MIRRORLESS CAMERA TEST
EXPERT OPINION ON THE L ATEST KIT
This could be the best mirrorless camera Leica has ever made, even if it lacks some of the soul of its rangefinder siblings
leica-camera.com £5,920/$6,995
The Leica SL3 is the first T mirrorless camera from Leica that I’ve fallen in love with. I love using the M and Q cameras, but the SL series just never did it for me – and the fact that they were similar to Panasonic’s S cameras, apart from the price tags, certainly didn’t help.
However, the Leica SL3 absolutely knocks things out of the park in ways its predecessors never managed. While it might lack the soul of a Leica M11 or even the Leica Q3, this beautiful slab of sculpted black metal is a straight-up spectacular imaging machine. The Leica SL3 takes a number of technological cues from the Leica Q3, namely its triple-resolution 60.3MP image sensor and phase-detect autofocus – the latter being nothing short of transformative for the SL series.
Depending on your resolution and workflow needs you can set the camera to capture a large, medium or small image, clocking in at 60.3MP (9520 x 6336), 36.4MP (7392 x 4928) or 18.5MP (5280 x 3504) respectively. The resolution makes the SL3 capable of 8K video up to 30p, with all the trimmings such as H.265 and ProRes protocols, timecode interface, Log mode and full-size HDMI port. The sensor is Dual Basis ISO, too, with a Low setting of ISO 50-280 (ISO 200-560 in Log) and a High of ISO 320-100,000 (ISO 640-100,000 in Log), adding to the overall video-friendly functionality of this camera.
Accordingly, the SL3 introduces support for the CFexpress Type B format to facilitate the fast transfer speeds needed for such highresolution imaging. It features a CFexpress card slot, along with one for UHS-II SD cards. Some might prefer an all-in approach, with dual CFexpress cards to deliver the highest possible speed and buffering, rather than there being a performance difference with the slower SD format; however, many workflows will make use of the still-dominant SD cards.
Despite the faster memory format, Continuous shooting has taken a bit of a hit from the Leica SL2, down from a maximum burst of 20fps to
