LEICA SL

I’ve now shot with the new SL, and it’s very nice: Leica quality, metal body, full-frame 24 MP sensor, 12 fps, 4K video, high-res EVF, weather sealed, and rugged. Of course, I’m a dyed in the wool Leica fan, so I find it all very tempting. Except for the fact the SL was launched as a professional camera three months ago and still only has one AF-IS lens available, a 24-90mm f2.8-4. That and it’s very expensive… $12.5K for the body/lens package.

If you are one of those long-time Leica photographers who kept their R lenses to use on the latest cameras (like me), and would like to stay all Leica, you are in luck (sort of). But just imagine how great it would have been if the SL was really designed for them. What if it had direct mounting of R lenses with automatic diaphragm control and image stabilization at the sensor level? That would have been ideal and a dream come true. As it is, the R converter and only two other very pricey AF lenses are planned for 2016. And no other AF-IS lenses have been announced. Not really the solution many R lens enthusiasts were hoping for…