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New Leica SL Lenses & Roadmap!


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I am eager to receive news news of 75/90mm SL native lens release news release expected soon (hopefully this month). I am delighted to find the versatility & raggedness of the SL with the 24-90 zoom on SL as I have been shooting under snowi fall & rain conditions over the past 3 days during my present trip in Shirakawa-go & Takayama Japan. I had the total peace of mind shooting and not having to reach for shelter to change lenses or shy away from environmental conditions where my iphone started having ‘high’ battery drainage problem. I was also carrying my M10 with 21lux, it was in my carrying bag together with my Noc & 90-280 most of the time.

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I frustated and become more and more impatient with SL lenses roadmap, I’m hanging high on the 35 cron and 75 apo cron but now when Leica pushed the release again, I’m ready to sell or trade with MF system from Fuji or Hasselblad X1D.

I love the SL, but I prefer to use the M lenses to its native body, so I tend to leave the SL behind when go out shooting or traveling. So maybe this is it..

 

I am also dissappointed how the release of the Summicrons (and further lenses) is delayed without any reliable information. I love many Leica products but I sometimes totally do not understand Leicas way of customer comminication/relationship. Some very nice people at Leica but overall there is a lot of room for improvement in this regard.(IMO)

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I noticed that there are almost no queries on AF functions/limitations in this forum. So with so much moaning about weight & size of the SL native lenses in this forum is aligned to my thought that most in this forum are just die-hard M & R lenses users. So that much complaints on new lenses roadmap should be discounted.

 

I think that might be because each available lens is a known quantity at this point.  The 24-90 and 90-280 have quick and responsive AF.  The 50 has slower AF that reminds me of the Canon 85 1.2L.

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All the three SL lenses are available in exstock (at least in Singapore). So if they're not selling well, all the more the manufacturer will be eager to make new lenses available to boost sales. So why is Leica delaying the release of the SL75/90mm is against conventional wisdom.

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I'm really looking forward to the new primes when they are finally released, but its increasing looking like we are nearing the end of the year and SL75mm APO looks like its release must move to 2018 from 2017.   :(

Only a few days left to announce. 
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I know I should be patient in waiting for SL primes. I know M lenses work well on the SL, but the lack of closer focusing, weather sealing, AF, and the availability of something smaller and lighter than the current SL lens lineup is a little disappointing. Thank you for indulging me in this pointless message.

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So officially, and unsurprisingly Leica has missed delivering any Summicrons in 2017.

Can we expect anything in Q1?

And how many of the 3 previously announced Summicrons and 1 wide Vario-Elmar will make it out by end of 2018?

 

 

From official website all I can see is:

 

16-35: April 2018

35/2: Spring 2018 (Presumably later than April?)

75/2: Coming Soon (As in sooner than April?)

90/2: Coming Soon (As in sooner than April?)

 

http://us.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-SL/SL-Lenses/Prime-Lenses

http://us.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-SL/SL-Lenses/Vario-Lenses

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... and then the loudest voices will be telling us (1) they’re not very good, (2) they’re very expensive! (3) they’re heavy and large, (4) AF too slow and (5) not very good.

 

The 50 Summilux-SL being a case in point. Nice lens, by the way. The others will be worth the wait.

Edited by IkarusJohn
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I know I should be patient in waiting for SL primes. I know M lenses work well on the SL, but the lack of closer focusing, weather sealing, AF, and the availability of something smaller and lighter than the current SL lens lineup is a little disappointing. Thank you for indulging me in this pointless message.

A desperate buyer could be forced into buying a nocti type of lens instead. Though in the end also pointless.

 

Why can Leica offer a TL 18mm (I wonder how fast AF is), but not a SL 28mm with the same ease ?

I am slowly getting old and feel it will take years to fill the gaps. Never expected that one day this is a real problem.

But adding a Nikon 105 or 1.4 28 seems also pointless.

So GAS stuck in the middle. ... and always the threat Leica might continue with CL instead of SL. It's so frustrating that for CL the desired lenses are there.

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Has anybody tried the TL 18mm pancake on the SL ?

Leica writes AF is fast and IQ high. Can anyone confirm ?

The MTF curves look good enough - but I have no experience comparing different formats.

 

The lens looks like a formidable little walk-around lens. But I do not want to buy a CL.

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I think the difference is manpower.  There are lots of lens designers in Japan, and a little collaboration goes a long way.  Plus Leica certainly doesn't share all that they know (and they may be learning a few tricks, too).  Some of the CL lenses are quite worthy additions to the stable, others have their limitations.  The 18 and 23, for example are compromised in order to obtain speed and size.  Leica restricts the 23's maximum aperture when focusing close.  The 11-23 zoom, however, is outstanding (better than either prime, but also bigger).  The CL 35/1.4 on paper (I haven't used one yet) looks like a Summilux design that is moving in the direction of the SL 50, but still has a long way to go.  At present it might be slightly better (at APS-C coverage) than the M's 10 years older 35 Summilux-asph-FLE, which is, of course, a fine lens.  

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Has anybody tried the TL 18mm pancake on the SL ?

 

The lens looks like a formidable little walk-around lens. But I do not want to buy a CL.

I'm sure it would work fine, but it would look as if you left home with only a body cap on.  I've shot SL with the CL 11-23 and it works well.

Edited by scott kirkpatrick
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... and then the loudest voices will be telling us (1) they’re not very good, (2) they’re very expensive! (3) they’re heavy and large, (4) AF too slow and (5) not very good.

 

The 50 Summilux-SL being a case in point. Nice lens, by the way. The others will be worth the wait.

 

You forgot the underwhelming close focus of 0.6m...  ;)

 

FWIW, I visited a Leica store last week.  They expect 3 SL-lenses in Q1 of 2018.  

 

They also said that the SL was selling well and that lowering the price had made a significant difference, ie. before sales were not that great...

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They also said that the SL was selling well and that lowering the price had made a significant difference, ie. before sales were not that great.

 

The SL could be Leica's biggest sleeper.  Greatly improved with firmware 3 it overcame all my reservations.  The price drop made it compelling and Leica reduces the price further with a M9 sensor trade-in.  

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Look if making some noise here filters back to Leica, I think that's a positive, and the objective.

Engaging with your customers and keeping them apprised of when dates shift is important in any industry.  

 

Personally, I'm hoping they ship something in Q1 that I can purchase, as of late I've been putting my money into non-Leica primes I can adapt to SL.

I've been waiting on them to ship ANY AF lens that's lighter than the 24-90... since the day they released it.

 

The 16-35 or 35 spots are still open in my lens bag.

The 75/90 are of less interest as I've filled in with a Zeiss C/Y 85mm after waiting most of the year.

That said if the things ever ship, I may eventually "upgrade" off of the Zeiss to get the AF, but only after I square away all my focal lengths.

 

No news is usually bad news.

The longer they drag it out, the more spots in my lens lineup fill with used/3rd party lenses... I know I'm not alone in this.

 

Last week I was checking out at the grocery, and the woman in front of me kept peeking at the Contax Zeiss C/Y 85 on my SL.

Finally she asked and we got talking.

She shoots an SL professionally and told me about all the Voigtlander / Leica R / etc lenses she uses on the SL and how it's such a flexible platform.  

The only native lens she owns is the 24-90, and didn't mention any Leica M lenses.

I walked away contemplating the Voigtlander 21/1.8 from her recommendation, and she contemplating the Contax Zeiss 85 on my recommendation.

 

 

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The Summilux-SL 50 is already (slightly) lighter than the 24-90 with AF.

 

What strikes me most about this thread is most of the posts are made by people who don’t own the existing SL native lenses. If you’re not purchasing the system lenses that have been released, what sort of confidence does that give Leica to press forward with the investment in new lenses? We will hear the same comparisons about the Summicron primes when they are released (larger than M and R lenses, AF not as fast as the zooms, etc). Most of those comments will come from non-users. We will hear about lenses that don’t exist and were never announced that some would supposedly buy if Leica would build them. We will hear about all the potential sales if they had built an interchangeable lens Q (ignoring that the Q lens is set into the body to reduce overall size and the SL body is not much larger without the grip, and ignoring the usability issues that arise with small bodies (Sony A#)).

 

If anyone was looking for small native primes for this system I think they were misguided or choosing to ignore the originally announced and marketed specs of the system (high fps, medium resolution, high speed operation, weather sealed, AF, “pro” system).

 

The specs lend one to compare to the typical “pro” systems from Nikon, Canon, and Sony- those which are dominated by “pro” zooms that are large and heavy. This is where I came from (Nikon D4s) and I am happy with the three native lenses and a few M lenses at this point.

 

If you want a small landscape or hiking kit, there are a lot of options in the M and R systems. If you want a small AF system you have the TL or CL to go with the SL. I don’t see where the big issue is other than that the lack of lenses somehow limits one’s confidence in the future of the system. I’m not worried about the system’s future so much as I will be shooting happily with the existing gear rather than waiting and worrying.

Edited by LD_50
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I own all available (=3) SL lenses and I am also disappointed about Leicas timing.

The 50 is a great lens but it is as big (bigger) than the equivalent MF lens (70/2.5). IMO the SL system can gain a lot with Summicrons in a good size/speed relation and Leica would be smart to bring some lenses to the market soon.

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