Leica SL3 Review - Peter Poete Photography

[batian]

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Hello everyone,

if you're interested, here are my thoughts on the Leica SL3 after a few weeks of use. I'm not a long term SL user... but I was very curious. This is how the review should be read... as a first impression.

https://peterpoete.de/leica-sl3/

Cheers,

Peter

 

[jrp]

Thanks. A fair review. 

[Smogg]

15 hours ago, batian said:

Hello everyone,

if you're interested, here are my thoughts on the Leica SL3 after a few weeks of use. I'm not a long term SL user... but I was very curious. This is how the review should be read... as a first impression.

https://peterpoete.de/leica-sl3/

Cheers,

Peter

 

Thank you! Very honest and fair review! I agree on almost all points.

[Max EPR]

As a SL3 owner, I think the review accurately describes the SL3 experience.

[batian]

Many thanks to you three owners for your comments. I'm glad that I seem to have got the main points reasonably well. I've also received some ‘strange’ comments here and there... and in some cases my opinion of the camera was interpreted very negatively. But what I never meant and I don't think I wrote... the internet is sometimes difficult 😉

[NickT]

Nice review and I would agree with much of it. One thing I find curious; if you have decided not to use the left hand top dial and use the right hand top dial for exposure compensation, that leaves the right hand back dial for both aperture and shutter speed - fine for a Sigma lens with an aperture ring - but not when using one of the Leica lenses shown in the article. So how do you do these two adjustments? 

My other comment would make is that you do not point out (as is case with many other reviewers) that one of the uses of the top screen is that it shows distance and depth of field information an arrangement, that as far as I know, is unique to Leica.

[batian]

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vor 2 Stunden schrieb NickT:

Nice review and I would agree with much of it. One thing I find curious; if you have decided not to use the left hand top dial and use the right hand top dial for exposure compensation, that leaves the right hand back dial for both aperture and shutter speed - fine for a Sigma lens with an aperture ring - but not when using one of the Leica lenses shown in the article. So how do you do these two adjustments? 

Hi Nick, 

maybe I don't get your question right. I used the back dial for setting the aperture, that's it. Since I always use aperture priority, I don't need anything more. Or am I missing a point in your question?

vor 2 Stunden schrieb NickT:

My other comment would make is that you do not point out (as is case with many other reviewers) that one of the uses of the top screen is that it shows distance and depth of field information an arrangement, that as far as I know, is unique to Leica.

Ups? Does it? Or rather, what makes you think that? I haven't seen it, and I haven't seen a setting that could have activated it. I only know such a display from the Fujifilm X100 series, but there it's in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen. 

With the top display on the SL3, I only see some general information...

 

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Edited October 28, 2024 by batian
Typo

[Gateway77]

This becomes visible when you press the shutter button half-way.

Very useful 👍

Edited October 28, 2024 by Gateway77

[batian]

vor einer Stunde schrieb Gateway77:

This becomes visible when you press the shutter button half-way.

Very useful 👍

I still don' get it. Where does it become visible? On the top display? But then it's - at least for me - not very useful since I use the EVF most of the time. But anyway, I did not recognize it.. interesting! How does it look like? Could anyone make a picture of it?

Supplement: Now I have found it in the manual... OK. But wouldn't it be much better in the EVF and on the LCD Display?

Edited October 28, 2024 by batian
Supplement

[Jonathan Levin]

For me, the focus and DOF displays on top of camera when focus is set to Manual.

[batian]

Thanks for the hint, guys! I updated the review. If anyone has a sharp photo of it, I would still add that.

[hoolyproductions]

15 hours ago, batian said:

I still don' get it. Where does it become visible? On the top display? But then it's - at least for me - not very useful since I use the EVF most of the time. But anyway, I did not recognize it.. interesting! How does it look like? Could anyone make a picture of it?

Supplement: Now I have found it in the manual... OK. But wouldn't it be much better in the EVF and on the LCD Display?

IIRC this only becomes visible in MF mode. With BBF enabled (press joystick to focus) you can autofocus and then half press to see the DoF guide (and it is visible also in full MF).

I find it extremely useful (I use BBF often when taking landscapes).

(hope I have not mis-remembered that this doesn't appear in AF-S mode)

[NickT]

In manual focus it shows up when half pressing the shutter button, in AF it shows up when half pressing shutter and turning the focusing ring.

As for use of the dials - I take your point of only using aperture priority only - but it seems a shame to forgo easily changing shutter speed if that is, albeit it, only occasionally required.

 

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[batian]

Am 31.10.2024 um 13:19 schrieb NickT:

In manual focus it shows up when half pressing the shutter button, in AF it shows up when half pressing shutter and turning the focusing ring.

As for use of the dials - I take your point of only using aperture priority only - but it seems a shame to forgo easily changing shutter speed if that is, albeit it, only occasionally required.

 

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Thanks!