Leica SL3 review: Love blossomed with this mirrorless beauty
Leica SL3 review: Utterly peerless ★★★★★
It feels like the plot from one of the romcoms I get teased by my other half for watching. You bond over whiskies at an exotic location – well, if you can call Geleneagles exotic – they even lose your luggage for comedic effect. You fall in love. But you have to wait for an age until you meet again. Will the passion still run deep, or was it just a holiday romance?
Earlier this year I was part of a small band of journalists flown to Scotland for the launch of a new camera. It was all very secret squirrel, so much so that I’d worked myself up into a lather that it was the Leica M12, a replacement for the flagship Leica M11, a camera I’d gladly flog a kidney for and an event worthy of conquering my fear of flying.
Having reached the Highlands, it was a case of grabbing a camera and hitting the road, finding my feet as I went. Rather than the non-existent – yet highly anticipated – M12, the camera I’m having a romantic weekend with is the all-new Leica SL3. As usual, it’s love at first sight (why is it always that way with Leicas) but is it the basis for a long-term relationship? As they say: marry in haste and repent at leisure.
First and foremost, given our introduction was more speed-dating than in-depth analysis, I’m amazed at how easy it is to navigate the SL3’s settings and UI. After only ten minutes, I’ve got to grips with all the menus and functions – take my word for it, its touch-led interface is amazingly intuitive. Using the three command dials and the touch-sensitive rear (flip-up) screen, you can compose a symphony of composition in the time it takes to play one on your phone.
This is a proper professional full-frame mirrorless camera but its body only weighs 850 grams (1.87 lbs) with a battery: while it may break the bank it won’t break your back. The build quality of the sculpted body is superlative and ergonomically it’s almost perfect; one would expect nothing less of Leica.
With the now almost obligatory Animal Detect feature and face- and eye-detect settings, the phase detection autofocus system is a work of genius. Perhaps not as genius as Canon and Sony’s systems, but it more than makes up for that in other ways.
The 60.3MP sensor is nothing short of mind-blowing. Not only does it provide stunningly high resolution, but it also offers remarkable colour depth and dynamic range, rivalling what you’d typically expect from a medium format camera. It is simply fantastic across all film speeds but at the higher end of the spectrum the results were so good I had to triple-check that I had set the camera to 50,000 ISO (yes you did read that correctly, and it will even go up to 100,000 ISO).
Using that blisteringly fast ISO and 5-axis in-body 5.0 EV image stabilisation (IBIS) I was able to shoot images handheld in the gloom of the Gleneagles wine cellar on a long lens (Leica 90-280mm f/2.8-4), something that, when I studied photography in the 1980s, would have seemed as likely as me walking on the moon.
Like all relationships, it’s not perfect. The battery life is sub-optimal, cutting out long before the officially-rated 260 frames. I’d say carry a spare, but at £155 each that’s a big ask. That aside, the SL3 is a camera constructed for superlatives, gorgeous to look at, lovely to hold and a dream to use.
At £5,920 (body only), the Leica SL3 is a lot of money. However, when you buy a Leica you get so much more than just a camera: you are becoming a member of an exclusive camera club.
If you intend to join this photographic elite, don’t treat it like some trophy wife – use it. It really is one of the best mirrorless cameras I’ve ever used. Ultimately the fling blossomed into a fine romance and it indeed broke my heart to give this one back. So Leica, if I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?
• £5,920 – BUY IT HERE