Member Peter Dooling

Es posible upgrade for Leica M10

David,
Does the silent electronic shutter work well below 1/4000?

James,
Regarding battery life:
I agree with you but…
With the USB-C, I would just charge now through the cord to an external battery that I always carry for my phone anyway.

Regarding the price drop in the U.S. serving the goal of providing better global price harmonization (same price in different countries): please note that the European price dropped simultaneously from €6,900 to €5,900.

I don't think so. The SL was only introduced 18 months ago as a brand new system, and the lens line is still being developed. The Q is six months older and shows no signs of being replaced. Fact is, Leica's product cycles are longer now. Four years passed between the M240 and the M10. And, in many ways, the SL is still more advanced than the just-launched M10. From an image quality perspective, performance of the SL and the M10 are extremely similar. Leica has also been diligent about rolling out regular firmware updates for the SL to continually improve the performance and user experience. Bottom line: this is not an end of life product. Rather, it is Leica's current standard-bearer. Based on other product cycles, I wouldn't expect to see a replacement in anything less than 18-24 months. And a lot of new SL glass will be rolling out in that timeframe, further bolstering the system.

Mainly, I think the price adjustment is aimed at achieving global price harmonization.

The SL is doing well, especially for a new system. Leica just wants to accelerate this process and make it more competitive to attract those outside the Leica universe.

To your point about the lens selection, the SL is actually able to accept many more lenses than an M camera. These are:

• SL autofocus native lenses, which are some of the very best optics Leica is offering right now
• TL autofocus lenses, which only cover APS-C, but are perfect for 4K video projects
• S autofocus lenses with adapter
• R lenses with adapter
• M lenses with adapter
• PL mount cine lenses with adapter
• Nikon AF and MF lenses with adapter
• Canon AF lenses with adapter

So, quite a few lenses. By my rough count, more than 300 options.

As far as being outdated in two years time, take a look at the M9. The M9 was introduced eight years ago and has an very loyal following, still producing incredible images. Digital cameras don't get worse with age. They produce the same quality as they did they day they were manufactured. The SL is extremely quick in operation. I can't see myself needing anything faster than 11 fps. Heck, I only use single shot. At 24 megapixels, the files are large enough to produce stunning 30×40 inch prints. It shoots in low light up to ISO 6,400 with extraordinary quality. And, the 4.4 MP EVF rivals an optical finder. So, for me, I'd say the investment in an SL is much more than a two-year deal. I shot plenty of film before reluctantly transitioning to digital just a little more than 10 years ago. And while film has a certain look and nostalgia for me, I can't see going back. The quality and flexibility of the SL is so far beyond what I ever was able to achieve with film.

Digital has come a long way since Jim's passing. I'd like to think he would have heartily embraced the M Monochrom.

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.

Leica is delivering M10s, and has been since January. The issue is one of maximum production versus demand. The M10 is a hand-made product. It takes time to assemble, calibrate and test. As such, they can only make a limited amount per day. On the flip side, the demand is massive. Leica can't just make 50,000 cameras in one go. If history is a guide, meeting the initial M10 demand will most likely take another 6-8 months.

I appreciate that this post is 2 years old. I recently reactivated my membership here and was looking for information on lenses where the AF motor fail occurred. I have two lenses, one that failed and one that has not and is 4.5 years old. I am in Australia and repairs through the national distributor go to Wetzlar of course. I was considering the preemptive service, based on what I understood to be a new warranty period afterwards, as mentioned here.

My 70CS had the AF fail and was repaired free of charge, Six months later the central shutter failed. I had to pay for that repair and the advice from Wetzlar was that the warranty only covered the AF motor fault. It does not cover any other faults.
That makes paying for the preemptive fix much less attractive in my eyes