Gear -- 1 month ago
We Want: Leica SL – a new era in photography
Words: Gentleman's Journal
A photographer can never have enough kit. There’s always an occasion when another lens would have been great, just to get that little bit closer to the action. If you’re into photography, you know that feeling as you get to a scene on safari, or stare up at a mountain shrouded in a gloomy veil, as a keen snapper pulls up next to you with a lens the length of a French baguette and a body kit that weighs the same as a small cottage.
But these Goliaths are limiting. You can’t carry them when taking the dog for a walk on a crisp Sunday as you’re bound to give yourself chronic back pain and, such is their weight, by the time you’ve lifted the camera to your face, adjusted your shutter speed and ISO and focused, that Great crested grebe you spotted will have long disappeared into the reeds. Meanwhile, Joe Bloggs next to you with his small compact camera got the elegant waterbird in all its glory.
The smaller the camera, the more you’d carry it around and therefore take more photos. Camera brands have long been in a war to up their game and make waves within an eagerly expectant market, and as a result there are some incredible models out there from compacts to full frame SLs. There is, however, usually a level of compromise – a lower capability, or depth of tolerances – than the likes of the Canon 5Ds and Nikon D4S, as you’d expect.
So if I told you that a SL existed with a max ISO of 50,000 and a top shutter speed of 1/8000sec, would you believe me? I wouldn’t either, but the new 24MP full-frame mirrorless Leica has crash landed with quite a bang in the industry. It looks sleek and not overly complicated, yet has a spec list of functions to dwarf the likes of far more established models.
This convenient quality does come at a price – a rather eye-squinting £5,050 – but for this you get durability, the fastest autofocus on the market, and when you press the shutter halfway the 4.4-million-dot EVF will show you a preview of exactly what the resulting shot will look like. There’s a touchscreen, built in Wi-Fi and GPS… the list goes on.
Due to go on sale later this month, this camera ticks all the boxes. Interchangeable lenses make it a winner for the more advanced photographer, while the unobtrusive shape and build of the model will ensure it soon becomes a familiar weight by your side, meaning you never miss a Kodak moment.
For more information, see here.
