Leica T amateurish impressions (warning: photos here!!)

[colonel]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

These are my first impressions of the Leica T. From an amateur who just likes to shoot pictures for fun. No studio or professional stuff here.

 

In hand the T is extremely beautiful. I won’t go into this much as it has already been written about, however it reminds me of the joy of picking up a silver M6 with a silver lens. Something just nice to carry around with even if you take no pictures ….

 

Moving round the camera, the grip is good. I worried a bit about sharp edges but in fact only the top and bottom are slightly uncomfortable, so if you hand is properly holding the middle of the grip you don’t feel it. The wheels have useful detents and the touch screen is not over sensitive, which caused me to sell the GM1 as I found it unusable. Its a difficult balance making the touch screen responsive but also not uncontrollable, I think Leica have done well on this point.

 

The USB and SD card are accessible from the side flap. The camera is chargeable from USB. This is incredibly useful. It was Sony that introduced this and it means that you can charge at your desk, at work or home, without carrying the charger around. It amazes me how few cameras do this.

 

The black face at the back matches well the black lens at the front on the silver camera. I haven’t seen the black one to compare with but the silver camera is very nice, if not as subtle as black. As ever the same trade off as the Ms.

 

The accessories are interesting but don’t buy without trying. The t-snap for example seemed such a great idea until I realised you can’t take it off without taking off the lens, and you have to take it off to get to the SD card, USB socket or battery.

The half-case case (18800) needs to be secured with a screw to the tripod socket but is not too bad to take on and off. The T system bag is very nice but outrageously priced.

 

The touch interface is quite something. I was sceptical about it at first, but having used iOS and Android its easy to use with no need for a manual. There is a big plus sign to add icons to the main screen and to delete them you just hold down and drag to the trash (I have ISO, Exposure comp, self-timer, wifi, metering, auto-focus mode and focus mode on the main screen). Otherwise you can go into settings to have all the icons.

In setting mode there is no real organisation to the icons. Perhaps this is something for a future firmware update as vertical tabs for different sets of functions would be quite useful.

 

I have never used touch focus before, being strictly a centre focus shooter. Although Leica is not the first to have touch focus I find that not only does it work well, but that I am actually using it for my main focus mode. Focus and recompose becomes a thing of the past. It does kind of relegate the EVF to not being used that often, i.e. (i) where there is excessive sunlight or (ii) where extra stabilization of the body is needed.

 

The camera has a very useful IP server function, where on wifi you can point to the camera’s IP and download photos. These are jpg only however and it would be great if this was extended to DNG. In addition ad-hoc wifi mode should really be added to complete the functionality (at the moment you can only share control the camera from the iPhone app if both are logged into a wifi network).

 

The shutter has a pleasing turbine like sound. It is quiet and also relatively low pitched. Sometimes quiet shutters that are high pitched can still be heard easily. I would prefer the option of a silent shutter, but nevertheless this is not an issue 99% of the time. It sounds to me at the same volume as the X-T1, slight softer then the E-M1 and the A7 but louder then the RX1, RX100 or XV with their leaf shutters and of course then the A7S with its digital shutter (yes please Leica).

 

I previously thought the XV was the sharpest mid-range zoom I had used however the 18-56mm seems pretty much the same, albeit losing some close focus distance but compensating with an extra half stop of light at the long end. Effectively the lens is sharp in the centre throughout. It is a smidgen soft in the extreme corners both wide open and at the long end but sharpens up when closed down one stop. In the middle, e.g. 35mm and 50mm FF equiv, its sharp enough in the corners but also becomes tack when stopped down.

 

The lens and camera combination have good colours, sharpness, contrast and dynamic range, quite impressive for APS-C. Its one of the few cameras where the colours are normally good enough out of the box, at least I am generally quite picky. The loss of AA filter does seem to have made a difference as well, which was also surprising. I found the different between the RX1 and RX1R disappointing, for example. I suspect the tolerances within the RX1 are so small, as it was designed with an AA filter in mind, taking away the filter might have disturbed more then it gained (see DXOMARK for slightly lower scores for the RX1R over the RX1). As the T was designed from the ground up without an AA filter it is properly integrated (on not-integrated) and seems to improve the pixel level detail over the XV.

 

 

The dynamic range is good and colours can be restored on overcast days:

London City from Hampstead Heath

 

 

Touch focus makes it so easy to select focus zone (bottom right):

Rooftops, Kenwood House

 

 

Black and white rending is very good. Just also using here the touch focus to capture moving targets:

Thames Path, Greenwich

 

 

I think the pictures really have 3D pop, but since I can't define this and have no idea what it means who knows ......

Nature reclaiming the Wasteland

Edited June 29, 2014 by colonel

[colonel]

Dynamic range allows extreme shadow recovery

Church in the shadow of deserted factory

 

 

The operation is fast. I haven't missed a picture yet when I have to switch the camera on and take quickly

Rough garden

 

 

The system maintains colour even when shooting into the sun and requiring recovery in shadows and highlights

Cutty Sark

 

 

Well I think this camera with the zoom is a keeper and replaces primes in the range if lots of light are not needed.

 

 

Best rgds

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[barjohn]

Would you agree with my assessment that it produces results just a little sharper than the XV? May be only due to lack of AA filter rather than lenses.

[BB W]

Thank you so much, Harold - for your photos and your impressions - especially about the touch focus and the zoom lens. Looks like a keeper to me.

[colonel]

Would you agree with my assessment that it produces results just a little sharper than the XV? May be only due to lack of AA filter rather than lenses.

 

Yes I agree. Noticeably sharper at the pixel level.

[pico]

Well, Harold, your words and pictures definitely tipped me over to buy a T.

Leica should give you a commission.

 

Thank you very much!

[k_g_wolf ✝]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Well, I´am afraid I also give up in due course and allow my D2 to think about it´s retirement.

Great report and photos, thx for sharing, Harold.

 

Regards

GEORG

[vikasmg]

Amateur or not, your comments and photos are both good and very appreciated!