Leica’s SL cameras are a bit more mainstream in design than its iconic M rangefinder line, but sacrifice none of the material quality or attention to detail that have cemented the company’s position as a premium brand. Its SL2-S ($4,995, body only) offers modern conveniences that you don’t get with an M10 rangefinder, including a smart autofocus system and 4K video recording, and packages it in a stunning, all-weather body. It costs more than mainstream alternatives, like our Editors’ Choice winner, the Panasonic Lumix S5, but there’s no question as to where your money goes—the SL2-S delivers a true luxury experience.
Emphasis on Design
The SL2-S shares its body design with the SL2, a 2019 release. The SL2 is made for high-resolution imaging, using a 47MP full-frame sensor compared with the SL2-S’s 24MP. There are some aesthetic changes here and there (the SL2’s print logo is painted white, while it’s left black with the SL2-S), but the two look, feel, and operate just the same.
I’m a fan of the SL2-S’s slightly understated look, even if it doesn’t match up quite as well with the vintage analog cameras that inspired its design. It’s sized in line with other full-frame models, at 4.2 by 5.7 by 3.3 inches (HWD), and weighs a very reasonable two pounds without a lens.
Leica uses a magnesium alloy chassis to help keep things light and sturdy, matched with an anodized aluminum top plate. The camera is protected from dust and splashes—its IP54 rating means you can use it in the rain without worry when paired with a protected lens.
Ergonomics are a subjective matter, but I like the feel of the SL2-S’s grip. It’s finished with a textured leatherette and has an interesting shape, with a ridge that creates an indented trough for your fingertips. It adds some confidence to the grip, especially important when handholding the camera.
The SL2-S works with L-mount lenses natively, and can use Leica M rangefinder lenses with an adapter. I tried the camera with both types and found that it paired well with an autofocus zoom, the Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-70mm F2.8 ASPH., a manual focus prime, the Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm F0.95 in L-mount, and a vintage M rangefinder lens, the Summicron-C 40mm F2.
Minimalist Controls Cover the Basics
The SL2-S’s design language is clean, with distinct lines, just a few buttons, and little accoutrement. Leica’s red dot logo is there, but that’s really it. Everything included on the body serves a purpose, a nod to the Bauhaus ethos that runs deep in Leica’s DNA; form follows function.
Controls are quite flexible—unmarked function buttons have default functions, but you can swap them out for others. There are two next to the lens, another pair on the top plate, and on the rear next to the viewfinder. It’s easy to swap functions—just hold the button in and a list shows up on the screen.
The shutter release is slightly angled, comfortably positioned atop the handgrip. The top plate also houses a monochrome information display, useful for checking exposure settings when working from a tripod or shooting from the hip, and a control dial.
The second control dial is on the rear, nestled in the top right corner. The eight-way joystick is a little to the left. It’s the main interface for menus—pressing it in is the equivalent to pressing the OK button on other cameras. It’s also used to move the active focus point around the frame, and pressing it while using an autofocus lens drives focus, the same as a dedicated AF-ON button.
The on/off switch is at the top left, and the only marked buttons on the camera run in a column below it. The Fn, Menu, and Play controls are prominent and spaced far enough apart for my clumsy left thumb to navigate them with ease.
Menu swaps the live view to an on-screen information display—exposure settings, shooting modes, and a couple of rows of quick settings are included, all adjustable using the joystick or by touch. Pressing Menu again takes you into the longer, text-based menu, navigable via the joystick only.
The Fn button toggles on-screen information—so you can frame a shot using grid lines and enjoy a live histogram to preview your exposure, or get rid of all the overlays for an unobstructed view of your scene.
Physical controls are perfectly complemented by the touch interface. The big 3.2-inch LCD is sharp (2.1 million dots) and bright. It’s very responsive to touch, so you can tap to set a focus point or adjust settings. I do wish Leica had included some articulation—a basic hinge to tilt up or down is really helpful for working from a tripod or making images from a lower angle.
There’s an eye-level viewfinder, too. The EVF is superb, both big to the eye (0.78x) and crisp (5.8 million dots), with an easily accessible diopter to fine-tune focus to your vision. The OLED panel shows strong colors and a smooth refresh rate. Because it’s an electronic view you can also set it to match the look of your photos—a black-and-white view for black-and-white photography—and you’ll benefit from focus aids to get the best results when working with manual focus lenses.
Power and Connectivity
The SL2-S is a connected camera, with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built-in. It goes as far as to work with a smartphone app, Leica Fotos, to ease configuration. The SL2-S was able to connect to my iPhone to automatically set the camera clock, and it supports wireless transfer of Raw and JPG photos. You can use your phone as a remote control, complete with live view and tap-to-focus.
Physical connections include a standard hot shoe for an external flash or other accessories. A full-size HDMI port is on the left—this is a very capable video camera, and compatible with external recorders like the Atomos Ninja V. You also get 3.5mm jacks to connect an external microphone and headphones.
The battery pack is the same BP-SCL4 used by the SL2, but the SL2-S is a bit more efficient, netting a robust 510 images per charge. I’d still think about a spare battery for travel and some peace of mind, but it’s easy enough to top off on the go thanks to in-camera charging via USB-C. A standard wall charger is included, too.
There are two memory card slots, a plus for photographers who want to write images to two cards for some redundancy, or those who want to put photos on one card and videos on another. Both support the speediest UHS-II SD cards.
Intelligent Autofocus
As is becoming standard for mirrorless cameras, the SL2-S goes a bit beyond the basic autofocus systems found in early models and SLRs. It can find focus nearly to the edge of the sensor, so your creative framing isn’t limited by the focus system and you can avoid clunky methods like focus-and-recompose.
It’s also pretty smart. The SL2-S can recognize human faces, eyes, and bodies. You can let the focus system decide what to lock on or restrict its area and use the joystick control to reposition the focus point. Subject tracking, where the camera follows a target once it’s acquired, is also available.
The focus system is contrast-based and is imminently responsive, though it’s not the best for capturing fast-moving action. The SL2-S can fire at 9fps with its mechanical shutter, and 25fps with the fully electronic shutter, but only with focus locked for the first shot in the sequence.
The medium drive setting keeps the camera going at 5fps and sets focus for every photo. It did a very good job keeping shots in focus in our test, where we snaps shot of a target moving toward and away from camera. You can fine-tune settings or choose from a handful of pre-baked recipes: Wildlife, Children and Pets, Team Sports, and Runner.
The buffer is good enough to hold about 80 DNG photos at 9fps and around 120 at the 5fps capture rate. It’s more than ample for the type of action for which the camera is suited. If you do fill it up, you can continue taking photos at a slower rate, and expect to wait a good 15 to 20 seconds for all of the photos to write to memory. We tested the camera with Sony Tough cards, rated for up to 299MBps transfer.
All in all, the contrast system is reliable, but simply not as fast as cameras that leverage on-sensor phase detection. You can get a basic Canon, Nikon, or Sony mirrorless and enjoy continuous focus and tracking at better than 10fps, and sports-focused models can hit 20 or 30fps. If you need that kind of performance, the SL2-S isn’t the right camera for you.
Stabilized Imaging
The SL2-S uses a five-axis IBIS system to steady its 24MP BSI CMOS sensor. The combination makes for usable handheld imaging in all types of light. It doesn’t have as many pixels as the 47MP SL2, but uses thin cover glass for better results with vintage Leica M lenses, and supports a very wide ISO 50-100000 sensitivity range.
The SL2-S can snap shots in ready-to-share JPG format, or you can switch to Raw DNG to get images that hold up to editing and toning. You can get creative either way, with several in-camera color and monochrome profiles available if you prefer the convenience of JPGs.
The default profile produces natural colors with a slightly low-contrast look. It delivers usable results through its range, too. Photos show excellent detail through 12500 ISO, and are still pretty good all the way through ISO 50000. Colors hold up at ISO 100000, but images are on the soft side, and we see some grain.
The Raw output is as good as you’ll get from a 24MP full-frame camera. Photos are very editable, with loads of room to adjust color, shadows, highlights, and contrast. You can also tune noise reduction to taste. Adobe’s default processing shows excellent clarity and a fine grain pattern, without splotchy color noise, through ISO 50000. The grain pattern is chunkier at ISO 100000, but you can still get usable images.
You can get away with longer shutter speeds thanks to the stabilization system, so you may not need to resort to extremely high sensitivity. Stabilization also comes in handy for tripod work—the camera supports a multi-shot mode for improved resolution. It takes a series of photos, shifting the sensor between each, to better sample color, and output photos at 96MP resolution. You’ll need to keep the camera steady and photograph still-life scenes for the best results.
Leica’s Best Video Camera
We were pretty happy with the video toolkit Leica managed to squeeze into the 47MP SL2, especially when you remember that high-resolution sensors can hamper video quality. The 24MP SL2-S is an even better 4K camera.
It supports 4K60 with a Super35 crop, and manages 10-bit 4:2:0 to memory or 4:2:2 to a recorder. At 30fps or 24fps you’ll enjoy uncropped full-width capture, and 4:2:2 footage to a memory card. Video is captured at a high bit rate too, up to 400Mbps. You can set it to record in the same profiles for stills—standard, natural, vivid, black-and-white, or high-contrast black-and-white.
In addition to standard profiles, a gradable L-Log and an HLG for HDR profile are included. Pro cinematographers will appreciate the ability to apply custom LUTs to preview preferred grades. Waveform monitoring is included, too—I stick to histograms, but real video folks prefer waveforms to read exposure.
It’s certainly Leica’s best video camera to date. The built-in profiles are there for creators who want to get good-looking footage right out of camera for basic edits. Pros can switch to L-Log, add an external recorder or microphone, and fiddle with settings as desired. We like the stabilized sensor for handheld video; it’s effective, especially at wider angles, though we do wish it had some screen articulation.
The L-Mount Lap of Luxury
The Leica SL2-S is a charming camera, one that handles well and delivers excellent results across the board. It’s not one for technical superlatives—you don’t get the most pixels, the fastest tracking focus, or support for Raw video recording.
Instead you get a very capable camera, one that snaps beautiful images and is elegantly designed. It’s built for real use, with robust weather protection and high-end alloys. It’s a joy to use with modern autofocus lenses and old-school Leica M glass alike. If we have a gripe about how the SL2-S handles, it’s the lack of a tilting screen.
You can argue that it’s not a technical match for other cameras in this price range. That’s true—you can get a Sony a9 II and net every shot in focus at 20fps for fewer dollars, or opt for a Panasonic S1H and record 6K video if that’s your speed. You’re paying extra here for the brand name and boutique craftsmanship.
For customers who aren’t put off by the price, the SL2-S is a worthwhile splurge. If you’re in love with its imaging capabilities and the L-mount lens series, but don’t have the dollars for a Leica, the Panasonic Lumix S5 is a great starter full-frame model.
