SL2-S Issues (brand new)

[giganova]

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Hi all —

I received my new Leica SL2-S with Summicron 35/2 yesterday and went on a photo shoot to try it out today.

Unfortunately, I am less enthusiastic than I thought I would be. Yes, the camera is gorgeous, the German industrial design is stellar, the build quality is top notch, all buttons have a very satisfactory click & response, the menu layout and structure is the best I have ever seen on any camera, and the battery lasts much longer than advertised. But I had a few issues today. FYI: the camera is brand new, has the latest Firmware, battery is fully charged, and Bluetooth is off:

1. Powering Off: when I powered the camera off today, the red Leica logo appeared in the back display, but instead of powering off, it got stuck in that state: the red logo stayed in the display and the camera was unresponsive to any buttons for minutes. I had to release the battery to turn it off and to “reboot.” Happened twice.
2. AF: I knew that the autofocus isn’t on par with the phase detection AF of Canon, Nikon, etc, but I didn’t expect that it is that bad: I had several subjects — in broad daylight — where it simply couldn’t lock the AF on. The worse case was a white trailer in the sun where the AF got into this mode that it ran all the way from macro to infinity and wouldn’t stop doing so, running back & forth, even when I pointed the camera away, and the entire camera noticeably vibrated and made a loud noise which seems to come from inside the lens (presumably the AF motor). Had to turn the camera off for it to stop. I unsuccessfully tried to take a picture of the white trailer three times, finally gave up and took a picture using MF. My settings: Intelligent AF, AF Mode “Field”
3. AF Lock: I thought when I center the subject, press the shutter button half way so it focuses, the focus will be locked until I release the shutter. Not so in my case: I doesn’t hold the AF while I keep the shutter button depressed; as soon as I move the subject out of the center — with shutter released still depressed — it instantly focuses on whatever is at the center. Is this a user error?
4. Flickering Viewfinder: at 120 fps refresh rate, the viewfinder often flickers, both in broad daylight and indoors with LED illumination, regardless if I hold the camera still or move it. Seems to be better at 60 fps. Is that expected?

Maybe all of the above are user errors, but I thought I ask you for input & advice.

Thanks!

[trickness]

1) Try a different SD card. I've never had this issue on my SL2. Also make sure your lens is seated correctly especially if you are using an M adapter (sounds like you aren't).

2) and 3) - A white sunlit trailer isn't an easy task for autofocus, especially set to field. There are several different AF and metering modes and the camera needs to be set up properly and you need to RTFM to understand which one/s you should use. Not the camera's fault. Setting up how the shutter works & back button focus etc is in config menus. 

4) Never had a flickering EVF on either setting 60 or 120. Change your SD card, If it persists take it to the dealer. Not normal. Perhaps you're in some kind of weird lighting situation and there's EMI interference or something? Or the EVF is going back and forth between the back screen because you're a glasses wearer so your face isn't covering the eye detector on the EVF? If it's flickering all by itself while you're looking through the EVF that sounds like an issue the dealer should see.

There's a bit of a learning curve with any camera. Your dealer should help ease the pain and determine if it's you or the camera.

Also in case I forgot to mention it, RTFM 😀

 

 

 

 

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[frame-it]

1 hour ago, giganova said:

• Powering Off: when I powered the camera off today, the red Leica logo appeared in the back display, but instead of powering off, it got stuck in that state: the red logo stayed in the display and the camera was unresponsive to any buttons for minutes. I had to release the battery to turn it off and to “reboot.” Happened twice.
• AF: I knew that the autofocus isn’t on par with the phase detection AF of Canon, Nikon, etc, but I didn’t expect that it is that bad: I had several subjects — in broad daylight — where it simply couldn’t lock the AF on. The worse case was a white trailer in the sun where the AF got into this mode that it ran all the way from macro to infinity and wouldn’t stop doing so, running back & forth, even when I pointed the camera away, and the entire camera noticeably vibrated and made a loud noise which seems to come from inside the lens (presumably the AF motor). Had to turn the camera off for it to stop. I unsuccessfully tried to take a picture of the white trailer three times, finally gave up and took a picture using MF. My settings: Intelligent AF, AF Mode “Field”
• AF Lock: I thought when I center the subject, press the shutter button half way so it focuses, the focus will be locked until I release the shutter. Not so in my case: I doesn’t hold the AF while I keep the shutter button depressed; as soon as I move the subject out of the center — with shutter released still depressed — it instantly focuses on whatever is at the center. Is this a user error?
• Flickering Viewfinder: at 120 fps refresh rate, the viewfinder often flickers, both in broad daylight and indoors with LED illumination, regardless if I hold the camera still or move it. Seems to be better at 60 fps. Is that expected?

1 > check the firmware on camera and lens

2 > https://leica-camera.com/sites/default/files/pm-73862-Leica-SL2-S_Instructions_en.pdf

3 > https://leica-camera.com/sites/default/files/pm-73862-Leica-SL2-S_Instructions_en.pdf

4 > could be>>

 

[Virob]

5 hours ago, giganova said:

Hi all —

I received my new Leica SL2-S with Summicron 35/2 yesterday and went on a photo shoot to try it out today.

Unfortunately, I am less enthusiastic than I thought I would be. Yes, the camera is gorgeous, the German industrial design is stellar, the build quality is top notch, all buttons have a very satisfactory click & response, the menu layout and structure is the best I have ever seen on any camera, and the battery lasts much longer than advertised. But I had a few issues today. FYI: the camera is brand new, has the latest Firmware, battery is fully charged, and Bluetooth is off:

1. Powering Off: when I powered the camera off today, the red Leica logo appeared in the back display, but instead of powering off, it got stuck in that state: the red logo stayed in the display and the camera was unresponsive to any buttons for minutes. I had to release the battery to turn it off and to “reboot.” Happened twice.
2. AF: I knew that the autofocus isn’t on par with the phase detection AF of Canon, Nikon, etc, but I didn’t expect that it is that bad: I had several subjects — in broad daylight — where it simply couldn’t lock the AF on. The worse case was a white trailer in the sun where the AF got into this mode that it ran all the way from macro to infinity and wouldn’t stop doing so, running back & forth, even when I pointed the camera away, and the entire camera noticeably vibrated and made a loud noise which seems to come from inside the lens (presumably the AF motor). Had to turn the camera off for it to stop. I unsuccessfully tried to take a picture of the white trailer three times, finally gave up and took a picture using MF. My settings: Intelligent AF, AF Mode “Field”
3. AF Lock: I thought when I center the subject, press the shutter button half way so it focuses, the focus will be locked until I release the shutter. Not so in my case: I doesn’t hold the AF while I keep the shutter button depressed; as soon as I move the subject out of the center — with shutter released still depressed — it instantly focuses on whatever is at the center. Is this a user error?
4. Flickering Viewfinder: at 120 fps refresh rate, the viewfinder often flickers, both in broad daylight and indoors with LED illumination, regardless if I hold the camera still or move it. Seems to be better at 60 fps. Is that expected?

Maybe all of the above are user errors, but I thought I ask you for input & advice.

Thanks!

1. This has happened to me once or twice when I have done something dumb like not turning off the camera before changing batteries. 

2. try AFs, see if that helps, AFc isn’t all that reliable.

3. same as above, when using iAF, the camera chooses between AFc and AFs,  if it in AFc, then half pressing the shutter isn’t going to stop AF, that is the whole point of AFc, you need to be in AFs.

4. no idea what’s going on, doesn’t sound good.

 

[giganova]

4 hours ago, frame-it said:

1 > check the firmware on camera and lens

Checked, Firmware is up to date.

[giganova]

31 minutes ago, Virob said:

2. try AFs, see if that helps, AFc isn’t all that reliable.

Great suggestion, AFs works! But now I discovered a new bug: when in "monochrome" and AF "tracking," the display changes to color when I press the shutter button to focus! 

Honestly, I am not impressed with the SL2-S, full of bugs that need to be ironed out! 🤨

[hdmesa]

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17 minutes ago, giganova said:

Great suggestion, AFs works! But now I discovered a new bug: when in "monochrome" and AF "tracking," the display changes to color when I press the shutter button to focus! 

Honestly, I am not impressed with the SL2-S, full of bugs that need to be ironed out! 🤨

AFc, AF tracking – all are shit on the SL cameras. Stay in AFs and don't track anything, just pretend you're focusing with a AF film camera from the 1990s (and be glad you can move the focus point around).

SL2-S is an extremely stable platform if you don't push the AF system.

[giganova]

Thanks, great advice, I’ll do that!

[Planetwide]

Put it in AFs, then select tracking in the AF type. It will track while you have the shutter half pressed only.

[satijntje]

I received 3 days ago exactly the same huge box with a brandnew SL2-s and the 35mm Summicron ASPH.

I must say that I am positively surprised by the rendering of the lens.

And so far no problems with the camera!
I always use older SD cards (long time ago I bought some new ones) and usually I use AFs.
No problem with the EVF or freezes.

Great deal! 

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[jaapv]

And if you use an SD card that has been used before in another camera, FORMAT IT!!  Failing to do so can result in many errors. 

[davidmknoble]

3 hours ago, jaapv said:

And if you use an SD card that has been used before in another camera, FORMAT IT!!  Failing to do so can result in many errors. 

Also, it gets posted frequently, but it is important to prevent camera locking and loosing images.  Many use the SD Card Formatter to occasionally check for bad sectors and block them as well as cleaning up the card.  I use it frequently.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

[giganova]

Now that I know that the AF is best used in AFs and no tracking, I can live with it. Lets hope that the other issues were just a fluke.

I must say that I am really impressed by the battery life: I used the camera for about 4 hours yesterday, shot 200 pictures, and the battery was still at 80% -- much more than advertised! 👍

The EVF is stellar, too. 

And the menu is much better structured and more intuitive than any other camera I have ever use. 

So yeah, I'm happy with the purchase.

BTW, I went to a junk yard yesterday, a guy comes out and shouts from a distance "Is that a Leica SL?" Who would have thought! 😂

 

5 hours ago, satijntje said:

I received 3 days ago exactly the same huge box with a brandnew SL2-s and the 35mm Summicron ASPH.

I must say that I am positively surprised by the rendering of the lens.

And so far no problems with the camera!
I always use older SD cards (long time ago I bought some new ones) and usually I use AFs.
No problem with the EVF or freezes.

Great deal! 

Congrats!! I agree that the Summicron-SL 35/2 ASPH renders beautifully and I love the bokek shot wide open!

All good on my end! 

[giganova]

(moved to picture thread)

Edited April 7, 2023 by giganova

[frame-it]

5 minutes ago, giganova said:

My first images with the SL2-S + 35/2 kit:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

you can post them here >>

 

[Simone_DF]

18 minutes ago, giganova said:

Now that I know that the AF is best used in AFs and no tracking, I can live with it. Lets hope that the other issues were just a fluke.

Tracking works ok if there are no more than 3-4 people in the frame. I usually leave my camera set to iAF and switch between face detect and spot depending on the situation. 
If the SL3 will introduce phase detect like the S5II then the problem will be fixed for good. 

[Jean-Michel]

It might be worthwhile for any new user to:

— Download the Leica manual an peruse it

— View a couple of sites that go through most of the menu choices, preferences, tips, etc.,three sites are: each have a number of rather interesting and helpful advice  to both new and experienced users.

 

 

[giganova]

2 hours ago, Simone_DF said:

Tracking works ok if there are no more than 3-4 people in the frame.

Yes it does, but the display switches between monochrome and color when you tap the shutter button to focus when in monochrome mode. That renders the monochrome feature useless in tracking mode.

[giganova]

27 minutes ago, Jean-Michel said:

It might be worthwhile for any new user to:

— Download the Leica manual an peruse it

— View a couple of sites that go through most of the menu choices, preferences, tips, etc.,three sites are: each have a number of rather interesting and helpful advice  to both new and experienced users.

Thanks for the links! I did all that before I even purchased the camera, and then again when I received it. They do not discuss any of the issues that I encountered, e.g. the AF shortcomings, that the camera seized twice when shutting off, and that the EVF occasionally flickers in broad daylight.

I even rented/borrowed some competing cameras before I ordered the SL: the Canon R5, R6, Fuji X-T5, and spent significant amount of time with the Q2 and SL2-S in the Leica store. But in all fairness, one probably doesn't purchase a Leica for state-of-the-art technologies. The AF of the Canon R5 and R6, for example, blow any Leica out of the water. Be it as it may, there seems to be some significant software issues Leica needs to address, the hardware is beautiful.

Edited April 7, 2023 by giganova

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[EJS73]

My first impression of the SL2(S) was that it was a rather clunky system, but I've grown into it and now prefer it to all other camera systems (except the M, which is a simpler camera more naturally suited to a sparse menu). The autofocus system has been remarkably accurate for me, and with firmware updates the interface has been streamlined (e.g. I have one button dedicated to recentering the AF point). What I really like is how smoothly manual focus has been implemented, with excellent quality magnification and peaking, the ability to display a grid and a horizon at the press of a button, always wide open focus until the shutter is triggered.