Member Josh Lehrer

Great article.thank you so much for all the info.one thing I noticed with the electronic shutter when I set it to always on my shutter button does not work.it works fine in off and extended.

Jesse, that is something we plan on doing in a future post, it just requires more testing than we had time for. The SL's auto focus has been improved with every major firmware update and 3.0 is no exception!

Thank you for this comment, I actually added a new section to the post about this change. Take a look!

Steve, to shoot a DNG only on the SL, you want to go to Photo File Format which is near the top of the Camera menu (one of the first settings you'll see when you bring up the menu). Then you can select DNG!

Josh Well done ! I am impressed that our discussions actually made it into this firmware release . No time to test it this week ..but soon I will give you some feedback onAF tracking ….

Devin, from my testing here I do not see a difference in the behavior of the spot metering function in Manual mode whether Exposure Preview is set to PAS or PASM. The only difference I see with Manual mode is that in PASM, if you set your exposure manually, the live view will reflect that exposure even without the shutter half pressed. More testing is needed!

Devin, I'll take a look at your awesome chart, thanks!

Steve, I'm not sure what you mean. On the SL, if you shoot DNG only (by selecting DNG in the Photo File Format menu), there is no JPEG file created at all. Are you seeing something different?

Josh, is there a way to turn off the joystick / focus point grid on the display other than a half press on the shutter?

Josh, exactly what is “extended mode” for the electronic shutter?

Josh, please disregard the joystick / AF focus point question. I just remembered how to turn it off.

Josh, on the right bottom corner of the live view screen there is a number which changes when the shutter button is half pressed. That number on my SL is 5K. When the shutter button is half pressed it changes to something that looks like L 33 . What are these numbers? I can't find any reference to this in the manual. The screen images in the manual are all 633 or 634.

Scott, a 64GB SD card would be SDXC. I've always found SDHC (cards 32GB or smaller) to be a bit faster, in general. Interesting about the electronic shutter being a bit faster. I'll have to check that here too!

There is no new firmware for the TL lenses in SL firmware 3.0, only for the SL 24-90mm and 90-280mm. And yes the lens firmware update does take quite a while!

Arthur, I cannot speak for other Leica stores but at Leica Store Miami we always offer to update the firmware of new SL's that our customers purchase before we deliver them if they so choose. In regards to the AF tracking for video, it has been improved but we usually use manual focus for our video production so we have not test the video AF improvements extensively yet.

Arthur, while you can of course acquire the SL anywhere you like, I do want to mention that when you shop with Leica Store Miami, that does support our efforts here at Red Dot Forum to do the kind of testing our readers appreciate. You are also welcome to email me anytime with additional questions at josh@leicastoremiami.com.

Les,

If you enter playback mode on the SL and cycle through the info display (lower right button), you'll see the picture's file name in the upper right corner. Ex – L1003310

Hope this helps.

Good work Josh,
My review of all the reviews suggests this iteration of the M is getting universal acclaim.
My favorite part is that it is available now, not in 12 months. I like the ISO dial. All these little changes appear to really add to the appeal.
Jack

Thanks Josh, well written and succinct. Always exciting to hear of a new M.

You're not crazy at all. The SL is fantastic. Have you read our full review of the SL?

Leica SL (Typ 601) – A Professional Mirrorless Camera

I certainly join the above users when saying that your review was a substanciel aid for getting the set up of the new FW in place – the very best advice about this topic found on the net – in particular because of its VISUAL presentation. Thanks a lot!