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NEWS / 3
FULL SPEED AHEAD Leica’s latest masterstroke
FROM THE EDITOR
But are the tech specs of the new SL3-P enough to make you buy it?
Kits are also available, such as the SL3-P with a Vario-Elmarit-SL 28- 70mm f/2.8 ASPH for £6100 or instead with the 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 for £8560. With the long zoom costing £2880 and the standard zoom priced at £2379 alone, it means you’re essentially bagging the new SL3-P for £3300. Of course, if you want to build a system and save more, the L-Mount means there are lots of options from Panasonic, Sigma and more. One stumbling block might be Panasonic’s £2699 Lumix S1R II, as it uses the same lens mount, sensor and processor as well as boasting 40fps stills speed and rolling shutter performance. However, it does have a different body and build – with none of Leica’s brand kudos. The SL3-P is also set to include Leica’s own colour science, LUT and app support. We’ll be doing a full test in the next issue of Photography News . leica.com
Photography used to be full of technical compromises – autofocus would miss, high ISO was noisy, burst rates were slow. If you wanted resolution you sacrificed speed, and if you wanted speed you gave up detail. Every camera came with limitations that photographers simply learned to work around. Not any more. The latest cameras are simply astonishing. In this issue alone we test Sony’s remarkable new A7R VI, which somehow combines huge resolution with stacked-sensor speed. Leica’s new SL3-P delivers 44 megapixels, 40fps shooting and 8K video in one beautifully engineered package. And its neo-brutalist looks prove that not all cameras have to look alike. Canon’s EOS R6 V pushes hybrid imaging even further, with creators now firmly in its sights. They’re incredible tools by any measure. But they also raise an interesting question: if cameras have become so good that they rarely get in the way, what separates a great photograph from the millions uploaded every day? The answer has never really changed. It’s still about seeing something others miss. It’s about patience, timing, composition and the understanding of light. No amount of AI-powered autofocus can decide where you should stand, when to press the shutter or why one moment is more meaningful than another. Technology can help you capture the picture, but it can’t tell you what the picture should be. Perhaps that’s why I particularly enjoyed putting together this issue.
The Leica SL3-P ticks so many boxes. It has bags of resolution
and speed for fast action stills, plus video specs and connectivity that makes it a great choice on paper. It hits the sweet spot for those who shoot a variety of subjects. The sticking point for Leica is the price, as its reflects the brand’s luxury heritage and top-quality build. Body only is £5150, putting it above rivals like Sony’s £4399 A7R VI, which uses a faster, stacked sensor. But it is still below the flagship Leica SL3, which uses a 60-megapixel sensor and is now discounted to £5749 at select retailers. The SL3-P is faster than the SL3 in terms of frame rates and rolling shutter performance.
GLOVES ARE OFF The SL3-P is fast and looks stylish, but it’s not cheap compared to its competition
Adam Duckworth
Editor
EDITORIAL TEAM Editor Adam Duckworth
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Pair excellence Leica has expanded its premium SL lens line-up with two primes. Joining the range are the Summilux-SL 50mm f/1.4 ASPH standard prime and the APO-Macro-Elmarit-SL 100mm f/2.8. The new £3890 50mm is claimed to be the world’s most compact autofocus f/1.4 standard lens, at 75.5mm long and 584g. Despite its small size, Leica says it delivers superb image quality thanks to two aspherical elements, an 11-blade aperture for smooth bokeh and a fast, quiet autofocus system. The bright aperture also makes it well suited to low-light photography and shallow depth-of-field portraits. Alongside it comes the £2110 APO-Macro-Elmarit-SL 100mm f/2.8, inspired by Leica’s classic 1987 macro lens. Offering life-size 1:1 reproduction with a minimum focusing distance of just 30cm, it’s designed for everything from detailed close-ups to flattering
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PUBLISHING Managing director Andy Brogden
portraiture. Apochromatic correction helps deliver sharpness and colour accuracy, while a nine-blade aperture produces smooth background blur. Both lenses feature Leica’s weather- resistant full-metal construction with IP54 protection, Aquadura coatings on the front element and a shared 67mm filter thread.
GLASS ACT Leica’s 50mm and 100mm Macro are a premium optical pairing
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