Review: The Leica SL2-S

Introduction

So, here we have Leica’s upgrade to the SL, or so I thought, but it isn’t quite that simple.

I have been looking back at my Lightroom catalogue and it seems that I first shot with the Leica SL on June 1st 2015. Since then I’ve photographed lots of events, seven weddings and hundreds of landscape, environmental and wildlife images (and even some street photography).

Nearly four and a half years on, my camera has been through hell and high water, Rain and sweat and dust and seaspray, it’s been banged against walls and pulled onto the floor by children. It has performed flawlessly, and I know it better than any camera I have ever used. I have no idea how many pictures I’ve taken with it, but I have around 20,000 saved images (and I’m really very brutal about culling) I would estimate well over 200,000.

The SL still fulfills all my requirements, and I’m still in love with the interface. So why would I want something different, and let’s be honest – how often does one really NEED 47mp. Added to which the strap lugs on the SL2 stick out, and it only has 3 buttons on the back (rather than the 4 on the SL), and they have writing on them!

Worse than that, they’ve replaced the beautiful Bauhaus brutalism with a kind of soft edged version, all the edges smoothed out and finessed.

But it’s my job to test these cameras, so I have, and my thoughts are below.

As usual I should stress that my remit is to test cameras, not to write reviews, and if I find something wrong, then my duty is to tell Leica about it (not you) . . And I certainly do tell Leica! Having said that, I would never knowingly miss out a fault (like the sticky out strap lugs), and I will do my very best to convey my honest feelings about the camera. Leica never try to influence my writing, although they do have the opportunity to fact check what I write.

Sadly I’m not a video photographer, but I’m going to spend  more time on the video features as they seem to be much more significant in the SL2.

I really hope you enjoy this article. I have perhaps been a bit more descriptive than normal about the functions / operation and menus as I feel that there are quite a lot of innovations and that they’re worth the time and effort, and I’m hoping that the article will be a good companion for those who have just received the camera (or are waiting for it).

To continue reading, click here.