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You either consulted Erwin Put’s Leica Compendium or you waited for the invention of the internet, Youtube, and the evolution of influencers. 😉

At this point, the APO Summicron line is a known quantity as far as handling is concerned. Optically, it’s the best 21mm that Leica can make while hitting a $5500 USD price point and it will probably be the highest performing 21mm on the market for many years. With that said, there are many other high quality comparable options on the market since Leica announced their roadmap in 2018 such as the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG DN and Sony 20mm f/1.4 GM (yes, not L-mount compatible). Looking at the MTFs (and accounting for the different lp/mm), the Sigma 20 f/1.4 DG DN will give the 21 SL APO a serious run for its money. I’d be most curious about how the two stack up side-by-side. The Sigma gets you probably 95-100% of the image quality at less than 17% of the price of the Leica. To put things in to perspective, people often pay more than 17% for tipping at a restaurant in North America! Funny coincidence. The Sigma 20/1.4 DG DN’s magnification ratio of 1:6.1 is also coincidentally the same ratio as the price between the Sigma and Leica.

The reviewers are probably busy reviewing the M11-P. 🙂

My biggest complaint about the Sigma 14-24 DG DN is that it can flare/ghost in bright sunny environments which is hard to avoid when it has such a wide field of view. I’m wondering if: The 14-24 SL has different internal lens mount than the Sigma DG DN version which could potentially help with improved flare/ghosting The 14-24 SLversion with Leica’s coating has better flare/ghosting resistance compared to Sigma’s DG DN version

I recall @robb had posted some pre-released MTF charts for the 21 APO a while back. Can’t seem to find that post anymore but I’m curious how it differs from the official MTF released today.

What video setting are you shooting that’s giving you issues? For example, are you shooting *.mov or *.mp4 containers? 8K, 4K, C4K? LongGOP, All-i? Normal colour or Log? 4:2:0 or 4:2:2? What app are you trying to watch the videos in? Photos, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut, or some other third-party app?

It’s a geothermal area in Kerlingarfjöll, in the highlands of Iceland.

I can’t speak for Jpegs but for DNGs, in terms of the WB temperature value for AWB on the Q3, they do tend to run in the 7000K range even when I expect it to be in the 5500-6000K range for daylight which is what I see on the SL2-S. With that said, as long as the actual final image looks good, it doesn’t bother me much. As for magenta tint, it seems to be part of Leica’s color signature in recent years. I see it in the SL2-S and M11 images as well.

Looking back a bit, I noticed this issue came up part way through a trip 2 weeks ago where things were fine and then they weren’t and I didn’t update FW on the Q3. The only thing that change was that FOTOs app was updated to v4.0.4 on iOS. I think this is likely the problem so hopefully Leica can fix this in an FOTOs app update. The problem seems specific to Q3 and doesn’t seem to be a problem on the SL2-S since I was using both cameras together and only saw the problem on the the Q3 images.

I noticed the same thing. Seems like time update via GPS was broken in the latest FW and/or iOS FOTOs app.

I’ve haven’t used the included Q3 charger since I’ve had the camera. Just using USB-C PD chargers that I already have. The camera supports USB-C PD that charge at either 5v or 9v. It’s not the number of watts that matter, it’s the supported voltage that is important for compatibility. With that said, all USB-C chargers support 5v to be backwards compatible for USB-C adapters the vast majority of USB-C chargers that can charge at 27w and higher should support 9v charging. For myself, I’ve mainly been using 100w, 150w, and 200w multi-port USB-C PD chargers that charges all my devices, including laptops, tablets, phones, and cameras.

GFX100 sensor is not full frame. It’s 44x33 mm compared to 36x24 mm for a full frame sensor.

I think there’s reason to have all 3 lenses (14/1.4, 14-24 DG DN, 16-35 SL). I have them but haven’t had a chance to really give the 14/1.4 some use yet. The focal length, aperture, and (claimed) coma free corners of the 14/1.4 makes it ideal for wide field astro but the size definitely makes it more of a specialist lens. If I had a Sony system, I’d be willing to sacrifice the 2/3 stops and go for the Sony 14/1.8 GM just because of the size and weight difference. If I need 14mm but without the f/1.4-1.8 aperture, such as photographing slot canyons and other tight spaces, the Sigma 14-24 is a great option. The 14-24 DG DN will also work fine as an astro lens when shooting with the SL2-S where you can use ISO 12500 but for something like the SL2, the 2 extra stops of light would make a big difference for the 14/1.4. Another area where the 14/1.4 would win over the 14-24 DG DN is for Auroras where shooting at faster shutter speeds (~1s) will capture images with more structure in the aurora as they can move and change quite quickly. The 16-35 SL is more of a generalist landscape lens. The extra reach between 24-35mm is very handy, especially if you don’t want to carry extra lenses to go more towards the telephoto side and 16mm is plenty wide for the fast majority of landscape scenes to be captured. Also, since landscape photography is normally taken while the sky has some light, the f/3.5-4.5 aperture isn’t a total deal breaker, especially something like the SL2-S where you can shoot confidently with high ISO and the IBIS is good enough to handhold down to around 0.5s. In my controlled testing between 14-24 DG DN and the 16-35 SL, they performed similarly at equivalent apertures when shooting at distant objects about 1km away. Optically, I see them as pretty much the same so when deciding on which one to use, it’s really jsut a matter of what focal length I want and whether I want to use screw on filters or not.

Top image has more shadow detail and dynamic range.

It definitely looks like something related to sensor scanning and use of electronic shutter as you can see that the lines on the outer edges are curved due to distortion correction. If lens distortion correction was not applied, they should be straight. However, I don’t think the banding is light source dependent as the banding goes across the entire frame and there are many different sources of light in the scene and they all contribute to the banding. I also don’t think it’s PDAF related as PDAF pixels are spread across the entire sensor whereas we’re only seeing 5 well defined and equally spaced bands. I don’t have a good hypothesis as to the cause of this but I’d definitely want Leica to look into this. A good controlled test is to enable electronic shutter and shoot a natural light scene with the exact same settings and see if banding occurs. If it does, then it’s definitely a camera problem and not a lighting problem.

I wonder how much body/face/eye detect AF impacts battery life. I’d imagine there’s a lot of processing going on trying to detect people, even if the camera on standby. I normally just use single point AFs and haven’t experienced any battery life problems.

Definitely prefer soft shutter button when using the camera with gloves.

Are you on the latest firmware? I took 980 shots last week on a single battery using v1.2.0 FW and still had at least 30% remaining. I keep the camera powered off when not shooting. I had geotagging set to always and FOTOs connection on Eco mode.

I’ve shared some thoughts here:

There’s already a thread on this.