Borrowed a SL2 for 2 weeks, questions/comment/review.

[MichaelFrederickPhoto]

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Hi All,

I have been reading threads on this site for maybe a year or more,  I have been fascinated with the Leica history and amazed at some of the pics I see posted on here.  My buddy has several Leicas so when we meet up he lets me play with his SL2,  toss my SD card in so I can play with the files.  I have a R6 for my portrait business and a Fuji X-H2 for fun/personal projects.

He lent me the SL2 with Sigma 24-70 for 2 weeks and I was able to shoot 250-300+ pics under numerous settings.  

Comments:

What a fantastic build quality of a body!!!  The AF is not bad,  like a first generation mirrorless should shoot like.  The menu system is VERY easy to learn.  The IQ just floored me with the richness/depth of the colors.  I think I was most impressed is with the B&W shots,  the blacks are so deep,  I was always happy with the X-H2 blacks and now I see them as grey!  I am attaching a couple of shots of this old Ford I shot.

Questions:

What attracted me to the Fuji system was the in camera recipes and that more unique look to the files,  so with Leica having their own look.  I didn’t see it,  when I look at the posts here, I see the owners that their pics have an almost pastel/watercolor softness that looks great.  I found the opposite that the files were stunningly vibrant and colors were WOW good (not complaining) but I want to know what I did wrong in a setting or is this the post processing of the end user for that look?  

Now I am like a sponge trying to learn even more about the Leica system as I would really like to try to add a SL-2 with a couple 3rd party primes as my personal project/fun camera.  I know many of you are extremely knowledgeable/helpful so I hope to pick your brains more!

-Michael

 

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[harbelot]

Lens is a great deal for the "Leica look" imho.
For the rest, it's all in LR processing, depending on user's taste and ability.

For example this photo has no post processing at all, the lens is a vintage sum micron 35mm.

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Edited 16 hours ago by harbelot

[helged]

10 hours ago, MichaelFrederickPhoto said:

I see the owners that their pics have an almost pastel/watercolor softness that looks great.

If you include links to some of the images you like, the creators are likely glad to explain...

[Chosemerveilleux]

Hey Michael,

These are two images I took of a 1973 Triumph GT6 Mk3 with my SL2 and Lumix 50mm 1.8. I had a K&F Concept Black Mist 1/8 filter on. I use DXO Photolab 8 for post processing.

 

Absolutely love the Sl cameras. So much so that I picked up a gently used SL2s a few weeks ago so I can use that and my SL2 for the majority of my event work. Still using an S5II for video and on camera flash as needed. The Lumix s5ii does what's required, but I've never gelled with it the way I almost instantly did with my SL2. Unless all of your photographic work is BIF or other subjects that require super advanced autofocus It is a fantastic platform that I honestly miss when I'm using my other cameras.

Dennis

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Edited 3 hours ago by Chosemerveilleux

[Jean-Michel]

I have an SL2. It is a fine camera and you can attach a plethora of lenses to it.  As with just about any other camera you can produce equally fine images, as long as you know how to process the files in your preferred processor — I prefer Lightroom Classic. 

All the talk and comments about the "out of camera file" is pretty much meaningless. If you do nothing other than just open an SL2 file in Lightroom Classic, the rendered image will have an "Adobe Color" profile applied to it and perhaps a built-in lens profile applied. The resulting image may or may not be anywhere what you want, just, as in the antediluvian days of darkrooms, a contact print would simply indicate that you have something to work on.