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Renting an SL - any tips?


Joshua Lowe

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I'm renting an SL+24-90 from Lensrentals for 5 days.  It's basically an "audition" for me.

 

I also rented the M adapter T and a spare battery.

 

Besides the 24-90 I'll be testing it with the APO-Summicron 2/50, Summicron 2/35 ASPH, and Elmarit 2.8/24 ASPH.

 

Are there any particular setup tips for getting the most out of the camera?  

 

I'll be using it to take photos of people on the street as well as giving the autofocus a workout with some sports/action.

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If you have time before you get out shooting, set up some user profiles that cover the different style of shooting you like to do.

 

Set up one profile first with all your "normal" setting choices then save it into all four slots. Then change the settings for slots 2, 3 and 4 to the different styles you might want to use.

 

Finally use the custom control menu to set "load user profile" to one of the long-press buttons. Now you'll be able to quickly flip through the 4 useful profiles when in the field. Also, you can fiddle with settings on the fly, confident that you can immediately get back to your known state.

 

Before you give the camera back, export the profiles to an SD card. Then, when you buy your own SL (almost a certainty), You can import the user profiles and be ready to start shooting.

 

 

 

Regards

Peter

http://www.peterwalker.com

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I have just been shooting a Latin dance group, indoors (I will post samples later). The remarkable thing to me was how effective AF with Focus Tracking turned out. It was the first time I have used it heavily. Although I don't see the SL as a street camera (too large, heavy and not discreet), I would be tempted to try focus tracking in street photography. The sequence was:

- Move the focus point to the subject (joystick and/or camera movement).

- Lock on with a half press of the shutter (wait for the box to go green).

- Watch the subject and move the camera till the composition is right, keeping your finger half pressed.

- Take the shot.

 

It got confused when one dancer moved in front of another (red herrings come to mind), but rarely lost focus entirely. I guess out of 200-300 shots, OOF  shots comprised about 5%. I could not have achieved this at all with MF, and would not have had this success rate, or would have had far fewer shots, without tracking.

Edited by LocalHero1953
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This camera has the `most extensive menu system ever for a Leica so make sure to sit down and go through all of it. The most useful soft-key is the one right next to the lens since you can use it while shooting, make sure to assign your most needed function there. The four keys around the screen access the the four main sub menus but if you hold down each one for an extra second they become shortcuts to important settings like ISO and WB.  I strictly shoot M lenses and with this new VF it's a revelation, so much more accurate then working in a rangefinder (pressing straight down on the joystick brings up the zoomed in focus assist). Not sure about you but most of my Leica lenses came out before they started coding them so I have to remember to change it in the menu system manually each time I switch lenses (my front softly accesses this very feature). Of course you can just leave it off completely but then you don't have the lens in the EFIX. The main problem there is that I forgot to switch it in the menu more then a few times so I have some wide angle shots showing 90mm. 

 

Have fun, you'll probably want to buy one. I think it's the best digital camera ever made.

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The most important thing to remember about the SL is that the buttons are nearly all customizable and have two functions each, differentiated by how long you hold them. A short press does the non-changeable default function, a long press does whatever function is assigned. It sometimes takes a little while to get that into your head and fingers. 

 

My button setup for most shooting with an R or M lens: 

 

Upper Left: Drive mode

Lower Left: Meter pattern

Upper Right: Exposure compensation

Lower Right: ISO setting 

 

FN (front button): lens profiles

LV (top button): bracketing setup

Video button: user profiles (only with firmware 2 or later)

 

The Upper Left button's short press function is to enable the menu system, from which you can choose any other options. Particularly if the camera has v2 firmware installed, there are a number of other configuration options (like Direct Exposure Compensation) that can be used. 

 

Just be aware that five days is a pretty short time to learn the SL and become entirely confident using it so that it is transparent to you. Most things should be obvious after a few hours experimentation and use, but it is a fairly subtle camera that is a bit different from most others. I've been using mine almost exclusively since November ... Nowadays, I have to work to remember how the other cameras work!  :rolleyes:

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Thank you for the responses.  I'm pretty excited to test out the SL.  I used one for about 20 minutes in the store, with a 50 Lux and the 24-90.  But it'll be a lot different having one to myself for a few days.  

 

I've seemingly gone through hundreds of SL photos on here and Flickr.  One thing I noticed is that I pretty consistently prefer photos taken with the 24-90 over M lenses.  There's something different about the colors.  

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Insist that the latest firmware is installed. 2.0 is a vast improvement (although still not perfect).

 

Try different SD cards if the start up is longer than a second or two.

 

If the EVF is too bright/dark in M mode you've accidentally set the exposure compensation and need to set it back to zero.

 

Gordon

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"My" SL showed up right on time.

 

Lensrentals really does a nice job with their packing and shipping.  The camera arrived in a meticulously fitted, foam-lined box with my receipt and return shipping label neatly presented in a folder on top.  The camera and lens were packed in a LowePro bag that fits them perfectly.  The lens was additionally packed in a separate bag that will fit nicely into my own backpack.   The camera and lens look brand new.  Literally.  Not a speck of dust, not a nick or scratch, absolutely immaculate.  The M adapter T was packed in a separate pouch with the proper front and rear caps.  The camera had the latest firmware and both batteries were fully charged.  I've rented a lot of gear over the years from various companies but this was my first time using Lensrentals and I'm really, really pleased with the experience.  I was concerned they might balk at renting pricey gear to a first time customer but it wasn't an issue at all.

 

First impressions of the body: this isn't my first time using an SL, but the only other time was about a 20 minute session in the Leica store.  The body is built like a tank, as has been said many times.  The grip is deeper than I remember, I can already tell that relying on the grip only would be a source of fatigue when combined with the weight of the 24-90 or 90-280.  The menu system is a little bit illogical but no more illogical than the M240/M246.  It's just a different layout with more choices.  Once I figure it out it'll be fine.  

 

First impressions of the 24-90: I really don't remember the lens having been THIS hefty from when I used it in the store.  It's a beast.  But again, the build quality is tank-like.  I love how the pinch areas of the lens cap are rubberized.  I put the M adapter T onto my APO 50 and did a quick comparison between it and the 24-90.  I don't see a dramatic difference between the two, but I'm just messing around indoors in bad light.

 

Random observation: I forgot to erase my SD cards before I put them into the SL.  They had a bunch of photos from my MM246.  The SL can display those files, at least the JPEGs.  They look absolutely incredible on the SL's EVF.  They look three dimensional.  It reminded me of a HD version of the classic "View-Master" toy.  Too bad it's not really a practical way to show off one's photos. :D

 

The only change I've made is having replaced the OEM Leica strap with a Peak Design strap I use with my Xpan.  If this strap doesn't work out I have a couple of Black Rapids, though I don't like using them since they connect at the tripod mount and leave the camera hanging upside down.

Edited by Joshua Lowe
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First impressions of the 24-90: I really don't remember the lens having been THIS hefty from when I used it in the store.  It's a beast.

 

I shot 2 continuous hrs with it on Saturday and 2 continuous hrs on Sunday.  You get used to the weight very quickly.  It already felt a lot better on Sunday.  

 

I put the M adapter T onto my APO 50 and did a quick comparison between it and the 24-90.  I don't see a dramatic difference between the two, but I'm just messing around indoors in bad light.

 

 

Repeating what everybody already said before: the lens is remarkably good for a zoom lens.  If you are not using long lenses this could be your only lens...

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I shipped the SL back today.  I'm glad I rented it because I gained a lot more insight into the system.

Overall I was impressed with the system.  Particularly the body.  The color is excellent, especially when combined with an apochromatic M mount lens or the native 24-90 SL mount zoom.

 

Focusing with M mount lenses was fairly straightforward.  It took some trial and error, such as finding which focus peaking color worked best for me.  Being able to shoot at f2 during the middle of a very bright day was pretty awesome.  No ND filters required since the SL supports 1/8000 shutter speeds (I never even tested the 1/16000 e-shutter) and ISO 50.  

 

I found the SL's auto focus system to be reasonably accurate and somewhat quick though it wasn't difficult to confuse it.  I took some pics of a white car and the lens continuously hunted for focus since there was nothing contrasting to detect.  I took some pics of skateboarders in action and the SL did well.  

 

High speed bursts were pretty impressive, too.  I used two SanDisk Extreme Pro 64gb SDXC cards (95mb/s rated) with the camera set to "storage backup" mode.  After shooting a lot of bursts (all DNG+JPG by the way) it could take up to a minute or so for the buffer to flush out the data to the cards.

 

I also encountered two interesting behaviors of the SL when the buffer is getting repeatedly filled up.  1) The capture times of some of the images are out of order.  I'd shoot a sequence of 6 photos but when importing them into Lightroom they're sorted 1,3,2,4,6,5 for example.  The file name sequence is correct, but the actual capture times are wrong.    2) When the buffer is saturated the SL sometimes doesn't apply a lens profile to some of the DNGs.  It's very obvious since there is significant vignetting from the hood and the horizon is distorted.  When checking the files in Lightroom the "internal profile applied" note doesn't appear, either.  This might happen to 2 or 3 files out of multiple sequences of 5+ shots.  It's like the camera can't keep up.

 

The only real issue I had with the body is that finding a good setting for power saving.  One setting is for turning off the EVF and the other turns off the entire camera.  When using auto-off the camera can take anywhere from 3 to 8 seconds to wake up.  I nearly missed a shot because of that.  But if you don't use "auto-off" the battery drains much faster.  I ended up setting the "EVF/Display" off to 30 seconds and the entire camera to "never" turn off.  It was the only way that really worked for me.

 

In terms of battery life I found I was able to get around 1,100 photos out of two fully charged batteries.  Around 350 of those were high speed bursts.  I would definitely recommend 2 or even 3 batteries for a full day of shooting.  The good news is that the batteries are pretty small and the lack of sharp corners makes them easy to carry, even in the front pocket of a pair of fitted jeans.  Carrying spare M240/246 batteries is a pain (literally) because of their cube shape so the SL batteries being more contoured is an improvement.

 

The iPhone/iPad app for the SL is pretty cool and has a lot of potential uses, but it sometimes doesn't want to connect.

 

Carrying the SL with the 24-90 all day long was pretty tiring.  I did 10 miles on foot on Sunday, mostly around the beach area - on a pretty bright and warm day.  My lower back and shoulder were pretty sore by the time I left.  But it's doable.  The SL with M glass is a total non-issue.  It's no different than a digital M body.  With a wide strap like a Peak Design and a 35 cron attached you barely even remember that the camera is there.

 

About the 24-90:  I'll start right off with mentioning that the lens broke.  It broke Sunday evening, after 2 full days of use.  When zooming the lens I started to feel some drag and resistance, and then it would not zoom past around 50mm.  There's a whole other thread about this issue.  I followed the instructions that helped one other person who had this problem, which was to simply give the front element a gentle wiggle.  This did help, somewhat, but only temporarily.  The lens would zoom OK again and then go back being frozen.  Lensrentals told me that they had the same problem with a different 24-90 in their rental fleet, too.  So to me it sounds like there is a QA or design problem with the lens.  That's pretty concerning.

 

The lens is also a complete brick and screams for attention.  There is no being subtle with this lens, particularly when it's fully extended.  

 

The good news is that it also happens to be an amazing lens.  It's nearly as sharp as the APO 50.  It has vivid, punchy colors that are not oversaturated or unrealistic.  The SL+24-90 combo reproduces colors in a fantastic way.  Probably the best colors out of any digital camera I've ever used.

 

Would I buy the SL?  Yes.  I liked nearly everything about it.  It has its quirks but it offers so much and it plays really well with M mount glass.

 

Would I buy the 24-90? Yes, but with a condition:  I would only buy the 24-90 brand new with a full warranty.  I would absolutely not buy one secondhand.  That in of itself is pretty disappointing because Leica gear is supposed to be about durability.

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The only real issue I had with the body is that finding a good setting for power saving.  One setting is for turning off the EVF and the other turns off the entire camera.  When using auto-off the camera can take anywhere from 3 to 8 seconds to wake up.  I nearly missed a shot because of that.  But if you don't use "auto-off" the battery drains much faster.  I ended up setting the "EVF/Display" off to 30 seconds and the entire camera to "never" turn off.  It was the only way that really worked for me.

 

 

 

 

 

This appears to be a card and formatting related problem ...... start up from cold or sleep should be < 2 secs ....... although with old T-M adapters and M lenses it is slower (no one has explained why as far as I know)

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The good news is that it also happens to be an amazing lens.  It's nearly as sharp as the APO 50.  It has vivid, punchy colors that are not oversaturated or unrealistic.  The SL+24-90 combo reproduces colors in a fantastic way.  Probably the best colors out of any digital camera I've ever used.

 

Would I buy the SL?  Yes.  I liked nearly everything about it.  It has its quirks but it offers so much and it plays really well with M mount glass.

 

Would I buy the 24-90? Yes, but with a condition:  I would only buy the 24-90 brand new with a full warranty.  I would absolutely not buy one secondhand.  That in of itself is pretty disappointing because Leica gear is supposed to be about durability.

 

 

Personally I plan to use the 24-90 as much as possible the next 6 months and then hopefully be in a position that I can sell most of my other bodies and lenses... :)

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