SL arrived today - a few issues

[Dr. G]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

My SL arrived today. I ordered it from B&H. I'm having a few issues and I don't know if it's user error or if the SL is defective.

 

I have the APO 50mm Summicron-M f/2 mounted with the Leica M-adapter-L.

 

1. It didn't come with a hot shoe cover - I don't know if this is normal or not

2. The camera recognizes the APO under lens selection automatically. I assume it's estimating aperture of the lens because the values shown on the OLED and in the EVF don't track 1:1 with the aperture ring on the lens.

3. I have the grid and horizon line set to on in the menus but they don't show on live view or EVF

4. Focus peaking - can it be used with M lenses? I have it set to red and high sensitivity and I see nothing. I can magnify the field for focus assist with the joystick, but still no focus peaking showing up.

 

I'm hoping that I'm missing something or that the camera is performing normally for being used with the APO, although I don't know why the grid or horizon line wouldn't show up.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[jackson.gabriel]

1. There is no hot shoe cover

2. Don’t know

3. Grid and horizon show up once you select the correct view mode. You can cycle through histogram, nothing, grid and level, focus peaking, etc.

3. Yes, it should.

[Donzo98]

Scroll through the viewing modes but pressing the joystick...

 

Yes... of course peaking works with the APO

 

When it’s on you will see an ICON in the EVF.

[LocalHero1953]

I agree with Jackson about:

1 The SL is weathersealed and doesn't need a cover.

3 Press the Info button - bottom right - until the grid or horizon show. They can't be shown at the same time, unlike the CL.

4 Make sure peaking is actually switched om.

 

2 No the SL doesn't know what aperture you have set on the M lens, so it estimates, just like the M body.

Edited December 9, 2017 by LocalHero1953

[Dr. G]

Thanks, my camera is set up with the joystick push activating the focus magnification assist. It was the bottom right button that toggled through the display modes.

Edited December 9, 2017 by Dr. G

[IkarusJohn]

Hi Dr G,

 

I know this takes time, and can be frustrating, but the first thing to do is work out what buttons are availble for programming and take a moment to think how you will use the camera most - with the APO, I guessing Manual will work best. Note that if you leave the ISO on Auto, the camera will continue to respond to the meter. I tend to use Manual and set the ISO, that way I get exposure simulatoin through the EVF (I don’t actually need the meter).

 

If you the dive into the menus, you can programme most of the buttons the way you want. Once you have the buttons programmed for your preferred use with the APO, save the profile.

 

It takes time, and careful thought. When I first got mine, I just set it up the way Jono set his up (look for the very first SL thread, or have a look on his website for his SL review)., then I started changing things (got myself rather confused in the process).

 

With the AF lenses, the set up is completely different ...

 

Cheers

John

Edited December 10, 2017 by IkarusJohn

[mmradman]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Even superficial glance at manual can be helpful. New cameras are usually supplied with one, if not it can be downloaded from the web.

[Dr. G]

Even superficial glance at manual can be helpful. New cameras are usually supplied with one, if not it can be downloaded from the web.

 

 

I actually looked at the manual.  Everything was related to not knowing how to change the view.  

 

Had I not read the manual, I wouldn't have known the trick for getting the battery out

[Sandokan]

RTM once helps a little. Playing with camera for each function and trying to customize it will help you see how to get what you want. The PDF helps most here as you can bookmark pages and flick back and forth between different sections. 

 

I spent many hours customizing and re-customizing every function until I came to one I liked. 

 

eg I switched off many of the view functions so I only have 3x3 grid with split horizon or focus peaking. No histograms etc. 

[LocalHero1953]

The SL is the only Leica I've had for which reading the manual was essential: I thought I'd cracked it without, but switched to video without realising, and spent an unhappy half hour thinking my new SL was broken!

 

My CL came without the manual. The store are chasing it up from Germany, but I haven't missed it.

Edited December 10, 2017 by LocalHero1953

[Andrew Gough]

On the back of the cam are the 4 buttons around the screen. Press the bottom right one and when you see a little man symbol with a red (or whatever ever peaking colour selected) outline, then pealing is enabled.

[Donzo98]

Thanks, my camera is set up with the joystick push activating the focus magnification assist. It was the bottom right button that toggled through the display modes.

 

Mine too... made a mistake in my original post.

[ramarren]

The joystick button focusing magnification function was added to the SL with firmware 2.x as an aid for manual focus lens use; this was then enhanced further with firmware 3.x to provide it as an option for use with the SL dedicated lenses.

 

The standard control for focusing magnification activation is the Lower-Left button short-press ... with normal, zoom1, and zoom2 levels of magnification. This works with any view overlay display mode—short-press on the Lower-Right button—but the level indicator only appears with normal magnification. The Set Up menu configuration options on the display modes determine how many different overlays the button will cycle through, the display overlays are each distinct steps in the LR button press cycle. 

 

The way my camera is configured, the cycle is "no overlay > standard information > info with histogram > info with focus peaking > info with grid/level > no overlay ..." for five display overlay modes. The overlays cannot be combined. 

Edited December 11, 2017 by ramarren