[Leica] the SL, first impressions

[Doug Herr]

The last two days I've only had a couple of hours to play with the SL.  I'd say 99.5% of it is very impressive and extremely capable;  I'll get to the other 0.5% shortly.

It's a very solid tool with clear, purposeful controls.  The viewfinder is quite good, the joystick is delightful (user-programmability of its acceleration function would improve it) and the other buttons, dials and such are readily at hand when needed and they stay out of the way when not needed  Very impressive.

My test photos are not intended to demonstrate the camera's artistic sensibilities.  I'm just testing technical performance.

One of the DMR's strengths is the robustness of the raw files, their ability to be manipulated, stomped on and tortured and not whimper.  Pulling detail out of shadows is one of my tests and to this end I enlisted the hummingbirds in my yard & made some backlit photos exposed for highlights, then used ACR's 'fill light' function to bring up the color and detail of the bird's gorget (the red feathers).  This robustness of the DMR files saved my butt on more than one occasion, for example:

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/mammals/leporidae/lepus/bthare06.html

so here's how the SL did (cropped, about 1/3 of the original file):

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/SL/L1050752.jpg

I'm impressed.


Responsiveness is another test.  My Sony a7II is quite responsive when I enable the electronic first curtain feature, but this feature's practical utility is limited to shutter speeds no faster than 1/1000 sec.  To test the SL I used the Ruby-crowned Kinglet that has taken a liking to my hummingbird feeder.  Kinglets are hyperactive bits of fluff and this particular kinglet was jumping from a twig, fluttering up to the feeder for a sip then back to the twig.  The entire process takes less than a second.  I wanted to see how much total lag there was between the viewfinder, my reaction timing, and the shutter lag.  I pre-focussed on the feeder tube and watched the viewfinder, pressing the shutter release when the bird entered the picture.  The camera is in single-shot drive mode, no crop:

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/SL/L1050888.jpg

I'm impressed.


I also learned that my FD adapter is a cheap POS and I'll need to use tape or jam some shims into the adapter's aperture stop-down ring in order to use my 500 L at any aperture other than f/4.5.

So now I get to the 0.5% I'm not thrilled with.  The camera's viewfinder defaults to automatic brightness mode with 'exposure simulation' mode enabled with a half-press of the shutter release or by pressing the exposure simulation mode button on the front of the camera.  The viewfinder reverts to the default automatic brightness mode after each exposure.

WTF were they thinking?  One of the really huge advantages of the EVF is the real-time exposure feedback.  Automatic viewfinder brightness in these scenarios makes the bird go so dark I can't see any detail for focussing or for catching the desired posture:

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/tyrannidae/pyrocephalus/veflyc00.html
http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/accipitridae/buteo/rshawk04.html

and makes the bird go alternately too bright or too dark when I shift the camera's field of view left or right:

http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/picidae/sphyrapicus/rbsaps02.html

Very distracting, breaks my concentration, makes focussing and seeing what the bird is doing very difficult.  In polite company I'd call the automatic viewfinder brightness feature an 'epic fail', and it's can't be turned off.  It can be turned off in the M240, why not the SL?  Re-enabling the exposure preview mode after every exposure reminds me of the days before SLRs had instant-return mirrors.  This one feature is a deal-breaker for me.

Needless to say I've e-mailed Leica about this stupid f***ed-up feature, and I've filtered my language for this post.  More SL playtime this weekend.


Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://www.wildlightphoto.com
http://doug-herr.fineartamerica.com