[Music] Howdy You Again everyone now a couple of Months ago I was up in Glenn Eagles Scotland for a sneak preview of leica's New flagship interchangeable lens camera The fullframe L Mount sl3 and I got some Real nice pictures up there well Leica Have now been kind enough to loan me an Sl3 to put through my standard tests Here at home so now I can finally put Out a full review something I've been Itching to do ever since Leica 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 camera while Adding a lot of new features so at least They're keeping their prices under Control here somewhat still undeniably a Camera that's out of reach to the masses And I include myself within them anyway Here's a rundown of the camera pet and There's a fair bit to be excited about Here the camera is built around a new Image stabilized fullframe backside Illuminated 60 megap sensor with a base ISO of 100 although its ISO range goes From 50 to 100,000 and with a dynamic Range of about 15 stops it works with Any l-mount camera lens which is good News as there's a broad range of lens Choice there for you already from Leica
Sigma Panasonic IC and others the Camera's autofocus has been greatly Improved from the SL2 now with phase Detect as well as contrast detect and Object detection or depth mapping making The autofocus fairly quick and with Subject detection and tracking when Working slowly if your subject isn't Moving too quickly it works wonders but Under stress there are some issues with The autofocus tracking with the Autofocus on its default standard Settings I was initially hor ified as You can see with the camera set to Facial recognition tracking is pretty Slow here however if you go into the Menus and turn a tracking speed and Sensitivity to their maximum settings Things are far better although still not Quite up to the Speedy standards of Other camera systems so that's a bit of A shame the camera will struggle with Sports Photography but should be fine For most other uses animal detection Worked pretty well hitting your target Most of the time this image was taken at F2 Which also shows off how sharp leica's 50 mm F2 lens really is which I was Using at the time 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 and 8K
Video shooting as well as 4K 60 and Full HD 120 better low light processing and Faster memory card transfers well that's What like could say anyway when it comes To that maximum burst speed though the Possibilities are complicated as you can See from this chart that Leica have Published if you want your raw images to Be 14 bit for the maximum dynamic range Then you're limited to 6 frames per Second although admittedly the 12-bit Raw images are very good too if you want To keep autofocus then you're limited to Only 5 frames per second and that's a Deal breaker for all serious sports Photographers and if you want to shoot With a mechanical shutter instead of Just the electronic one then you're Stuck at 7 frames per second again Problematic for sports photographers so Yeah your options are actually a bit Limited here it's not a camera designed For fast action shooting at all the Mechanical shutter though can shoot at 18,000 of a second which fantastic the Electronic shutter 116,000 and the Flash syn speed is an Average 1/ 1200th of a second the camera Has inbody image stabilization which is Incredibly useful for shooting with Almost those gorgeous like a prime Lenses here's some fous stabilization Turned off and now turned on where you Can see it's doing a beautiful job of
Keeping my image steady I know this is Just footage taken at 28 mm but when I Was shooting with a 50 mm lens back in Glenn Eagles it worked just as Effectively when it comes to build Quality the whole camera has been made a Little smaller and lighter than the SL2 Just a little which is a relief you Would 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 it's still a Bigger camera than average certainly and Like I have gone all out to make the sl3 One of the toughest cameras ever crafted By human hands with an ip54 rating this Camera is highly resistant to dust and Water Ingress and like I even tested From 70° C down to -40 so if you're Planning any trips to the desert or to The Antarctic anytime 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 when I was in Glenn Eagles the other journalists were far Braver than I am and got their cameras Completely drenched by the Scottish rain With no side effects at all as I Mentioned 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 when shooting with Continuous autofocus I found that the Viewfinder resolution didn't look very High and I ended up worrying about Whether my shot really was in pinpoint Focus although it almost always was when I checked afterwards when shooting in Single shot auto vus mode the viewfinder Looked absolutely fine I know very sharp 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 Leica Q3 That I tested a while ago if you hold Down any of those icons or holds down Any of the camera's customizable buttons Then right away from there 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 and I must emphasize you'll Want to spend a little time setting the Camera up first when you do it's a Pleasure and very controllable to use Something for like it to improve upon Next time I think is this little Rubberized joystick for autov Focus Selection and general control it's only A four-way controller not 8way and on a Luxury camera that's a surprising little
Emission being able to work that Joystick diagonally as well as just left And right and up and down would have Been really helpful even my old Canon 60D from 2010 has an 8-way controller on The rear the battery is like his new Bps4 which is really big and quite Powerful although I wasn't impressed by Its shooting time I only really got About 400 shots here in my experience so The camera does seem a bit power hungry On the side we get a lovely fullsize HDMI output as well as headphone and Microphone jacks and a USBC connection For charging and data transfer over on The other side of the camera we get a Slot for both CF Express and SD cards That's my favorite little combination CF Express for Speed and SD for Affordability and compatibility the Camera also has very good Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and Flash sync connectivity so Overall this camera is all about build Quality and customizability and it Certainly is one of the best looking Best feeling and certainly most Weatherproof cameras around what it's Not intended for is raw speed it's Definitely not for Sports Photography Although I probably would still be happy To shoot a wedding for it or an event Like That all right image quality let's start By looking at Raw versus jpeg as you can
See the raw image on the left is packed With an amazing amount of detail that Image really is incredible although I Can also see just a hint of moare on Contrasting edges the jpeg images are Good but a little on the noisy side even With medium noise reduction turned on And they also look just slightly Oversharpened at default settings it's Certainly a Punchy image you're getting Here but for landscape photography or Anything else that requires absolutely Critical detail you really should shoot In raw all right let's move on and take A look at high ISO image quality the Camera's jpegs are always very crisp and Detailed but even just from about ISO 800 they start getting a bit noisy and ISO 1600 is looking a bit rough ISO 3200 Is the maximum I would push the camera To here as you can see 6,400 and Particularly 12,500 are looking really poor oh and For anyone interested here are the final Settings up to ISO 100,000 there's not Really any point shooting at those Settings to be honest so like I have Made a clear and Simple Choice with the Sl3s images they are prioritizing High Detail over and above noise reduction This leads you to get some very Punchy And eye-catching images but with rather High noise levels that don't look so Great when cropping in like on any
Camera some will appreciate Li's Choice There and others will not I want to Mention that I really like leica's Colors on this camera which seem to look Good no matter what you're trying to Shoot although I found the auto white Balance would often be a little too cool For my taste with just a slightly red Cast to them just slightly talking about Reds something I did notice was that the Red color resolution could be a little Low when you see it against a Contrasting color like here for example Now a huge selling point of the camera's Sensor though comes in its amazing Dynamic range as you can see here those 14bit raw files have simply massive Latitude and you can bring up your Shadows from almost pitch Darkness it's Quite astonishing so a nice option for You would be to underexpose your Pictures a little to preserve highlights And then bring up your shadows in Editing all right let's take a look at Video quality now starting with the 8K Footage which as you can see is Fantastically detailed and at ISO 100 Very clean already at ISO 400 we're Beginning to see just a little noise Creeping in well we shouldn't be too Surprised as the pixels on a 60 megapix Sensor are going to be really quite tiny ISO 800 still looks okay but 1600 is Beginning to look quite noisy here ISO
3200 and 6400 are just about usable 12,500 is not oh and if you're Interested here are the very highest ISO Levels again I'm not really sure why Those options were included at all Looking at them so 8K footage looks Spectac ular at low isos but noisy at Anything beyond okay let's look at some 4K footage now starting with a higher Frame rate of 60p this 4K footage is Looking just a little soft to me here But it's about to stop less noisy than The 8K footage with noise only really Becoming a problem at ISO 1600 in the Lower right corner there if you boost The iso any more than this then 3200 is Still quite usable but 6 400 and 12,500 Are getting just too noisy here and Finally let's take a look at the 4K Footage at a lower frame rate this time Just 25p 25p is kind of the British Standard from years ago but the 24p and 30p footage looks the same as this Anyway the 4K footage looks better here Nicely sharper than at 60p and with Considerably less noise in fact this is The cleanest footage the camera really Has to offer even ISO 1600 looks fine Here ISO 3200 and even 6400 are still Looking okay but ISO 12,500 suddenly Gets pretty noisy and again here are the Very highest ISO settings which again Aren't really usable as you can see so Overall the best video quality here is
In the 4K mode at 30 frames per second Or less although 4K 60p is still Perfectly fine the 8K video is Stunningly detailed but only if can keep Your ISO levels down to 800 or perhaps ISO 1,600 at a at a push the camera can Also shoot it up to 120 frames per Second in 1080P resolution for some slow Motion video work it's not quite the Sharpest 1080p footage I've ever seen But neither is it soft and it's looking Very clean too with no traces of Mo and Issue for this camera though when Shooting video unfortunately is rolling Shutter in your 8K footage bowling Shutter is badly out of control as you Can see here at 4K 60p it's still there But much lower interestingly at 4K and 25p it's about to looking pretty Egregious if you shoot at just 1080p Though it's reduced again but still There so the sensors readout speeds Won't really keep up well for action Oriented video work all right then well That is the Leica sl3 on the one hand It's a somewhat slow camo compared to The competition in terms of sensor Readout burst speed and autofocus speed This camera is all about working a Little more slowly to get beautiful Detailed images with high dynamic range And in all kinds of ways it's still a Lovely camera in its own right with Wonderful weatherproof build quality
Hugely and easily customizable menus and Buttons and striking images is it good Value for money well In fairness Leica Cameras are more about getting a certain Kind of experience than they are Offering value for money and it's simply The case that this is a luxury item on The one hand I'm really pleased it Doesn't cost any more than the SL2 did But still there's no denying that you Can get more technology and better auto Focus out of its competitors and another 60 megapixel camera especially like the Sony a7r 5 even compared to my older Canon EOS R5 camera the Leica sl3 is a Little bit slow now nowadays other Cameras offer less noisy image quality At high isos in both their Stills and Their video fotage but I doubt that any Other camera will ever be as pleasurable An experience to use as the sl3 this Camera is about as pleasurable to use as Well driving over a humpback Bridge While simultaneously doing a really big Sneeze that is to say very pleasurable Indeed so the camera obviously still Comes recommended it does get beautiful IM And it's worth it if you have a lot of Money behind you and don't really plan On doing sports photography or too much Work in low [Music] Light all right thanks for watching
Everyone as you can see on this YouTube Channel I like to cover just about every Camera and lens I can from the cheapest To equipment like this these free tests Do take a fair bit of time and money to Put together though so if you'd like to Support the Channel as well as getting a Whole bunch of exclusive bonus content Do check out my patreon page down in the Description below CIA for now everyone
