The latest edition from Leica, a full-frame 24mp mirrorless system camera makes it a very strong competitor. We were lucky enough to put the Leica SL to the test before it was officially announced and this is what we found.
Leica is renowned for its high quality cameras and lenses and the latest edition to its line-up, the SL (Typ 106), is no exception. Leica’s first mirrorless system cameras were their M models, a lineup of rangefinders, (that don’t contain reflex mirrors).
The M models are considered to be the first digital mirrorless cameras of their kind. In April 2014 the Leica T (Typ 701) was introduced to their range.
This was Leica’s first compact system camera (CSC), and while it retained the minimalist design associated with Leica, it was surprising to see very few physical buttons.
As a modern mirrorless camera with a heavy focus on touchscreen technology, this was a considerable advance for Leica that has a reputation for traditional design features.
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In the new SL (Typ 106) Leica have upgraded the APS-C format sensor found in the T, with a 24 million pixel full-frame CMOS sensor. Despite this considerable change we were surprised to find the same lens mount as the T. This will allow users of the T to use their existing lenses with the SL.
As they’re designed specifically for an APS-C sized sensor, when mounted to the SL it will change the crop mode to APS-C and capture 10mp images. Along with the adaptor that enables you to mount M optics on to the SL, Leica will also be making new adapters to fit the Cine, S and R lenses.
With rebranding set to change the T mount to the L mount, compatible T lenses will be named TL. The new full-frame lenses will be labelled as SL, which will also be compatible on the T.
We’re pleased to see that the new SL has a viewfinder built in, unlike the T, where you had to rely on the rear screen when composing images.
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What’s more is the specification is even better than Leica’s Q (full-frame compact) camera, which at the time it was unveiled was very impressive offering 3.68 millions dots. The SL viewfinder unit is 0.66-inch with 4.4 million dots with a 0.8x magnification.
Compare this to the Sony A7R II and A7S II that feature viewfinder units of just 0.5-inch with 2.35 million dots and a magnification of 0.78x. Not only does the SL have an impressive electronic viewfinder (EVF), there’s also a 2.95-inch touch sensitive screen with 1.04 million dots.
Both enable the viewer to see the live view image and other such features like focusing peaking, clipping, exposure simulation and a handy spirit level.
Leica have used the same Maestro II processing engine found in the Leica S (Typ 007), the company’s medium camera in the SL. Teamed with the full frame CMOS sensor, the SL can handle big image files and shoot at up to 11fps (frames per second), and combined with the 2GB buffer memory, photographers can capture bursts of 30 simultaneous DNG and JPEG or 33 DNG files.
Video users will be pleased to hear that 4K video can be recorded at 30fps in Mov and MP4 format. A low res option is also available and Full HD in 4x slow motion playback offers a maximum frame rate of 120fps.
If you need to record videos externally there’s also an HDMI port and when outputting over HDMI 1.4, 4K footage is recorded in 4:2:2 10-bit format. There are two SD card slots in the SL, which can simultaneously record in JPEG and DNG format in line with UHS I and UHS II.
The SL is targeted at advanced photographers who no longer require automatic scene modes, so the only modes on offer are program, aperture priority, shutter priority and manual exposure.
Photographers can also take control of the images they record by adjusting saturation, contrast and sharpness of JPEGs. For videographers wanting to make flat footage that’s suitable for grading, they can use the V-Log L gamma option.
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Leica SL (Typ 601) hands-on review: Build and handling
As expected from a Leica camera, the build quality of the SL is second to none. The solid body is made of aluminium, with one block for the front section of the camera and another for the back. It comes complete with dust and moisture seals around the joints and main controls for optimum protection.
Due to a couple of contributing factors, the SL looks more like an SLR than a rangefinder, with it’s generously sized front grip and protruding electronic viewfinder that juts out the top of the camera. Despite the grip being a good size, the design needs to be more user friendly to fit comfortably in your hand.
It doesn’t feel overly secure when holding it one handed, especially when a heavy lens, such as the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24–90 mm f/2.8–4 ASPH is mounted to the camera.
There are a limited number of controls on the SL, similar to layout of Leica’s latest medium format camera, the S (Typ 007). On the top of the camera is a large dial to adjust the shutter speed and a small monochrome LCD displaying the main settings.
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On the back there is another dial that sits above the thumbrest that by default is used for adjusting the aperture and navigating through menu settings, although its function can be changed by holding down the dial.
There are an additional four buttons situated at the side of the main LCD screen, whose functions change depending on whether you press them quickly or hold them down.
This does take a little time to get used to and could be frustrating for users who switch between models (excluding the Leica S, whose setup is very similar), however, it does make good economic use of the limited number of physical buttons.
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Pressing the top left button brings up the menu screen, hold it down for longer and you can adjust the sensitivity via the touchscreen, the mini-joystick controller or the other main dial on the back of the camera.
The other three buttons allow you to quickly access the Set-up menu, stored menu Favourites and settings such as white balance and ISO. These can also be customised to access your go-to options.
There’s an additional button on top of the camera to set stills or video mode, which is a bit awkward to access. You can also access exposure compensation here too but I found it much easier to assign this to the bottom right button near the main LCD screen on the back of the camera.
There’s also a handy little feature that’s especially useful for landscape photographers, that is also in the S. When depressing the shutter button halfway down when switched to manual focus mode, the back to front focus points, including the distance to them is displayed on the top LCD.
While the main LCD screen responds quickly to touch and displays plenty of detail, it would be great to be able to swipe through the menu to improve navigation speed.
Despite this, being able to zoom into images quickly with a double tap is a joy. From what I’ve seen so far of the SL’s viewfinder, it’s just as impressive as the Q model, offering a receptive clear view. However, I am keen to see how it performs in a wider range of conditions.
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Leica SL (Typ 601) hands-on review: Performance
From what we’ve so far of the SL over the past few days, there’s no doubt that it can produce high quality images. I’m looking forward to putting the SL through its paces in a range of conditions. It will also be interesting to see just how well it performs when we put it through our lab tests.
Despite only having a short period of time to shoot with the SL, I find its Multi-zone metering system controls exposure well, without the need of adjusting the exposure compensation function all the time. The JPEG files it produces in default mode reveal a good amount of saturation and contrast with colour controlled well with subtle gradations.
When we get the SL in for more extensive tests I am keen to investigate the sensitivity of the images it produces. When the ISO was set to 50,000 banding was visible when looking through the viewfinder, however, it was less visible when inspected on screen. I found the JPEGs to fall victim to this banding more than the raw files.
In terms of how the SL handles noise, it’s clear that Leica doesn’t implement a high noise reduction treatment. Raw files, which come in the form of DNGs, look crisper than the JPEGs.
However, they’re still handled well as we don’t see that smoothing effect that’s often quite heavy and painterly like that you sometimes get. There’s little chroma noise (colour) but a fair amount of luminance noise is visible at 100% in JPEGs.
I’m also intrigued to investigate the SL’s autofocus (AF) system further. It performs well in live view mode and is certainly on a par with many of the smaller format compact system cameras and faster than an SLR.
However, it’s a different story when using the viewfinder and it can’t compete with the speed of high end SLRs such as the Canon EOS-1DX or the Nikon D4s. It would be interesting to test how well the SL performs with fast moving subjects, however, this could be a tricky one as we’ve yet to see a directly compatible long telephoto lens deemed suitable for sports or wildlife photographers.
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Leica SL (Typ 601) hands-on review: sample images
Click on all images to view at full resolution.
The detail of these unripe strawberries is superbly rendered
- Aperture: ƒ/4.5
- Camera: LEICA SL (Typ 601)
- Focal length: 59mm
- ISO: 320
- Shutter speed: 1/60s
The SL’s AF system handled the low light conditions well and was able to focus on the fine detail of this flower.
- Aperture: ƒ/4.5
- Camera: LEICA SL (Typ 601)
- Focal length: 85mm
- ISO: 3200
- Shutter speed: 1/80s
- Camera: LEICA SL (Typ 601)
- Exposure bias: +824195121/842218033EV
- Focal length: 0.013020833333333mm
- ISO: 100
- Shutter speed: 1/107s
- Camera: LEICA SL (Typ 601)
- Exposure bias: +824195121/909195828EV
- Focal length: 0.013020833333333mm
- ISO: 80
- Shutter speed: 1/107s
- Camera: LEICA SL (Typ 601)
- Exposure bias: +807418161/925907513EV
- Focal length: 0.013020833333333mm
- ISO: 320
- Shutter speed: 1/107s
- Camera: LEICA SL (Typ 601)
- Exposure bias: +824195121/875575861EV
- Focal length: 0.013020833333333mm
- ISO: 5000
- Shutter speed: 1/107s
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Leica SL (Typ 601) hands-on review: Early verdict
Leica has built up a reputation for producing high quality and innovative cameras over the years, such as it’s full-frame compact camera, the Q and its specialist Monochrom camera designed for black and white shooting.
Despite this, it is also renowned for being a bit old school at times. But as the second company (Sony being the first) to produce a full-frame compact system camera, it’s now back to the forefront of photography.
Although the Sony Alpha series is cheaper than the SL, it’s 7R II model has a 42.4 megapixel full frame sensor, nearly double that of the SL. While its 24mp model, the 7 II is considerably cheaper than the SL.
That said, the SL’s viewfinder is better and it is the first full-frame interchangeable lens system to include touchscreen technology. While it has a solid build and a sensibly organised interface, it’s bulkier and weighs more than the Sony Alpha 7 series and a less functional design than a top end Canon or Nikon SLR.
Leica is known for its high quality, compact optics. Although the M-mount lenses are manual focus only, the Q lens was neatly sized, so we were surprised to see that their first full-frame L mount lens is rather bulky.
It would have been good to see the SL optics kept on the smaller side. Despite this and the small concern about visible banding at ISO 5000, the results this optic produces are great.
It’s great to see Lecia at the forefront of photography once again with the professional SL model. We’ve seen some significant modernisation made to the latest model’s features and while some Leica enthusiasts may not like these changes, others will welcome the update.
For
High quality build; Extensive Leica lens compatibility – some via adaptors; High quality components
Against
Large and heavy; High price; Slight banding visible in some high ISO images
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