list of 29 items. Additionally, you can create up to six user profiles which then appear as Favourites menu pages. You can also configure four different info displays.
The menu system is similar to that of Leica‘s Q/Q2 cameras and comprises a sixpage Main Menu for stills and a five-pager for video. This will automatically change when you select either Photo or Video in the main display which, in turn, obviously adjusts to include the relevant elements. With the latter, there’s also the option of a Cineorientated display. That means ISO converts to the ASA system, the shutter speed is marked in degrees (as it would be with a rotary disk shutter) and f-stops are replaced by T-stops. While there’s only the one main menu, it isn’t without its idiosyncrasies and some things take a bit of digging.
Leica claims its AF is actually superior to that of the Lumix S1R with more performance to come via firmware upgrades.
TEST IMAGES
Test images captured as JPEG/large files using the Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4.0 ASPH zoom lens.
Studio shots captured at ISO 50 with the Vivid Film Style preset. Outdoor shots captured in shutter-priority auto mode at ISO 400 with the Vivid Film Style presets.
It’s the classic ‘Leica look’, balancing razor-sharpness clarity with a beautifully smooth tonality, and quite film-like with more of the subtleties of continuous-tone linearity.
Page-by-page navigation is via the main dial, while function and setting selection is via the joystick controller. But where there are only the options of on or off, only right-clicks work, while clicking left does nothing… which takes a bit of getting used to. Touch control is available for the main info/status displays – which are pretty comprehensive – but not the menus. The monitor screen itself is now 77 mm in size with an increased resolution of 2.1 million dots. It’s a LEDbacklit LCD panel with adjustments for brightness and colour balance. The EyeRes EVF is an OLED panel with a resolution of 5.76 millon dots and 0.78x magnification. The refresh rate is switchable between 60 and 120fps, and adjustments for brightness and colour balance are also available. Leica is keen to emphasise the quality of the optics used in the SL2’s EVF, and there’s no question it’s a beauty, not just in terms of clarity and contrast, but also the colour reproduction which looks very much true to life.
The four Info Profiles create live view displays which you can then cycle through using the Fn key on the back of the camera. This way you can have everything in the one screen or split them up to avoid too much clutter. The elements are a guide grid (either 3x3 or 6x4), a highlight warning (or a zebra pattern in the video mode), the focus peaking display, a dual-axis level indicator, a real-time histogram and ‘info bars’ which run along the top and bottom of the live view screen (and cover most key capture settings). Pick and choose as you please (you can also switch out the profile slots you don’t use so you cycle through only those you want).
The replay options comprise zooming, pages of
12 or 30 thumbnails, and a slideshow with adjustable display times. Touch controls are available for browsing and zooming for magnification and thumbnails.
Speed And Performance
Loaded with a Panasonic 64GB SDXC UHS-II V90 speed memory card, the SL2 captured a burst of 47 JPEG/ large/fine frames in 4.564 seconds, representing a shooting speed of 10.3fps. With super high-speed shooting using the electronic shutter, a burst of 38 best-quality JPEGs was captured in 1.951 seconds, equating to 19.5fps. There’s obviously no noise from the sensor shutter, so you only know it’s all over when the EVF or monitor returns to live viewing. The JPEG test files averaged 21.6MB in size; the RAWs were in the region of 85MB.
The autofocusing operation is easily up there with the best from Leica’s Japanese rivals. It’s fast and accurate with reliable tracking which can be fine-tuned to the subject matter and the type of movement.
Touch AF and Touchpad AF are convenient and efficient alternatives to using the joystick, and there is plenty of scope for adjusting selectivity via the Spot, Zone and Field area modes. Leica claims its AF is actually superior to that of the S1R with more performance to come via firmware upgrades.