Popular Post jonoslack Posted January 21 Popular Post Share #1 Posted January 21 Advertisement (gone after registration) 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! Introduction The Leica SL2-S was announced in December 2020 as a faster version of the SL2 with better video features, better high ISO and a smaller price tag. It has a 24mp sensor as opposed to the 47mp of the SL2. It has been extremely popular, especially with videographers and event photographers, who don't need the extra resolution, but did need the nearly 2 stop advantage over the SL2 in terms of ISO. High Summer Leica 24-90 Vario Elmarit 1/500 f4 ISO 400 The Leica SL3 was introduced in March 2024, It sported the same new processor (Maestro IV) as the Q3, and a similar 60mp BSI sensor as the M11 and the Q3. The menu system was both simplified and improved, and made much more consistent and flexible. It seems to me that there are two things which may be interesting to readers, Firstly the changes in the SL3-S with respect to the SL2-S, and secondly the changes with reference to the SL3, which are more subtle, but nevertheless important, and which I'll concentrate on for the main part of the article. Wet Bomb - Leica 75mm APO Summicron SL 1/1250 f2 ISO 2500 A Short Summary of Main Changes over SL2-s Narrower and lighter body New Maestro IV processor New (or upgraded) BSI 24mp Sensor Phase Detect (hybrid) AF system New configurable quick menu screen Simplified and rationalised menu system Much faster shot to shot time with Autofocus enabled Content Credentials If you've been using an SL2-S then it might be worth looking at my SL3 article where I discuss the differences between the SL2 and SL3 in detail: The Leica SL3 Exmoor Pony Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/125 f2.8 ISO 200 Content Credentials The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is an association founded on November 2019 by Adobe, the New York Times, Twitter and others with the intention of curbing disinformation. The idea is to promote an industry standard for provenance metadata for files defined by the C2PA. The C2Pa is the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, co-founded by Adobe with Arm, the BBC, Intel and Microsoft and many more, as you can see that big guns are involved in this! Oak Tree Light Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/1000 f2.8 ISO 640 Whilst the C2PA is tasked with the formulation of an open, royalty-free technical standard for metadata, the CAI sees it's task in the dissemination and promotion of the standard. The idea is to add an additional set of metadata to a file containing information about it's provenance, and edits which may have been made using compliant software. This could apply to a photo, a video or a text file. The base information (added to the metadata by the M11P) shows: The Photographer The Device The location and time of the recording Hammock? - Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/1000 f2.8 ISO 800 If you edit the file in Lightroom CC or Photoshop 24 (or another compliant program) then the provenance of any edits are also recorded. Leica are the first camera company to implement this in a camera; sadly the first step is a hardware chip, so it won't be possible to make this backwardly compatible for previous Leica cameras. The M11-P was the first camera to have this and I dealt with it in more detail in the article here: The Leica M11-P Scarlett wins - Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/1000 f3.2 ISO 100 There was no time to implement it with the SL3, but Leica have implemented it with the SL3-S, and as far as I’m aware it’s the first Autofocus camera to have it. There are limitations however as it is not currently available with multiple shot drive modes. There is an interesting article about it here: contentauthenticity.org Leica 75mm APO Summicron SL 1/1250 f2 ISO 160 Video Sadly I’m not qualified to write about video performance, but the big takeaway seems to be the unlimited 6K 'Open Gate' internal recording using the entire sensor. However, Ralf Ilgenfritz has come to the rescue! He is a professional working mostly for German Television. He was on the beta forum and has given me permission to report his first feelings during a real video shoot of an interview with Isabel Allende. This is in his own words: I took the camera to documentary in Arizona and can say that the camera behaves quite well. The weather conditions are quite extreme and I'm shooting 6K. If I compare it to my experiences with the SL3, this feels much safer. And there are no overheating problems. I was a little insecure first and took my Sony A1 as a backup for the long Interview with Isabel Allende. Both cameras were shooting the same picture in 8K(Sony) and 6K(Leica) with 35mm prime lenses (Sony G-Master for the A1 and Sigma 35/1.2 for the Leica) from the same tripod and they were both on Autofocus with open Iris. While I was shooting handheld with the SL2-S and a 35 Summilux M. So the interview ended up being a funny camera test with a lot of 35mm primes and the result was quite surprising. Mrs. Allende's hair is completely white and I had already experienced that the Sony autofocus doesn't really like that and it actually failed after 10 minutes whereas the Leica did the job without any issues for more than one hour. I did not expect that. Ralf's setup with the SL3-S and the Sony A1 So this was the first real production with the SL3-S and in contrast to my experience with the SL3, I would say that the camera works flawlessly for what I do. I shot exclusively 6K 10bit 4:2:0 and in this case I'm sure no one at Arte will notice that it wasn't 4:2:2. They only look at the end product. The problem with the codec usually only arises when you're shooting for producers who don't know you and they get the idea to look at the camera's specs beforehand. Nevertheless, something should happen because otherwise the camera will be even more difficult to sell for television productions than is already the case when 95 percent of people are used to using Sony cameras. The L-Log color of the SL3-S seems to be more similar to the Sony now, whereas the SL2-S looks different and still has the red-face-problems. The Sony picture still seems to be a little sharper, but also a bit too perfect and boring. We like the Leica's picture better. 2 week later I took the camera for a shooting in Ivory Coast where the weather conditions were even hotter and there was still no overheating in 6K mode. The only thing that is really not okay is the battery life in video mode. The SL2-S was acceptable, the SL3-S is not. Isabel and Ralf ISO One of the reasons the SL2-S was so popular was it’s big high ISO advantage over the SL2 (nearly two stops by my tests). It’s actually a little difficult to do proper comparisons of high ISO noise between a 60mp sensor (SL3) and a 24mp sensor (SL3-S). First of all I reshot my earlier comparisons to see whether the SL3-S had an advantage over the SL2-S, my feeling was that the noise was slightly improved with the newer camera, but the dynamic range does seem significantly better, and so does the the colour. Leica SL2-S on the left, SL3-S on the right Worth noting that the light was signicantly better for the SL2-S shot (I didn't have both cameras together) Just as an aside - my first impression of the SL2-S new 200,000 ISO was that it wasn't really useable, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the new AI based denoise function in Lightroom Classic would do with the SL3 at 200,000 ISO. I think you would agree it does a pretty excellent job! It seems to me that you can expect to be able to use 200,000 ISO and get a good result (with a minute or two of post processing). It's worth mentioning that when this image was taken it was almost dark with no artificial light. This is the same Photo - the left hand image is processed using the AI noise reduction in Lightroom Classic This is 100 Crop of the same Photo - the left hand image is processed using the AI noise reduction in Lightroom Classic In comparison with the SL3 I didn’t find a great deal of difference. As we saw, the SL3-S goes up to 200,000 ISO. At 100,000 ISO both cameras are usable, especially with a bit of colour noise reduction applied. Colour and Dynamic range are good. This is with the SL3-S on the left and the SL3 on the right at 100,000 ISO This is with the SL3-S on the left and the SL3 on the right at 100,000 ISO This is 100% Crop of each image But honestly - how often does one need these incredibly high ISO values. Here is a comparison between the two cameras at 12,500 ISO I generally use Auto ISO in my photography, and it's nice to be able to use 12,500 as a maximum ISO and be sure that the images are going to be absolutely okay Full frame of each camera at 12,500 ISO Just to confuse the issue the SL3 is on the left in this image and the SL3-S is on the right 100% Crop at 12,500 ISO The SL3 is on the left, the SL3-S on the right Auto Focus Like the SL3 the SL3-S has Phase Detect but with 779 AF points, more than twice as many as the SL3 In fact it uses hybrid AF with a combination of phase detection, depth map object detection and contrast detection AF. It will also shoot at 30 fps with AFC (the SL2-S maximum with AFC was 5 Fps) This is clearly a great improvement. I've been testing the tracking with our very fast young Pyrenean Sheepdog, and it works pretty well, even at 30 frames a second, it's not infallible, certainly not as reliable as similar shooting with cameras that have a stacked sensor. Uny Wearing her Goose Grass - Leica 70-200 f2.8 Vario Elmarit 1/800 f2.8 ISO 800 It would be nice to have a pre-shoot mode, where 1 second worth of images are saved into the buffer - files being replaced with the newer ones. Fully pressing the shutter will save the files to the card and continue taking them, it's particularly useful for wildlife photography (and taking pictures of our dog mole hunting!) and it's something that most of the competition does have. Seal - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f8 ISO 800 SL2-S SL3 SL3-S 5 fps AF AF AF 9 fps no AF no AF AF 15 fps no AF no AF e shutter AF 25 fps E shutter no AF - - 30 fps - - e shutter AF With it's 8GB buffer capacity and picture format, the estimated number of images possible before filling the buffer on the SL3-S are as follows Continuous + AF DNG DNG + JPG JPG 2fps 14 bit 1000 1000 1000 5 fps 14 bit 1000 345 1000 7 fps 12 bit 680 255 1000 15 fps 12 bit 175 175 175 30 fps 12 bit 175 175 175 Giraffe - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 640 Lenses When shooting fast moving subjects with AFC it is not just the camera which is responsible for the AF speed, it is also the lenses. Lots of the better Leica SL lenses have big pieces of glass to move about, and the AF is accordingly slower. I have found that the 24-70 and 70-200 (f2.8) do very well and are faster at focusing than the 24-90 or the 90-280 respectively (not that those are too bad). The 35 and 50 summicron Asph lenses are faster than the APO SL Summicrons as well, although for normal purposes these are also quite good. Meerkat - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 200 Readout time and Rolling Shutter The Readout speed of the SL3-S is half that of the SL3, reducing rolling shutter considerably and increasing the AFC speed to 30 frames per second (with the electronic shutter), Of course it also dramatically improves the video performance. Sadness- Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/640 f5.6 ISO 200 Fotos - and Camera to Cloud Like the SL3 the SL3-S has Bluetooth and Wifi connection to the Leica FOTOS app, allowing very fast transfer to mobile devices using MIMO technology. Camera to Cloud functionality will be available via Adobe frame.io sometime in 2025. (It will also be available for the Leica SL3) Meercat - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 250 Multi-Shot Mode handheld Multi-Shot mode has returned, with 48 and 96mp available, there are now two options; On a tripod you can also write out moving objects, and there is the handheld mode, which was not available with the SL2-S. - Sadly I have not time to do it proper justice but it does seem very effective. On the other hand Thomas Walter on the Leica User Forum in his excellent review has looked at it in some detail: Leica SL3-S: ’more light’ - the unbearable lightness of being He feels that, given the right circumstances, the multi-shot mode can produce better images than those directly from the 60mp SL3. In my testing I thought it was very impressive, even handheld in poor English January lighting This is a comparison between normal 24mp (on the left) and multi-shot 96mp (on the right) Here is a 100% comparison of the same shot at 24mp on the left and 96mp on the right Recording directly to external USB Drive There are now 4 methods of recording as Leica have introduced direct USB-C to SSD as a new option: SD Card CF Express Card HDMI With the ability to shoot video for over 90 minutes without overheating it's obviously an important addition. Uni Leica 75 APO Summicron SL 1/1250 at f2 and ISO 800 Battery Life The battery life is rather a disappointment: 315 shots (based on the CIPA standard), but 1040 with the adapted shooting cycle. I took 930 images on a 21/2 shooting session this morning. For stills photography it does seem to do better than my SL3 (which is understandable on the basis of the smaller file sizes) Eagle Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 1000 D Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit 1/640 f2.8 ISO 5000 EVF, LCD, Top plate display The EVF is the same as that in the SL3 and the SL2, at 5.76 million dots, which is in fact 1600 x 1200. you can choose a refresh rate of 60 or 120 fps, presumably the higher frame rate uses more battery. By contrast the Nikon Z8 is 3.69 dots and the Sony A1 9.74. But I have to say, I much prefer the Leica EVF, it seems to be less contrasty and much easier to see than either of the big competitors (or the Olympus OM-1 ii either, which is also 5.76 million dots). The LCD however is improved from the SL2-S with a slight increase of resolution a larger increase in quality and it is now tiltable, something I wasn't keen on to start with, but find myself using a lot. The top LCD is the same 128x128 pixel trans-reflective monochrome panel. but it has the new and improved layout first shown on the SL3. Scottish Bluebell Lumix 100mm f2.8 macro 1/200 f2.8 ISO 320 Kookaburra? Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2X extender 1/640 f5.6 ISO 4000 Price As of writing this article The SL3-S is £4,500 including VAT, which is noticeably cheaper than the SL3 which currently retails at £5,920. Considering that all the important components other than the sensor are the same this is a remarkable reduction in price. Certainly the SL3-S doesn't show any cutting of corners (unless you count the missing white paint!). Fire! Leica 75 APO Summicron SL 1/3200 at f2 and ISO 100 The Elephant in the Room Leica's advertising material states 'We are excited to introduce the fastest Leica camera ever made'. There is no question that is the case, but in comparison with the competition from Canon, Nikon and Sony the SL3-S certainly isn't as fast: These cameras sport stacked sensors (or even global shutter) with much faster readout time, allowing for faster shot to shot times (or similar ones with larger sensors) together with less rolling shutter. The same is true of the SL3-S video specifications, which are good, but certainly not class leading. Some things could be addressed with firmware updates in the future (here's hoping), but not everything. Whorls within Worlds Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2X extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 1600 On the other hand, every camera is a set of compromises, users complain of the low resolution of the Nikon Z9 and Z8 EVF and Sony users complain about overheating using video on the A1, and I'm pretty sure that the colour isn't as 'good' in any of the stacked sensors, whether from Nikon, Canon, Sony or, indeed Olympus. I spoke to Ralf Ilgenfritz on the phone today, and he was heading off to Paris to record some interviews, with his Sony A1ii, A9ii and his Leica SL3-S in his bag, he was pretty sure that he would only use the Leica, because he preferred using it, he loved his 35 Summilux M and shooting with a Leica nobody asked any questions. Mandala Lumix S 100mm f2.8 macro 1/640 f2.8 ISO 250 It's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the best specification sheet will mean you take the best photographs / videos, but every camera is a complicated balancing act between features which can be measured, and ones which are less easy to measure . . . . interface, colour, handling, haptics, ease of processing files, available lenses - I really could go on and on! I spent this morning shooting our dog flying through the undergrowth chasing pheasants and squirrels at 30 fps, It was really dark and dingy, and although every shot wasn't great, lots of them were. Uny hunting for moles Lumix 70-300 f4.5-5.6 1/1600 at f5.6 12,500 ISO Conclusion If your job is shooting sports, then you probably wouldn't pick the SL3-S, and I would have said that if your job was shooting video you probably wouldn't pick the SL3-S either (but Ralf has!). But if you are shooting weddings or events as a job then you might easily pick the SL3-S. The combination of the lovely files, the fantastic interface and the ability to shoot good video, together with that certain Leica 'something' is pretty irresistible. Emma tells me that I've given up shooting weddings, but it seems to me that a combination of the SL3-S with an M11 would be a dream team! The Dream Team Leica 24-70 Vario Elmar 1/1000 at f2.8 100 ISO If you are a general photographer shooting anything from street to surfers to sport, landscapes to ladybirds, abstracts to animals, then the SL3-S will not disappoint on any level. Add to this that there are so many great lenses in the L mount environment. Of course the SL3-S is geared to make the very best from your M lenses, something that none of the competition can do as well. And it's a joy to use Attitude Leica 70-200 Vario Elmar 1/800 at f2.8 100 ISO Thanks and Acknowledgements First of all I'd like to thank Ralf Ilgenfritz, who is a fantastic cameraman and a lovely guy, and I feel that his contribution to this article is really pivotal. Thank you especially to Stefan Daniel and Jesko von Oeynhausen at Leica. Soon it will be 20 years! I'd also like to thank Valentino di Leonardo, Matthias Petzke and Nico Koehler from Leica for all their help and enthusiasm. In that context I'd like to thank and welcome Gerrit Gissel to his new job looking after the Leica SL cameras. Sean Reid will be producing a number of articles on the SL3-S in the near future - do look out for them at his website ReidReviews. 26 32 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Introduction The Leica SL2-S was announced in December 2020 as a faster version of the SL2 with better video features, better high ISO and a smaller price tag. It has a 24mp sensor as opposed to the 47mp of the SL2. It has been extremely popular, especially with videographers and event photographers, who don't need the extra resolution, but did need the nearly 2 stop advantage over the SL2 in terms of ISO. High Summer Leica 24-90 Vario Elmarit 1/500 f4 ISO 400 The Leica SL3 was introduced in March 2024, It sported the same new processor (Maestro IV) as the Q3, and a similar 60mp BSI sensor as the M11 and the Q3. The menu system was both simplified and improved, and made much more consistent and flexible. It seems to me that there are two things which may be interesting to readers, Firstly the changes in the SL3-S with respect to the SL2-S, and secondly the changes with reference to the SL3, which are more subtle, but nevertheless important, and which I'll concentrate on for the main part of the article. Wet Bomb - Leica 75mm APO Summicron SL 1/1250 f2 ISO 2500 A Short Summary of Main Changes over SL2-s Narrower and lighter body New Maestro IV processor New (or upgraded) BSI 24mp Sensor Phase Detect (hybrid) AF system New configurable quick menu screen Simplified and rationalised menu system Much faster shot to shot time with Autofocus enabled Content Credentials If you've been using an SL2-S then it might be worth looking at my SL3 article where I discuss the differences between the SL2 and SL3 in detail: The Leica SL3 Exmoor Pony Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/125 f2.8 ISO 200 Content Credentials The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is an association founded on November 2019 by Adobe, the New York Times, Twitter and others with the intention of curbing disinformation. The idea is to promote an industry standard for provenance metadata for files defined by the C2PA. The C2Pa is the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, co-founded by Adobe with Arm, the BBC, Intel and Microsoft and many more, as you can see that big guns are involved in this! Oak Tree Light Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/1000 f2.8 ISO 640 Whilst the C2PA is tasked with the formulation of an open, royalty-free technical standard for metadata, the CAI sees it's task in the dissemination and promotion of the standard. The idea is to add an additional set of metadata to a file containing information about it's provenance, and edits which may have been made using compliant software. This could apply to a photo, a video or a text file. The base information (added to the metadata by the M11P) shows: The Photographer The Device The location and time of the recording Hammock? - Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/1000 f2.8 ISO 800 If you edit the file in Lightroom CC or Photoshop 24 (or another compliant program) then the provenance of any edits are also recorded. Leica are the first camera company to implement this in a camera; sadly the first step is a hardware chip, so it won't be possible to make this backwardly compatible for previous Leica cameras. The M11-P was the first camera to have this and I dealt with it in more detail in the article here: The Leica M11-P Scarlett wins - Leica 24-70 Vario Elmarit 1/1000 f3.2 ISO 100 There was no time to implement it with the SL3, but Leica have implemented it with the SL3-S, and as far as I’m aware it’s the first Autofocus camera to have it. There are limitations however as it is not currently available with multiple shot drive modes. There is an interesting article about it here: contentauthenticity.org Leica 75mm APO Summicron SL 1/1250 f2 ISO 160 Video Sadly I’m not qualified to write about video performance, but the big takeaway seems to be the unlimited 6K 'Open Gate' internal recording using the entire sensor. However, Ralf Ilgenfritz has come to the rescue! He is a professional working mostly for German Television. He was on the beta forum and has given me permission to report his first feelings during a real video shoot of an interview with Isabel Allende. This is in his own words: I took the camera to documentary in Arizona and can say that the camera behaves quite well. The weather conditions are quite extreme and I'm shooting 6K. If I compare it to my experiences with the SL3, this feels much safer. And there are no overheating problems. I was a little insecure first and took my Sony A1 as a backup for the long Interview with Isabel Allende. Both cameras were shooting the same picture in 8K(Sony) and 6K(Leica) with 35mm prime lenses (Sony G-Master for the A1 and Sigma 35/1.2 for the Leica) from the same tripod and they were both on Autofocus with open Iris. While I was shooting handheld with the SL2-S and a 35 Summilux M. So the interview ended up being a funny camera test with a lot of 35mm primes and the result was quite surprising. Mrs. Allende's hair is completely white and I had already experienced that the Sony autofocus doesn't really like that and it actually failed after 10 minutes whereas the Leica did the job without any issues for more than one hour. I did not expect that. Ralf's setup with the SL3-S and the Sony A1 So this was the first real production with the SL3-S and in contrast to my experience with the SL3, I would say that the camera works flawlessly for what I do. I shot exclusively 6K 10bit 4:2:0 and in this case I'm sure no one at Arte will notice that it wasn't 4:2:2. They only look at the end product. The problem with the codec usually only arises when you're shooting for producers who don't know you and they get the idea to look at the camera's specs beforehand. Nevertheless, something should happen because otherwise the camera will be even more difficult to sell for television productions than is already the case when 95 percent of people are used to using Sony cameras. The L-Log color of the SL3-S seems to be more similar to the Sony now, whereas the SL2-S looks different and still has the red-face-problems. The Sony picture still seems to be a little sharper, but also a bit too perfect and boring. We like the Leica's picture better. 2 week later I took the camera for a shooting in Ivory Coast where the weather conditions were even hotter and there was still no overheating in 6K mode. The only thing that is really not okay is the battery life in video mode. The SL2-S was acceptable, the SL3-S is not. Isabel and Ralf ISO One of the reasons the SL2-S was so popular was it’s big high ISO advantage over the SL2 (nearly two stops by my tests). It’s actually a little difficult to do proper comparisons of high ISO noise between a 60mp sensor (SL3) and a 24mp sensor (SL3-S). First of all I reshot my earlier comparisons to see whether the SL3-S had an advantage over the SL2-S, my feeling was that the noise was slightly improved with the newer camera, but the dynamic range does seem significantly better, and so does the the colour. Leica SL2-S on the left, SL3-S on the right Worth noting that the light was signicantly better for the SL2-S shot (I didn't have both cameras together) Just as an aside - my first impression of the SL2-S new 200,000 ISO was that it wasn't really useable, but I thought it would be interesting to see how the new AI based denoise function in Lightroom Classic would do with the SL3 at 200,000 ISO. I think you would agree it does a pretty excellent job! It seems to me that you can expect to be able to use 200,000 ISO and get a good result (with a minute or two of post processing). It's worth mentioning that when this image was taken it was almost dark with no artificial light. This is the same Photo - the left hand image is processed using the AI noise reduction in Lightroom Classic This is 100 Crop of the same Photo - the left hand image is processed using the AI noise reduction in Lightroom Classic In comparison with the SL3 I didn’t find a great deal of difference. As we saw, the SL3-S goes up to 200,000 ISO. At 100,000 ISO both cameras are usable, especially with a bit of colour noise reduction applied. Colour and Dynamic range are good. This is with the SL3-S on the left and the SL3 on the right at 100,000 ISO This is with the SL3-S on the left and the SL3 on the right at 100,000 ISO This is 100% Crop of each image But honestly - how often does one need these incredibly high ISO values. Here is a comparison between the two cameras at 12,500 ISO I generally use Auto ISO in my photography, and it's nice to be able to use 12,500 as a maximum ISO and be sure that the images are going to be absolutely okay Full frame of each camera at 12,500 ISO Just to confuse the issue the SL3 is on the left in this image and the SL3-S is on the right 100% Crop at 12,500 ISO The SL3 is on the left, the SL3-S on the right Auto Focus Like the SL3 the SL3-S has Phase Detect but with 779 AF points, more than twice as many as the SL3 In fact it uses hybrid AF with a combination of phase detection, depth map object detection and contrast detection AF. It will also shoot at 30 fps with AFC (the SL2-S maximum with AFC was 5 Fps) This is clearly a great improvement. I've been testing the tracking with our very fast young Pyrenean Sheepdog, and it works pretty well, even at 30 frames a second, it's not infallible, certainly not as reliable as similar shooting with cameras that have a stacked sensor. Uny Wearing her Goose Grass - Leica 70-200 f2.8 Vario Elmarit 1/800 f2.8 ISO 800 It would be nice to have a pre-shoot mode, where 1 second worth of images are saved into the buffer - files being replaced with the newer ones. Fully pressing the shutter will save the files to the card and continue taking them, it's particularly useful for wildlife photography (and taking pictures of our dog mole hunting!) and it's something that most of the competition does have. Seal - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f8 ISO 800 SL2-S SL3 SL3-S 5 fps AF AF AF 9 fps no AF no AF AF 15 fps no AF no AF e shutter AF 25 fps E shutter no AF - - 30 fps - - e shutter AF With it's 8GB buffer capacity and picture format, the estimated number of images possible before filling the buffer on the SL3-S are as follows Continuous + AF DNG DNG + JPG JPG 2fps 14 bit 1000 1000 1000 5 fps 14 bit 1000 345 1000 7 fps 12 bit 680 255 1000 15 fps 12 bit 175 175 175 30 fps 12 bit 175 175 175 Giraffe - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 640 Lenses When shooting fast moving subjects with AFC it is not just the camera which is responsible for the AF speed, it is also the lenses. Lots of the better Leica SL lenses have big pieces of glass to move about, and the AF is accordingly slower. I have found that the 24-70 and 70-200 (f2.8) do very well and are faster at focusing than the 24-90 or the 90-280 respectively (not that those are too bad). The 35 and 50 summicron Asph lenses are faster than the APO SL Summicrons as well, although for normal purposes these are also quite good. Meerkat - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 200 Readout time and Rolling Shutter The Readout speed of the SL3-S is half that of the SL3, reducing rolling shutter considerably and increasing the AFC speed to 30 frames per second (with the electronic shutter), Of course it also dramatically improves the video performance. Sadness- Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/640 f5.6 ISO 200 Fotos - and Camera to Cloud Like the SL3 the SL3-S has Bluetooth and Wifi connection to the Leica FOTOS app, allowing very fast transfer to mobile devices using MIMO technology. Camera to Cloud functionality will be available via Adobe frame.io sometime in 2025. (It will also be available for the Leica SL3) Meercat - Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 250 Multi-Shot Mode handheld Multi-Shot mode has returned, with 48 and 96mp available, there are now two options; On a tripod you can also write out moving objects, and there is the handheld mode, which was not available with the SL2-S. - Sadly I have not time to do it proper justice but it does seem very effective. On the other hand Thomas Walter on the Leica User Forum in his excellent review has looked at it in some detail: Leica SL3-S: ’more light’ - the unbearable lightness of being He feels that, given the right circumstances, the multi-shot mode can produce better images than those directly from the 60mp SL3. In my testing I thought it was very impressive, even handheld in poor English January lighting This is a comparison between normal 24mp (on the left) and multi-shot 96mp (on the right) Here is a 100% comparison of the same shot at 24mp on the left and 96mp on the right Recording directly to external USB Drive There are now 4 methods of recording as Leica have introduced direct USB-C to SSD as a new option: SD Card CF Express Card HDMI With the ability to shoot video for over 90 minutes without overheating it's obviously an important addition. Uni Leica 75 APO Summicron SL 1/1250 at f2 and ISO 800 Battery Life The battery life is rather a disappointment: 315 shots (based on the CIPA standard), but 1040 with the adapted shooting cycle. I took 930 images on a 21/2 shooting session this morning. For stills photography it does seem to do better than my SL3 (which is understandable on the basis of the smaller file sizes) Eagle Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2.0x extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 1000 D Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit 1/640 f2.8 ISO 5000 EVF, LCD, Top plate display The EVF is the same as that in the SL3 and the SL2, at 5.76 million dots, which is in fact 1600 x 1200. you can choose a refresh rate of 60 or 120 fps, presumably the higher frame rate uses more battery. By contrast the Nikon Z8 is 3.69 dots and the Sony A1 9.74. But I have to say, I much prefer the Leica EVF, it seems to be less contrasty and much easier to see than either of the big competitors (or the Olympus OM-1 ii either, which is also 5.76 million dots). The LCD however is improved from the SL2-S with a slight increase of resolution a larger increase in quality and it is now tiltable, something I wasn't keen on to start with, but find myself using a lot. The top LCD is the same 128x128 pixel trans-reflective monochrome panel. but it has the new and improved layout first shown on the SL3. Scottish Bluebell Lumix 100mm f2.8 macro 1/200 f2.8 ISO 320 Kookaburra? Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2X extender 1/640 f5.6 ISO 4000 Price As of writing this article The SL3-S is £4,500 including VAT, which is noticeably cheaper than the SL3 which currently retails at £5,920. Considering that all the important components other than the sensor are the same this is a remarkable reduction in price. Certainly the SL3-S doesn't show any cutting of corners (unless you count the missing white paint!). Fire! Leica 75 APO Summicron SL 1/3200 at f2 and ISO 100 The Elephant in the Room Leica's advertising material states 'We are excited to introduce the fastest Leica camera ever made'. There is no question that is the case, but in comparison with the competition from Canon, Nikon and Sony the SL3-S certainly isn't as fast: These cameras sport stacked sensors (or even global shutter) with much faster readout time, allowing for faster shot to shot times (or similar ones with larger sensors) together with less rolling shutter. The same is true of the SL3-S video specifications, which are good, but certainly not class leading. Some things could be addressed with firmware updates in the future (here's hoping), but not everything. Whorls within Worlds Leica 70-200 Vario Elmarit with 2X extender 1/800 f5.6 ISO 1600 On the other hand, every camera is a set of compromises, users complain of the low resolution of the Nikon Z9 and Z8 EVF and Sony users complain about overheating using video on the A1, and I'm pretty sure that the colour isn't as 'good' in any of the stacked sensors, whether from Nikon, Canon, Sony or, indeed Olympus. I spoke to Ralf Ilgenfritz on the phone today, and he was heading off to Paris to record some interviews, with his Sony A1ii, A9ii and his Leica SL3-S in his bag, he was pretty sure that he would only use the Leica, because he preferred using it, he loved his 35 Summilux M and shooting with a Leica nobody asked any questions. Mandala Lumix S 100mm f2.8 macro 1/640 f2.8 ISO 250 It's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the best specification sheet will mean you take the best photographs / videos, but every camera is a complicated balancing act between features which can be measured, and ones which are less easy to measure . . . . interface, colour, handling, haptics, ease of processing files, available lenses - I really could go on and on! I spent this morning shooting our dog flying through the undergrowth chasing pheasants and squirrels at 30 fps, It was really dark and dingy, and although every shot wasn't great, lots of them were. Uny hunting for moles Lumix 70-300 f4.5-5.6 1/1600 at f5.6 12,500 ISO Conclusion If your job is shooting sports, then you probably wouldn't pick the SL3-S, and I would have said that if your job was shooting video you probably wouldn't pick the SL3-S either (but Ralf has!). But if you are shooting weddings or events as a job then you might easily pick the SL3-S. The combination of the lovely files, the fantastic interface and the ability to shoot good video, together with that certain Leica 'something' is pretty irresistible. Emma tells me that I've given up shooting weddings, but it seems to me that a combination of the SL3-S with an M11 would be a dream team! The Dream Team Leica 24-70 Vario Elmar 1/1000 at f2.8 100 ISO If you are a general photographer shooting anything from street to surfers to sport, landscapes to ladybirds, abstracts to animals, then the SL3-S will not disappoint on any level. Add to this that there are so many great lenses in the L mount environment. Of course the SL3-S is geared to make the very best from your M lenses, something that none of the competition can do as well. And it's a joy to use Attitude Leica 70-200 Vario Elmar 1/800 at f2.8 100 ISO Thanks and Acknowledgements First of all I'd like to thank Ralf Ilgenfritz, who is a fantastic cameraman and a lovely guy, and I feel that his contribution to this article is really pivotal. Thank you especially to Stefan Daniel and Jesko von Oeynhausen at Leica. Soon it will be 20 years! I'd also like to thank Valentino di Leonardo, Matthias Petzke and Nico Koehler from Leica for all their help and enthusiasm. In that context I'd like to thank and welcome Gerrit Gissel to his new job looking after the Leica SL cameras. Sean Reid will be producing a number of articles on the SL3-S in the near future - do look out for them at his website ReidReviews. ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/418736-the-leica-sl3-s-review-by-jonathan-slack/?do=findComment&comment=5743890'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 21 Posted January 21 Hi jonoslack, Take a look here The Leica SL3-S Review by Jonathan Slack. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Smogg Posted January 21 Share #2 Posted January 21 As always a great review, very balanced and honest. Thank you!🙏 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonoslack Posted January 21 Author Share #3 Posted January 21 11 minutes ago, Smogg said: As always a great review, very balanced and honest. Thank you!🙏 Thank you! Sorry to be late to the Party, but I think Thomas @MediaFotografie did a grand job! best Jono 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalHero1953 Posted January 21 Share #4 Posted January 21 Thank you! As always I love the photos. I was particularly interested to read Ralf Ilgenfritz's comments. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpark114 Posted January 21 Share #5 Posted January 21 Nice review. I'm enjoying my SL2 so much that I plan to eventually switch my field landscape set to Leica someday (using Sony atm). Atleast for me, SL3-S seems indifferent enough in ISO performance and DR compared to SL3 that I should get SL3 for that role.. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markey Posted January 21 Share #6 Posted January 21 Excellent . No obfuscation and lovely pictures .Thank you. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonoslack Posted January 21 Author Share #7 Posted January 21 Advertisement (gone after registration) 20 minutes ago, Markey said: Excellent . No obfuscation and lovely pictures .Thank you. Thank you - what a nice thing to say - I'm grateful! (I do try hard!) 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonoslack Posted January 21 Author Share #8 Posted January 21 1 hour ago, jpark114 said: Nice review. I'm enjoying my SL2 so much that I plan to eventually switch my field landscape set to Leica someday (using Sony atm). Atleast for me, SL3-S seems indifferent enough in ISO performance and DR compared to SL3 that I should get SL3 for that role.. Hi There I think the ISO and DR is great . . . . .but I agree, it's not better than the SL3, so that's what I use for my landscape work as well. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolan Posted January 21 Share #9 Posted January 21 Very good review, unexciting picture quality, boring camera 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 21 Share #10 Posted January 21 Boring is good. That means that it will do its job as high-end multipurpose hybrid camera to perfection 6 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonoslack Posted January 21 Author Share #11 Posted January 21 3 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said: Thank you! As always I love the photos. I was particularly interested to read Ralf Ilgenfritz's comments. Thank you Paul! I thought that Ralf's contribution pulled it all together into something sensible(ish) 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpauliks Posted January 21 Share #12 Posted January 21 (edited) vor einer Stunde schrieb jonoslack: Hi There I think the ISO and DR is great . . . . .but I agree, it's not better than the SL3, so that's what I use for my landscape work as well. Jono, let´s wait for photons measurements! My instinct says - not any measurements please - it is marvelous! But let´s wait for the measurements please! Edited January 21 by mpauliks 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pf4eva Posted January 21 Share #13 Posted January 21 47 minutes ago, mpauliks said: Jono, let´s wait for photons measurements! My instinct says - not any measurements please - it is marvelous! But let´s wait for the measurements please! Agree, otherwise it sound like audiophile wire listening comparison 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBJ2 Posted January 21 Share #14 Posted January 21 @jonoslack Well done! I always appreciate the way you have expanded your reviews over the years aligning with the increasing Leica camera capabilities we see with each new Leica camera series. I particularly liked the way you presented the "The Elephant in the Room" section for Leica's fastest camera ever made. While the 24 MP only SL3-S is not on my short or long list, I would love one day to see what I could do with the fastest Leica camera ever made @ AFC 30 fps 12 bit during one of my normal sports or live entertainment events where many FPS and split second tracking can be very useful. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Filip Baraka Posted January 21 Share #15 Posted January 21 Thanks, great read. Your book selection is also very good. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Abrahams Posted January 22 Share #16 Posted January 22 Thank you Jono for the review. It seems there were a few reviewers caught short and unaware of the SL3S release. I see that 1/16000 sec shutter speed is still not available in A Mode just like the SL3. The SL2S however still manages that function. The highest speed available with A mode on SL3S is 1/8000 and then depending on the light if one is unawares there seems to be an over exposure possible. Ken 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpauliks Posted January 22 Share #17 Posted January 22 (edited) Jono is the best. Period! If I trust one, than it is him! Edited January 22 by mpauliks 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
la1402 Posted January 22 Share #18 Posted January 22 (edited) Thank you for another - as always - enjoyable article! 👍 But compared to some other of your reviews like for the Q343, this doesn't sound sooo excited... Edited January 22 by la1402 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
algrove Posted January 22 Share #19 Posted January 22 Good one again Jono. I very much like using R lenses on my SL3 and also on my SL2S when I had it. My SL3S is due here tomorrow. Did you chance to try any R lenses or did I miss a comment? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikie John Posted January 22 Share #20 Posted January 22 Many thanks @jonoslack. I had been struggling a bit to pick the bones out of the other more conversational threads, your review gives a very good summary of what's what. I particularly appreciate the comparisons with the SL2-S. Best wishes ... John 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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