Less Talked About New Features SL2 vs. SL

[LikameLeica]

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After using the SL2 for a week and reading numerous reviews and articles prior to actually upgrading from my SL to the SL2 I thought it might be useful to post a few less talked about feature enhancements for the SL2 compared to the SL.  Like many others I too miss the built  in GPS and the right hand side function buttons, but the enhancements you do get are actually really well thought out and in my opinion make the experience with the SL2 quite nice in comparison.  All that being said, the SL will always have a special place in my heart. Disclaimer, if somehow the features I list below were available of the SL, I never found them in my several years using the camera.

New Features/Software Enhancements

1. Self Timer Indicator - On the SL if you change the drive mode to Self Timer the only indicator that you were in this drive mode was on the top of the Info Bar with a very tiny icon.  On the SL2 if you are in the Self Timer mode, the camera software alerts you prominently in the display with small icon in the center of the display indicating that the self timer is turned on with either 12 second or 2 second setting.  This is a welcomed addition, as many times on the SL I would forget that I had put the camera in the self timer mode and then proceeded to miss the next shot due to the timer being left on.
2. Multiple Capture Assistants - The new software allows you to have multiple capture assistants on the screen at the same time (grid, focus peak, level gauge, etc).  Whereas on the SL I could only use predetermined capture assistants at the same time, but FOCUS PEAKING and GRID could not be used together.  You can now create up to four  "Info Profiles" that you can customize which capture assistants display.  These profiles can then be quickly cycled through using the FN button on back left side.  As an example, I have set up Info Profile 1 with GRID and FOCUS PEAKING, for use while doing street photography with M lens, I have Info Profile 2 with GRID, FOCUS PEAKING, LEVEL GUAGE, and HISTOGRAM for use while doing landscape photography.
3. Front Dial Magnification - One of the great features of the EVF on both the Leica SL and SL2 is the ability to zoom in the magnification to help get precise focus.  This is especially nice while using M lenses with shallow depth of field. One of the challenges (for me...smaller hands) was that on the SL using that using the thumb joystick to click in for magnification was always a bit awkward to use.  On the SL2 you can still use the thumb joystick to zoom in to full magnification, but you can also use the front wheel to dial in the magnification at three different levels while using M lenses.  This is while in Aperture Priority Mode and you use the back dial while in Manual Priority Mode.
4. Double Tap Back Display - Often times while using the Leica SL and SL2 the focusing / metering point can accidentally get bumped or purposefully moved to various parts of the display.  On the SL in order to recenter the point you would have to manually move the point back to the center with the thumb joystick.  On the SL2 you can still use this method or you can simply double tap the rear screen and the point will go back to the center.  Simple small change to the software, but sometimes it is the simple things that refine products to perfection.
5. Single Click Functions (Faster Access and Custom Assignment) - I have seen this mentioned before, but worth mentioning here again.  Although the views around the way the function buttons work between the Leica SL and the SL2 will vary by user, I find myself already a bit lost when going back to my SL after using the SL2 for only one week.  One of the subtle changes is that if you want to reassign a button to a different function, you do not have to navigate back into the menus you simply do a long hold and then choose the new custom function.  This also means (in my opinion) that access to using the actual function assigned is much quicker than with the SL due to single click access t assigned function.  This coupled with the easy access to primary functions using the icons on the main menu and by thinking carefully about what you place in your favorites menu make common features/functions very easy to access.  Simple analogy, for anyone that has transitioned from older iPhone's with the physical home button to the newer iPhones without the physical home button, going back to the older phones after only a short time made me realize how much better the new software and design were compared to what only one week earlier seemed so good.
6. More User Profiles - The Leica SL has four (4) customizable profiles vs. the Leica SL2 having six (6) customizable profiles.  This coupled with #5 above allow for quickly changing to various profiles for various types of shooting scenarios (street, landscape, action, M lens, SL lens, etc).
7. Front Function Button (Dual Assignment) - On the Leica SL (for me) this button always seemed a bit hard to access, having to reposition my hand slightly to long press the button to access the assigned function.  In my opinion, three things make this front FN button more usable on the Leica SL2.  The first being that the button (again for me) does not require me to reposition my hand to access the button.  I think this is primarily due to the redesigned hand grip and notch.  The second reason is that the button no longer requires a long press to access the assigned function(s), and third the now more easily accessed button now allows for two functional assignments.

I hope this is helpful information to those thinking about making the transition or to those that already have.  What other features have others found on their new Leica SL2?

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[Aktenschrank]

17 hours ago, LikameLeica said:

This also means (in my opinion) that access to using the actual function assigned is much quicker than with the SL due to single click access t assigned function.

Not sure I´d agree with this. A lot of the assignable "functions" using the fn-buttons are just calling menus, were you then have to make selections and confirm (slow). And the ones that directly call actual functions work great to activate the function, but then you have to dive into the menus or use another way to actually get out of them again, which is not very thought through in my opinion. As an example: If I assign exposure bracketing to a fn-button I can get into exp-bracketing mode by pressing the button. But to de-activate bracketing again and continue in single frame mode I have to for example use the quick menu icons. I would expect that another press of the assigned fn-button would get me OUT of bracketing mode and back to whatever mode I was in before. So I´d personally think that there's still some improvements to be made to the customisation options! Not to mention that some of my personally most used settings like sensor format and aspect ratio are not even assignable to fn-buttons (nor the favourites menu).

[LikameLeica]

6 hours ago, Aktenschrank said:

Not sure I´d agree with this. A lot of the assignable "functions" using the fn-buttons are just calling menus, were you then have to make selections and confirm (slow). And the ones that directly call actual functions work great to activate the function, but then you have to dive into the menus or use another way to actually get out of them again, which is not very thought through in my opinion. As an example: If I assign exposure bracketing to a fn-button I can get into exp-bracketing mode by pressing the button. But to de-activate bracketing again and continue in single frame mode I have to for example use the quick menu icons. I would expect that another press of the assigned fn-button would get me OUT of bracketing mode and back to whatever mode I was in before. So I´d personally think that there's still some improvements to be made to the customisation options! Not to mention that some of my personally most used settings like sensor format and aspect ratio are not even assignable to fn-buttons (nor the favourites menu).

Thanks for the response.  My feedback was in comparing the SL2 to SL, it was not intended to be around the overall software design.  To the best of my understanding the issues you point out below would be the same with the SL function buttons and how they have worked, but at least with the SL2 the access to the menu is quicker through single press vs. long press, creation of a user defined favorites menu, and the quick access buttons on Status Screen (I hope in time with firmware changes that they allow for customization of the functions available on this screen).

I agree that it would be great to allow for all menu items to be assigned to user defined FN buttons.  That not being the case at this time, here are a couple of ideas to help solve the issues you called out above.

First is a quick recommendation for how to remedy the example you brought up around faster access to turning off and on the EXPOSURE BRACKETING.  This works for me, but I realize that everyone has their own ways of working.

• Assign the top left FN button to DRIVE MODE
• Quick press of this button allows you to switch drive modes with EXPOSURE BRACKETING being one click away from SINGLE shot

Secondly here is idea for switching quickly between desired SENSOR FORMAT or PHOTO ASPECT RATIO using the 6 available USER PROFILEs

• Create a USER PROFILE that has 35 MM selected and another USER PROFILE that has APS-C (you can combine this setting with your other preferences)
• Quickly Access the USER PROFILEs through the Status Screen or Assign one of the FN Buttons to USER PROFILEs for single press access and selection
• For PHOTO ASPECT RATIO you could pursue the same solution depending on how you specifically want to combine with SENSOR FORMAT.

Obviously a lot of various ways to set-up the camera and really just a matter of user preference and I am sure they will continue to refine with FIRMWARE updates similar to how they continually refined the SL software.  

[Aktenschrank]

Thanks a lot for your time to provide some workarounds! Really appreciated! Both of the ways you mention is exactly how I configured my SL2 in the absence of said customisation options. While the workaround using the drive mode works fairly well and I think I could get used to it, that's not the case for using profiles for switching crop modes and aspect ratios. Mainly for these reasons:

• switching profiles will reset all changes I have already made, like choosing exposure in M mode etc. Having to do this all over again actually sometimes takes longer than diving into the menu to change the crop or aspect
• There's only 6 profiles available. This is for sure enough in general use, but not if I need to use them to workaround missing customisation options, meaning essentially duplicating my basic profiles

Anyway, I don't want to hijack this thread, since I didn't own an SL and cannot compare the two...Many thanks again!

Edited January 1, 2020 by Aktenschrank