🔴 Leica SL Review 2020 (First Impressions + Images) | Leica SL vs CL + Leica SL vs M240

Why the SL offers me what I need. (Leica SL Review + Photos) Leica SL vs CL + Leica SL vs M240

The Leica SL camera interested me as it offers something my Leica M240 and Leica CL camera don't. This video includes Leica SL portraits from a model shoot compared to the CL and Leica M. I cover the Leica SL camera specs vs my existing digital Leica cameras. The Leica SL L mount is the same as the CL meaning I can use the Leica SL with M lenses and other manual focus lenses.

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Model: Hannah Pratt (IG - @Hannah__Pratt)
Model Agency: Bame Agency (IG - @BameAgency)

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[peterm.]

In my opinion the image quality and rendering is really near perfection. The rendering of the M is different, has a kind of magic in it. Great video Matt, nobody did it before

[ronanderson]

hi Matt, I first saw your channel when you did 7 lens in seven days a month ago . Wow your models are beautiful and your images are as well. So far I have the D-Lux 7 great travel camera. I have ordered the SL 35mm Summicron .Peter Karbe designed the optic's in these lens and he says if he could have only one lens the SL 35mm would be the lens he would choose. Love your work. I look for your photo's and lens review every week I like the SL photo's the best and then the CL then the 240. Your Hasselblad images have a special depth...

[maxishika]

I have the M9 and SL. I have no more desire for any other camera.

[GuamPhotographer]

brilliant!, and we have similar ideas of what we want with our portraits! thanks for the great advice!

[Stealther]

I loved the look from the M240. Maybe use the EVF to set focus then switch to the viewfinder for shooting?

[marcusoutdoors]

Amazing shots and a great video, I liked the SL shots most

[fellowcitizen]

14:26 SL imagery
15:48 CL imagery
16:03 M imagery
She looks younger in the M images and youngest in the SL images - perhaps due to perspective augmenting her eyes

[manemrob]

Hi Matt, regarding black out of the EVF, I set my camera to not show me previews of the pictures. This eliminates the black out of the EVF... At least on the mirrorless cameras that I've used.

[DidierMOULINPhotography]

Another important point about the SL and the reason why I will never buy one is about this restriction that when you zoom in pressing the joystick, it only zooms in the center. You cannot select where you want it to zoom before it does. That obliges you to first make the focus in the center on the eye of your model and than, half press, zoom OUT and recompose.. and loose focus with such fast lense with shallow depth of field.The Lumix allows you to move the point to focus before you zoom IN... So you compose the shot, zoom IN, press to take the picture. Saving time and by the way, no black screen with the LUMIX...

[akirsch]

Interesting! But there is one thing with M Lenses on digital cameras that bothers me a bit. You have to use focus peaking to check your focus. That's OK, but I've heard that if you close the aperture on an M lens, this focus peaking does not work that good anymore because it gets less light threw the glass with the smaller opening. This makes sense because most SLR lenses always stay entirely open until you take your shot or press the DOF preview button. I only know the german word for this which is "Springblende", or maybe automatic diaphragm in English. But for this, the camera has to know the selected aperture on the lens to calculate the exposure, which is also not the case for M lenses. This is also the reason why theses SL Lenses a so big compared to the M lenses. Peter Karbe (the chief Leica lens designer) gave a nice interview here on youtube about this theme on the official Leica channel. But is an EVF for your M 240, not the better option. You can use the cheaper Olympus EVF too. But a good friend has one for his M240, and it's super low compared to more modern EVF.

[DidierMOULINPhotography]

Hi Matt,
Clever thoughts about the minimum focus distant drawback of M lenses... that's why I do like you, I have a NIKKOR 50 1:1, 8 AIS that focuses manually down to 0, 45m... (No it's not for sale sorry) and I have the NIKKOR 28mm 1:2, 8 AIS that focuses manually down to 0, 2m !!!! YEAH absolutely stunning. Put that on a used SL and you've got a LEICA Q Manual only !!!

What would you recommend as another 50mm and a 35mm AIS that focuses close and with great optics ?

[johnhjic]

How nice to hear your thoughts, Its is one camera that really interest me, but in answer to you question about image quality as we only get to see the tube compressed images no one can give a real selection. But I just love your work thank you for taking the time to share.

[axelcordes]

Hi Matt,

using a lux wide open on the 240 with base ISO 200 is often too much light, but having the SL with 100 as base ISO would help one stop.
What about high ISO ? On my 240 I only go up to 1250, assume the SL would be good till 3200 or even higher ?


And: Would a 21mm Voigtländer work on the SL - it does not really on the 240...

Would be interesting to get your thoughts on that.

Thanx & Cheers Axel

[tomklein_photo]

I love working with the M, but in combination with my favourite lens, the old 75/1.4, it becomes a lottery to nail the focus in portrait distance wide open. With the SL this becomes so much easier, plus it is a great combination from a handling perspective... the 75 on the M makes it very nose-heavy...

[DidierMOULINPhotography]

Hi Matt, what about the Lumix S1 or S5 (even better because smaller) which have IBIS... which can be very useful depending situation.

[manemrob]

Thanks for this review Matt! I literally just yesterday ordered a Lumix DC-S1 which is a 24MP mirrorless similar to the SL... It has the same lens mount (Leica L) as the SL and also has a 76% magnification 5.7MP EVF... Even brand new it is very reasonable at $2, 000 US. I'm going to be using M Mount lenses with a close focusing helicoid Kipon Leica M Mount to Leica L Mount adapter.

[eagleeyephoto]

You explained the reasons why I left Leica and went with apsc and MF Fujifilm.

[KandyRedCoi]

considering the SL for more action shots, although im gonna try to take more action images w/ my m240... the autofocus the longer lenses available with the SL might make things easier while still staying with the red dot family

[jonhermannsson]

great images and nice overview of the SL - the M240 seems to clip the highlight, gives very bright images - to me the SL images where better - more contrasty but still dreamy - the CL was more of what I can do with my Fujis as far as a tone but you are great with finding the right angles and poses etc - just bummer how heavy the SL is. My issue is bad eyes so find MF is just not working and SL has only Face AF - so find my A7 iii's just so fantastic with eye AF and super fast AF - don't need the speed of the A9 II - for its price - would have gotten the SL if not for weight and no Eye AF
I see a SL in your future :)

[DidierMOULINPhotography]

Another question matt, sorry I ask them as I see the video. Doesn't the CL have black screen between 2 photos as the SL does?