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I am very sympathetic to the OP and honestly regret getting an SL2-S because of its weight. It's just not a camera you can throw into the bag and have it with you all day. That's why I rented a Canon EOS R6, but the weight savings were not there and the user menu -- coming from the fabulous Leica user interface -- was just horrible (too many buttons, you have to go deep into the menu to make some changes, etc). The SL2-S EV was also way better.

I would recommend that, budget permitting, you buy a Q3 that allows you to crop to 70mm because of the high resolution of the sensor. So you could get by the fixed lens. If you need interchange lenses, I recommend the new Fuji X-E5 which has a 40 Mp sensor,  interchangeable lens bayonet, and is much lighter.

Edited by giganova
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On 7/27/2025 at 1:42 AM, jaapv said:

Wel, in functionality there is not much to choose given the different emphasis on features, but in UI the Leica is a bit of a Janus. The implementation with the icon screen and long-press short-press Fn buttons is brilliant but after that the menus are an amorphous hodgepodge of button presses without discernible structure. 

Thank goodness someone else sees this!

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7 hours ago, giganova said:

I am very sympathetic to the OP and honestly regret getting an SL2-S because of its weight. It's just not a camera you can throw into the bag and have it with you all day. That's why I rented a Canon EOS R6, but the weight savings were not there and the user menu -- coming from the fabulous Leica user interface -- was just horrible (too many buttons, you have to go deep into the menu to make some changes, etc). The SL2-S EV was also way better.

I would recommend that, budget permitting, you buy a Q3 that allows you to crop to 70mm because of the high resolution of the sensor. So you could get by the fixed lens. If you need interchange lenses, I recommend the new Fuji X-E5 which has a 40 Mp sensor,  interchangeable lens bayonet, and is much lighter.

The OP already has a Q3 43 which they use for street photography, and is thinking of picking up a Z6 II with a wide and portrait lens for those purposes. My recommendation would be to pick up a Q3 or Q2 to handle the landscape duties, and continue to use the Q3 43 for street, and the crop mode on the 43 for portraits.

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I geT it if you need faster continuous or servo autofocus…

but if you don’t need that and have the money, I’d rather shoot those apo SL summicrons… no contest.

Robb

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2 hours ago, robb said:

I’d rather shoot those apo SL summicrons… no contest.

The main reason why I use Leica in DSLR territory besides their exceptional colour science.

I shoot fashion here and then. In that genre, an R5 / Z7II plus a 24-70 f/2.8 is what most photographers use (in the 90s longer zooms were fashionable, today we are back to regular focal lengths). I figured that I can get away with 35mm for everything—long shots to details to portraits and add with that a somewhat unusual consistency in the storytelling, especially if you leverage the 35mm APO‘s f/2 to f/2.8 capabilities, which are, as you said, without contest.

However, if that is not required, the Q43 is the better option: great lens, less costly, superb resolution (punching in to 50mm FOV and more is absolutely OK), less bulk. 

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9 hours ago, Archiver said:

Thank goodness someone else sees this!

If only they used the Panasonic main menu system of clear chapters followed by a short to—the-point menu, it would be ideal and unmatched. 

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I'm a Nikon/Leica/Hassey guy.  Like you, I find the SL2-S to be quite heavy, so I understand your situation.  As far as Nikon, I would not suggest the Z6ii.  That's an Expeed 6 camera and I would avoid it.  Go for an Expeed 7 body, like the Z6iii (love mine) or the Z5ii.   As others suggest, I'd consider a Q2.  I use mine a lot and really like it.  The SL2-S does a better job with M-mount lenses than the Nikon (due to the sensor low pass filter thickness).  Another consideration is Nikon lenses tend to be somewhat large.  I'm willing to make that tradeoff for the image quality benefits, but I can't help but notice that Sony is making really good small light lenses. So while the Nikon bodies can be light, they only have a few small lenses.  I don't follow Panasonic, but they see pretty light as well.

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29 minutes ago, MasterOfGoingFaster said:

due to the sensor low pass filter thickness

There is no low-pass filter on either camera. The difference is due to the elliptical microlenses on the Leica. 

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On 7/28/2025 at 11:48 AM, jaapv said:

If only they used the Panasonic main menu system of clear chapters followed by a short to—the-point menu, it would be ideal and unmatched. 

And yet as you have posted many (many 😉) times, once you have set up your Panasonic S5 you never need dive into the menus. Although I agree about their lack of structure, I would say the same about Leicas - between user profiles and the icon screen, I hardly ever use the menus.

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Precisely. So much simpler to do  so from a well-organized menu. If Leica would put something like that behind their icon screen it would be perfect. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

The color science from leica or hasselblad is superb and top everyone else - Nikon, Panasonic, Fuji or Canon. The cheap chinese lenses Mitakon, Artisan ,etc are the worst.

If you can afford - stay with Leica camera bodies and Leica lenses.

Don't compromise.

Food for thoughts

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On 7/28/2025 at 3:48 AM, jaapv said:

If only they used the Panasonic main menu system of clear chapters followed by a short to—the-point menu, it would be ideal and unmatched. 

Based on my experience with Sony, Olympus, Nikon, Hasselblad, Leica, and Fuji cameras, I find Panasonic's menu system (S9 and S1rII) one of the worst.

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19 hours ago, cnguyen said:

The color science from leica or hasselblad is superb and top everyone else - Nikon, Panasonic, Fuji or Canon. The cheap chinese lenses Mitakon, Artisan ,etc are the worst.

If you can afford - stay with Leica camera bodies and Leica lenses.

 

1. Leica cameras don't all have the same color

2. Leica and Panasonic share lots of the color profiles, in photo, but even more in video.

3. Hasselblad is good with Skin tone, but don't ask them to reproduce green correctly!

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16 hours ago, SrMi said:

Based on my experience with Sony, Olympus, Nikon, Hasselblad, Leica, and Fuji cameras, I find Panasonic's menu system (S9 and S1rII) one of the worst.

+1

Panasonic has probably 3x the leica menu, but it is a challenge to find stuff. Even worse is in a safe profile can have elements locked, and you have to get out of it to make a change. Leica menu is more elegant this way, even if they made it more complicated on the SL3

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On 7/28/2025 at 10:31 AM, hansvons said:

... especially if you leverage the 35mm APO‘s f/2 to f/2.8 capabilities, which are, as you said, without contest.

+1. SL50Lux at f1.4-2 is also exceptional.

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19 hours ago, Photoworks said:

+1

Panasonic has probably 3x the leica menu, but it is a challenge to find stuff. Even worse is in a safe profile can have elements locked, and you have to get out of it to make a change. Leica menu is more elegant this way, even if they made it more complicated on the SL3

It is dead easy. 1.  Go to the  relevant chapter, they are organized by type of function., 2. Go tov the relevant page 3. Click on the setting.  

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On 7/25/2025 at 4:12 AM, frame-it said:

why would you recommend a discontinued camera from a company with an average 3-6 month repair window?

I've bought old used cameras for years, including some 10+ year old Leicas and never once had to have a camera repaired.

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The problem with swapping systems is that the lenses are often the most expensive part.

I've switched from a Sigma FP to an SL2-S and can use the same lenses. Likewise I had a CL for a couple of years.

On my M10 I'm using M mount lenses I bought in 1990.

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