Well greetings everyone and today I'm Here in a beautiful and world famous Glenn Eagles Hotel in Scotland and I've Been brought here by likea I've been Pon A train and a bunch of other journalists Are here why I have absolutely no idea I Signed a non-disclosure agreement so I Guess it's more than just a social event Let's go in shall we and find Out okay full disclosure here we were Wind and dined as well as whiskeyed and Even bag piped but not before we had a Chance to see the Big Show piece leica's New flagship camera the sl3 I'm going to Give you a preview of the camera today As well as a nice Lowdown of its Features and improvements over the SL2 But I'm also going to be as objective as I can I'll try to notice if there are Any serious problems or issues because On a luxury camera you expect the same Thing as in one of the best hotels in The UK Perfection but with any camera at This level it's very unlikely that There'll be anything serious viously Wrong ler are at the top of their game Nowadays and this is their best shot Into an increasingly busy luxury camera Market however at £ 5,920 here in the UK or £ 6,800 at least it doesn't cost anything More than the older SL2 while adding a Lot of new features so at least they're Keeping their prices under control here
Somewhat the other journalists All Around Me grabbed whatever camera they Could I gravitated towards the one with A 50 mm F2 lens and I didn't regret it All the pictures you'll see from this Point came from the sl3 with that lens Including the video footage before I Tell you about my experience of using This camera here's a quick rundown of The specs because there's a lot to be Excited about here the camera is built Around a new image stabilized fullframe Backside illuminated 60 map sensor with A base ISO of 100 although it's ISO Range does go from 50 to 100,000 and With a dynamic range of apparently 15 Stops I'll have to check that out it Works with any l-mount camera lens which Is great news as there's a broad range Of lens Choice there for you already From Leica Sigma Panasonic and others The camera's autofocus has been greatly Improved now with phase detect as well As contrast detect and object detection Or depth mapping making the aut is Lovely and quick and confident and with Subject detection and tracking I found It had no problems in continually Focusing on people on faces on eyes and On animals including animal eye Detection it performed really quickly Even in video mode and even on birds Hitting your target most of the time This image was taken at f2 which also
Shows off how sharp like his 50 mm F2 Optic really is the camera has a new Main processor called the Maestro 4 Which enables much faster shooting Speeds up to 15 frames per second with a Generous 8 GB of buffer memory as well As 8K video shooting and 4K 60p and Full HD 120p better low light processing and Faster memory card transfers the camera Now has a tiltable but not fully Articulating screen and both that and The viewfinder are bright and very high Resolution with the viewfinder able to Project at up to 120 frames per second The whole camera has been made a little Smaller and lighter than the SL2 which Is a relief you wouldn't have wanted it Any bigger it still weighs 770 G though So it feels pretty substantial in your Hands with a top plate made of magnesium And bottom plate made of aluminium and Leica have gone all out to make the sl3 One of the toughest cameras ever crafted By human hands with an IP 54 rating this Camera is highly resistant to dust and Water Ingress and Leica even tested it From 70° C down to -40 unofficially so If you're planning any trips to the Desert or the Antarctic soon then this Could be the camera for you really Impressive and an IP rating this high is Pretty unique for a camera with a Tilting screen the interface of the menu
System has also been redesigned with new Icons and a layout for the touch screen And I found it easier to use than the Q3 Camera I tested a while ago if you hold Down those icons or hold down any of the Camera's customizable buttons then right Away you can choose new functions for Them so customizing the camera is dead Easy considering the deliberately simple Control system that's a big relief and Makes the camera very quick to handle Once you've set it up the way you want It of course I especially liked the Standby mode where the glow of the the Power button gently pulsates Satisfyingly the battery is leica's new Bpsc L4 type which lasted a good 500 Shots for me or so other little Improvements include USBC charging a Time code interface for video and Flash Sync and a better interface for wireless Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections the Mechanical shutter can shoot at 18,000 Of a second the electronic shutter 116,000 and the Flash sync speed is 1 1200th of a second and the camera has Card slots for both SD and cfx best type B cards my favorite little combination Anyway that's enough of the specs let's Take a closer look at some of these Pictures at ISO 100 you can see that Even in this rather difficult image Plenty of fine detail is still being Captured here's another image this time
At ISO 1000 you can see some fine noise Creeping in here definitely although There's still tons of fine detail and Here's ISO 6400 by now the image is really pretty Noisy but there's still loads of detail To be seen and the noise itself looks Somewhat attractive to Me overall the Image quality here from First Impressions seems about the same as the Leica Q3 camera I tested a little while Ago quite beautiful but leica's noise Reduction is heavily weighted toward Preserving details more than in Eliminating noise And whether that appeals to your taste Is up to you the noise itself does at Least look very pleasing and filmic Though rather than looking digital and Full of false colors let's take a quick Look at video quality these aren't my Formal tests of course but we can Certainly take a quick look at things Here something that immediately struck Me was how clean the video looks at high Isos as you can see from this footage And the autofocus seemed confident and Reliable enough to in video mode even at 88k and ISO 2000 the video looks Fabulous I can't wait to get my hands on A final production copy of the camera For a full review with my standardized Test where we can see if these first Impressions are
Reliable when it comes to the shooting Experience of working with the sl3 well It's pretty superb although it will take A little practice if you're migrating From a Canon or Sony or Nicon camera Leica's design philosophy is obvious Keep it simple keep it beautiful as you Can see with a much smaller number of Buttons on the camera and simpler menus Than on other systems however as I've Mentioned before the buttons on the back The two buttons on top and the menu Icons are all very easily customizable To suit your tastes so after some Tweaking and adjustments and a little Practice to get the LIE of where the Control dials are you can end up using The sl3 pretty quickly and easily as You'd expect for almost Leica cameras I Can't tell you exactly what Leica have Done to their menus since the Q3 camera I tested out a while ago but these menus Certainly feel quicker to navigate and More flexible to control the camera's 5 AIS internal stabilization cooperated Beautifully with the 50 mm prime lens I Was shooting with and was especially Smooth for panning and tilting while Shooting video so that's all the good Stuff here are a few concerns I had with The camera and there are just a few Firstly like the Q3 I tested a while ago I found that the SL 3's Auto white Balance gra gravitated a bit too far
Towards blue for my personal tastes a Bit too cool I wish it were a little Easier to override that secondly as you Can see here sometimes I noticed Reds Showing a lack of color resolution which Becomes apparent on highly contrasting Edges this could just be an issue with Early versions of the camera's firmware Though and finally something I can't Actually show you was that when I was Shooting with a camera in continuous Autofocus mode I found the resolution of The viewfinder seemed to be rather low To the point where I couldn't quite tell What exactly was in Focus I had adjusted The diopter properly and I didn't notice Any resolution issues when playing Images back it's possible I was doing Something wrong there or that it's a bug That will get fixed in firmware I don't Know keep an eye on future reviews to See if there are any issues with final Production versions of the camera's Viewfinder overall though this camera Marks a lovely point of Leica not only Keeping on top of their luxury build Quality and excellent distinctive images But now the camera's technical specs are Up to date with the best in the industry Where the SL2 had been distinctly Lagging behind obviously the camera is Still very expensive it's a luxury item For professionals and affluent am And anyone else from the Old Port out
Starboard home crowd if you catch my Drift from my first impressions it's Amazing a camera I could only ever dream Of having but let's wait until I can do A full review in a more clinical Surroundings of my Testing Lab before Saying anything too Concrete
