In praise of the SL2

[chris_tribble]

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@pickerdd I second the benefit of diopters on the M. My eyesight has fortunately been stable for many years (🤞) but I’ve used +3.5 diopters on my M bodies for years as I prefer not to wear glasses while out and about.  Of course the specs are on when driving, reading, watching tv etc!

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[Jeff S]

7 minutes ago, pickerdd said:

i tried the diopter on the M and it helped but did not solve my issues focusing the rangefinder patch.

With your glasses (to correct for astigmatism) and diopter together?

[jaapv]

19 hours ago, pickerdd said:

i tried the diopter on the M and it helped but did not solve my issues focusing the rangefinder patch.

How did you select your diopter?  The image in the viewfinder can be, in telescope fashion, from close up to infinity. However the viewfinder markings are at a virtual distance of 2 m. That means that if you select a diopter to have infinity tack sharp, you will have difficulty seeing the rangefinder patch as most eyes cannot provide the amount of accommodation. 

[pickerdd]

22 hours ago, Jeff S said:

With your glasses (to correct for astigmatism) and diopter together?

yes, i tried with and without glasses. no luck. I don't have this issue with the SL2 EVF. Crisp and clean and bright with the diopter adjustment.

[pickerdd]

2 hours ago, jaapv said:

How did you select your diopter?  The image in the viewfinder can be, in telescope fashion, from close up to infinity. However the viewfinder markings are at a virtual distance of 2 m. That means that if you select a diopter to have infinity tack sharp, you will have difficulty seeing the rangefinder patch as most eyes cannot provide the amount of accommodation. 

i tried multiple diopters. The visoflex on the M10 worked well, but doesn't compare to the EVF in the SL2. 

[Leicaboy Norway]

On 8/23/2025 at 7:35 PM, darylgo said:

Best ibis of any camera with R lenses, it brought new life to some old but great optics, 100 macro, 70-180 and 280/4.  

I have that same lens with the SL2, but I actually find it quite hard to focus with, even with focus peaking? You don' I'm assuming then?

[Leicaboy Norway]

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I am also happy with my SL2. I used to have a Canon R5, which I personally think is a better camera in many / most ways. But the SL2 is more enjoyable to use.

Main con about owning the SL2 is the battery life which I actually think is the worst I've had in a camera.

[Jeff S]

1 hour ago, pickerdd said:

yes, i tried with and without glasses. no luck. I don't have this issue with the SL2 EVF. Crisp and clean and bright with the diopter adjustment.

Only other considerations would be RF calibration, proper eye alignment and two clean windows. I guess you tried more than one camera?

[jaapv]

1 hour ago, pickerdd said:

i tried multiple diopters. The visoflex on the M10 worked well, but doesn't compare to the EVF in the SL2. 

There are specifically made diopters to your prescription. You are not limited to Leica. 

[pickerdd]

On 8/29/2025 at 9:03 AM, Jeff S said:

Only other considerations would be RF calibration, proper eye alignment and two clean windows. I guess you tried more than one camera?

yep did that. yes, i had that problem on every rangefinder i tried. 

[pickerdd]

On 8/29/2025 at 9:21 AM, jaapv said:

There are specifically made diopters to your prescription. You are not limited to Leica. 

yep, i know that and tried many. 

[jaapv]

Many? There is only one guy making them. https://walterleica.com/
Also for astigmatism. 

[pickerdd]

23 hours ago, jaapv said:

Many? There is only one guy making them. https://walterleica.com/
Also for astigmatism. 

yes i had one of his diopters. great quality, but did not resolve my issue with rangefinder focusing.

[jaapv]

Did you share it with Walter? 

[pickerdd]

32 minutes ago, jaapv said:

Did you share it with Walter? 

Yes, we discussed it in length. I really appreciate all the questions and suggestions about the diopter and the problems i have focusing a mechanical rangefinder camera. i hope the info on diopters we have discussed in this thread will be useful to folks.  However, I have no intention of going back to a manual rangefinder camera as my main camera. I mentioned that i still have my M7, which i bought new. I prefer an EVF for my uses.  The SL2 EVF is awesome for me.

[chris_tribble]

In a discussion of the leatherette issue, I was reminded how inexpensive the SL2 is at the moment (around £2500), and a recent job documenting an opera festival fought home how good this “obsolete” camera is.  More here: 

 

[Eoin]

8 hours ago, chris_tribble said:

In a discussion of the leatherette issue, I was reminded how inexpensive the SL2 is at the moment (around £2500), and a recent job documenting an opera festival fought home how good this “obsolete” camera is. 

Obsolete, mine will accompany me until I’m… obsolete!. 

[Slender]

5 years later and about 150.000 shots on my SL2. Mostly with 24-90 and M lenses.

Its like a toyota landcruiser. It aint the latest and shiniest fanciest 4x4 but it does the job harder and better than most for me.

I took it to -32ºC in Russia : no problem. I suspect that now with the dummy USB-C battery and a power bank in my coat it would perform even better in that setting.

Took it on all-day-long, ultra high pressure luxury event shoots 3 or 4 thousand pictures in a day. Just works. And both clients and participants at these fancy events do notice with a benevolent smile that you are using a Leica, lol. 😇. Always a great conversation starter even if its not an M camera.

Can shoot 100% silent with a very fast readout speed which SL3 or M camera cannot do.

With Lr Denoise and outputting your final images at 24 Megapixel (which is still filling up a 6K monitor that, lets face it, most people/clients do not even have), one can confidently use the SL2 at ISO 8000-12500. Highlight recovery becomes uncanny good at those settings. so you can actually expose for shadows (cleaner) and recover your blown highlights in post-production. Its the opposite at ISO 50 (for which you should only expose for highlights and then boost your shadows in post)

Only annoyances to report about: battery life is shameful compared to a Canon R camera + Instant playback can get very sluggish when shooting fast with 2 SD cards at once, which is what I prefer to do for client work.... it gets better with an exact match of card/brand/capacity and V90 cards but even so, I found it is faster and more responsive using only one card.

I skipped the FW update that suppressed the rear-joystick magnification using M lenses. It took them nearly a year to install it back and therefore I missed on the face af improvement maybe, but it does seem improved.

I never experience the shutter+ibis shock issue personally.

Speaking of which, they downgraded them slightly in the SL3 (noisier shutter, slower sync speed, lower rated IBIS). Not to mention the idotic power button. (but to be fair the Leica SL2 one is also a "faux" fly-by wire switch... but I prefer to be able to do it in the dark and with gloves or without looking at its color if I need to!)

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ISO 12.500, selfie at 24mm with the big zoom. Grain is actually added in post and it was edited before the LR denoise function a few years ago.

 

 

 

With a 1950ies 2.8 Summaron.

 

 

Edited September 11 by Slender

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Hallo,

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[pickerdd]

 

6 hours ago, Slender said:

<SNIP>

ISO 12.500, selfie at 24mm with the big zoom. Grain is actually added in post and it was edited before the LR denoise function a few years ago.

You addressed the only thing i would like to improve in my SL2 - low light photography. your ISO 12,000 looks pretty dang good!  i have never tried denoise in LR, but i will check it out.

[Jeff S]

3 minutes ago, Stuart Richardson said:

I was lucky to get a beautiful autumn walk in the woods with the SL2S. 

I also had a wonderful walk in the woods today with my SL2.  But when I returned to my car, I found the rear passenger window totally busted out. The perpetrator(s) left my camera bag right by the rear door untouched despite containing my M10 Monochrom and 50 Summicron, etc. Hope I at least got some nice pics.