Leica SL3 Field Notes - Iceland Winter 2025 Trip

[georgecp]

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Hello all, I have been an appreciative member of this forum for some time.  This past March, I took my third trip to Iceland as a self driving tour, alone, to focus on photography for a week. Early March is my favorite time to visit this fabulous country as Winter is winding down, the crowds and prices are lower, and the combination of light, sky, snow, and landscape is truly a feast for the senses (if a bit cold).

I took my Leica SL3 along with several lenses and a Panasonic body for backup.  I thought it would be helpful for many here to cover performance issues and other questions I dealt with as I see them come up from time to time in this forum.

Cold/Wet Conditions:

First, it is cold and very windy, wet, and snowy.  Temperatures during my trip ranged from 10-20 F with wind chills well below zero and sustained wind gusts.  Terrific for photography and a good test for weather sealing and cold weather management.

• External battery pack, I purchased the external battery adapter and brought along a separate battery pack.  I am pleased to say that I never needed it; I had three standard batteries that I kept in the camera and they worked well even with crazy winds, driving snow, and biting cold.
• Condensation can be a consideration, I ended up purchasing two rubberized bags for kayaking from Sea to summit that I used along with bag ties.  I used these once or twice during the week and they were effective (I have used plastic bags in the past that wore out).  Because I would take my camera from the outdoors straight to my vehicle, which was also cold (and then warmed up when running), I did not have to use them as much as I expected.
• Weather sealing..it works!  Please see one of the images as I was photographing under a waterfall or in driving snow.  I was somewhat concerned the first time (and hopeful the camera would not need a trip to Wetzlar afterwards). The camera worked flawlessly.

Camera Setup and Workflow:

I am still trying different configurations of controls to arrive at the best set of user profiles for my landscape work, hand-held, flash, etc.  The trip was a great testing ground for this.

• Tilt/Shift.  I use tilt/shift lenses (Canon EF with Sigma adapter).  Configuring the top buttons to allow magnification while tilting/shifting became important.  Effective use of Tilt requires the ability to check near/far focus magnified at a tilt setting while adjusting helical focus to refine.  I used the ISO button for this.
• Image stabilization was excellent and tested by the driving winds.  Even though no indication in the viewfinder……
• Manual focus for distant details.  This is widely known yet bears repeating.  In my experience, manual focus (magnified) is needed for critical focus on very distant details.  Back button AF while in MF mode to refine works very well. Hit back button, turn manual focus with magnification until just right
• Electronic shutter for tripod with no camera shake (stabilization off). Just works though inside with LED lighting, there can be some banding.
• Manual exposure mode with ISO float in changing light.  - when I want a specific shutter speed threshold, aperture, and still be able to influence EV compensation, I ran out of dials on the right of the camera and had to resort to the ISO dial on the left (it still needs firmware refinement IMHO and can be finicky).
• One note - I find the icons rimming the monitor to be unreliable - sometimes they respond to my touch, other times, they do not.  I don’t use them at this time - hopefully a future firmware refinement.

The Results and field workflow:

• Image quality.  Simply put, the results are terrific.  I was a fan of the SL2 but find the better High ISO performance plus resolution with the SL3 (extra cropping leverage) to be a big step up for the work I do.   The print quality is very satisfying.
• The lenses: not much more to say..I have a full set 21, 35, 75 APO, 24-90, 90-280 APO, plus Canon T/S.  The APOs are in a league of their own.  I could go out in driving snow with any of them and know that the only issue with a great result would be my failure of seeing..  The APOs are so good that they make the 24-90 seem less performant, even though it is an excellent lens (would buy an updated version in a minute if they ever made one).
• IPAD workflow with Lightroom Mobile.  This was the first trip where I did not take a laptop.  Lightroom Mobile, with an apple Pen, was very capable of quality edits, masking, exporting for sending to friends, and synchronizing with my catalog when I got home.  Was a real joy to carry less yet have great feedback during the trip and editing that was competent enough to make the grade.
• The biggest challenge when photographing in Iceland is pushing past the famous locations that are breathtaking to do original work.  I had a week on my own which was very helpful and made some progress in this regard.  Will need to go again!

My biggest regret is that I was not able to meet up with Stuart Richardson, a long time member of this community.  He was out of the country while I was there..Next time, Stuart!

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[LD_50]

Beautiful images and great write-up. I like images 4 and 6 a lot. 

SL series handling with gloves is an underrated design win. 

[Stuart Richardson]

I am sorry I missed you! March can be a great time for photography in Iceland, though not always for the faint of heart. The weather is very turbulent, but the light is beautiful. I agree with you on the lenses, though I have not had a chance to use the SL3 in my workflow here. Waiting more for the S4... But your experience of the sealing matches mine. I have not had a moisture ingress problem in all the time that I have used the S or SL cameras and lenses, despite 15 winters here using them.

[blui]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb Stuart Richardson:

I am sorry I missed you! March can be a great time for photography in Iceland, though not always for the faint of heart. The weather is very turbulent, but the light is beautiful. I agree with you on the lenses, though I have not had a chance to use the SL3 in my workflow here. Waiting more for the S4... But your experience of the sealing matches mine. I have not had a moisture ingress problem in all the time that I have used the S or SL cameras and lenses, despite 15 winters here using them.

Iceland was beautiful. I was there in March 2025 and posted some photos in the SL3 and SL3-S photo threads. Next time I come back, I want to do it when it's summer. I'd love to meet you!

[hansvons]

On 6/2/2025 at 5:22 AM, georgecp said:

Hello all, I have been an appreciative member of this forum for some time.

Thanks for your thoughtful report. Posts like yours are the backbone of this forum. Much appreciated!!

[georgecp]

You are quite welcome.  This forum has been very valuable to me and I am happy to make a contribution where I feel it can be of some value to the group.

 

 

[Unce MIke]

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Can you please discuss the camera/lens handling?  Was it annoyingly heavy for travel photography?

I ask because as my eyesight is not what it used to be, by focus hit rate on my M11P has gone from good to less than stellar.

Thinking about moving to the SL3 and using my Summilux M Steel Re Issue and Summicron APO 50.

 

Thanks

Mike

Edited June 3 by Unce MIke

[Rmccoole]

I enjoyed your report and photos very much. Beautiful images. The photo of the SL3's weather sealing can't be disputed. I've read about it, but the photo proves it.

[georgecp]

Hi Mike,

An excellent question.  I find Camera/lens handling to be superb though getting the controls configured take some experimentation and the use of profiles is important to set up depending on how many ways you may want to use the camera.  Another point to this was mentioned by LD-50...the systems are very easy to handle with gloves as the dials and rings have very good tactile feel and there is enough space between the controls.  this is an under appreciated aspect of the SL system.

Regarding weight, you have to configure what you take to the kind of work you are doing.  For this trip I had a full Gura Gear backpack and tripod with the lenses I mentioned above plus my 35 Summilux-M for walk around. (more on this in a minute). As most of my shooting was from a vehicle with some hiking involved, I had a small shoulder bag that I would use to take the subset of gear I was using for a particular walk/hike and the tripod over my shoulder.  When I got to Reykjavik, I used two M-Lenses, 35 and 75 to walk around.

This leads to your other question.  Starting with the SL2 last year, I used my M-lenses more and more on the SL body and left my M10-R at home.  To your point, I had better focus accuracy using the SL,  along with IBIS, and the camera body is similar in size to an M body (length X height, not depth).  I have used digital and film Leica M's for over 25 years, and lately found that I was struggling to get easy, confident, focus (old eyes and diopter correction adjustments).  I thought the results I had my old SL2 and M-lenses equalled those that I could deliver with my M10-R when I had good focus.  With the SL3, I ended up selling my M10-R; the SL3 is my only SL and M lens mount platform.  I am very pleased with the results and versatility of having a full blown AF system or smaller manual focus system with the same body.  Leica intimated that they further improved the M-mount lens performance with the SL3 sensor compared to the SL2 though I would not want to live on the difference.  They are both superb.  The other improvement for me with the SL3 is the better high ISO performance of the sensor compared to the SL2.

If you have access, I would suggest renting an SL3 with M to L adapter and live with it for a week or so - you will know pretty quickly if this approach will work for you as well.

[OR120]

Thank your for your wonderful/informative post. I've yet to get to Iceland during winter, only summer. I'll have to add it to my never ending list of - So many places, so little time.

Your second shot - snow and horse - takes the cake for me!

[georgecp]

14 hours ago, OR120 said:

Thank your for your wonderful/informative post. I've yet to get to Iceland during winter, only summer. I'll have to add it to my never ending list of - So many places, so little time.

Your second shot - snow and horse - takes the cake for me!

Thank you for that..I try to follow my own voice...the crazy thing was the driving snow.  On this peninsula, the roads are very narrow.  it was a white out condition and I parked by a pathway..saw the mountain and snow..my SL3/35mm APO..waited and in the sequence, had several where the horse was not in the right position..waiting works!  the camera/lens was covered with snow..part of the value of working with this equipment..used gloves the whole time.

[jplomley]

I'm curious how frequently you used the 21-35-75 SL APO's versus the 24-90? I have that same set of APO primes but no zooms at this point and was hoping to get to Iceland next year. Was thinking of adding a 24-70 and 70-200 Sigma DGDN, but perhaps the better weather Leica versions would be prudent. 

[Stuart Richardson]

I use Sigma lenses here and have not had any sealing issues. It really is not so crazy unless you are going out in an actual storm.

As for what lenses, at least for me, my most used by far is the 50mm, followed by the 90-280mm. The spaces are so wide open here that very wide angles tend to make the mountains seem small and far away.  

[jplomley]

4 hours ago, Stuart Richardson said:

I use Sigma lenses here and have not had any sealing issues. It really is not so crazy unless you are going out in an actual storm.

As for what lenses, at least for me, my most used by far is the 50mm, followed by the 90-280mm. The spaces are so wide open here that very wide angles tend to make the mountains seem small and far away.  

Cheers Stuart, very much appreciated. Sounds like the 24-70 and 70-200 are the way to proceed. I have a pair of SL2 bodies so will just leave them mounted permanently on each. I'll probably throw in the Sigma 50/1.2 for good measure as the lens it too epic to leave at home. 

[georgecp]

17 hours ago, jplomley said:

Cheers Stuart, very much appreciated. Sounds like the 24-70 and 70-200 are the way to proceed. I have a pair of SL2 bodies so will just leave them mounted permanently on each. I'll probably throw in the Sigma 50/1.2 for good measure as the lens it too epic to leave at home. 

Hi Jeff, I went back and checked my LR catalog..for this trip, my 24-90 and 90-280 were used on 85% of the images...and the most used focal length was 90mm in both lenses...the 75/21 were 10% and the 35/50mm T/S and others made up the remainder...50mm was used second most often for my 24-90.  For the 90-280, 280mm was the second most used focal length.  That said, I would not leave the 21 home; it helped me get the glacier lagoon shot I showed in my first post.  

To Stuart's point, there are many distant features!  Yet at the same time, many things lend themselves to 50mm..it depends on where you stand and what you respond to, and what you find after your first image while you are out there.

Here are a couple of examples of that...

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[MarkP]

Fabulous set of photos.

Exactly how my SL2 and 16-30 or 24-90 looked and were used when I was in Antarctica some years ago. The camera and lenses worked flawlessly in the cold, rain and sea spray (especially when on the zodiacs). I had no issues with battery life, just kept a warm spare in an inner layer pocket.
I always put the camera in a dry bag just before going inside.  Well except once to my regret when I forgot and then adjusted the zoom when inside as it took a day to unfog the internal lens elements! 

[T25UFO]

On 6/6/2025 at 12:59 PM, georgecp said:

Hi Jeff, I went back and checked my LR catalog..for this trip, my 24-90 and 90-280 were used on 85% of the images...and the most used focal length was 90mm in both lenses...the 75/21 were 10% and the 35/50mm T/S and others made up the remainder...50mm was used second most often for my 24-90.  For the 90-280, 280mm was the second most used focal length.  That said, I would not leave the 21 home; it helped me get the glacier lagoon shot I showed in my first post.  

To Stuart's point, there are many distant features!  Yet at the same time, many things lend themselves to 50mm..it depends on where you stand and what you respond to, and what you find after your first image while you are out there.

Here are a couple of examples of that...

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Your first photo - Eagle Rock & The Three Trolls - reminded me of a photo I took almost nine years ago on a late October evening.  Also taken with a 50mm lens (M APO) and it looks like we were standing in the same place.  Iceland is timeless.

I enjoyed reading your post.  I also took the SL (601) on this trip with 24-90mm lens but most of my photos were taken with the M and 50mm APO.

Edited June 9 by T25UFO

[georgecp]

7 hours ago, T25UFO said:

Your first photo - Eagle Rock & The Three Trolls - reminded me of a photo I took almost nine years ago on a late October evening.  Also taken with a 50mm lens (M APO) and it looks like we were standing in the same place.  Iceland is timeless.

I enjoyed reading your post.  I also took the SL (601) on this trip with 24-90mm lens but most of my photos were taken with the M and 50mm APO.

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Indeed it is..the country has so many beautiful vistas and places..I think the tripod holes of thousands of photographers are on that spot!  I take these because I have to get them out of my system to then push to do more original work..but these are truly beautiful and rewarding to capture in their own way.

I went back the next day as I went to the top of lighthouse and got this version in different light. They both are very nice, like yours..with different moods.. 

Edited June 10 by georgecp

[georgecp]

On 6/8/2025 at 12:50 AM, MarkP said:

Fabulous set of photos.

Exactly how my SL2 and 16-30 or 24-90 looked and were used when I was in Antarctica some years ago. The camera and lenses worked flawlessly in the cold, rain and sea spray (especially when on the zodiacs). I had no issues with battery life, just kept a warm spare in an inner layer pocket.
I always put the camera in a dry bag just before going inside.  Well except once to my regret when I forgot and then adjusted the zoom when inside as it took a day to unfog the internal lens elements! 

Thank you....I appreciate the comments.  Did you clean the sea salt off of your equipment?

You must have been going from outdoors to indoor warmth.  I had a similar experience with condensation; as long as I was not going from the outdoors to indoors, the camera did not need a sealed bag.  From inside the heated car to the hotel night was also a mild change in temp and did not need to be bagged.  If I went from outdoors to indoor temps in one step, then the bag was needed.

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[MarkP]

You're welcome.  I lightly rinsed the equipment off with fresh water and then gave it a full clean every night.