- If I was a superhero, this would be my pos.
- In front of me today,
is a camera from one of the most expensive camera brands
on the planet, Leica.
In this box is the SL2-S
and this camera is nearly $4,900 USD.
And that's one of their cheaper cameras, to be honest.
So let's open this box
and see why someone would buy something like this.
I have a knife today know
- [Andy] That's not allowed.
- I'm breaking the rules.
- [Andy] Its illegal.
- This camera is a loaner unit
and so it's not retail packaging.
So forgive the amount of bubble wrap.
Okay. So we have the camera body
which I'll take a look at in a second.
They also sent, a charger with an extra battery.
We have a, Leica M-adapter L.
We have a, Leica a branded camera strap,
but you probably won't use it
because you'll upgrade to something a little bit nicer.
Especially when you're spending this much money on a camera.
I would never use an included strap.
And the last thing we have in this box,
is the 24-90 f/2.8-f4 lens.
This is an L-M native lens that Leica makes it is, hoof!
This is a chunky boy holy crap.
And I mean, for context here is Canon's 24-105
which is a very similar range and inch and a bit longer,
And it's way heavier, holy crap.
But again, this camera is full frame, so let's have a look
of SL2-S from everything I've ever read
and now that I'm holding it, the SL2 body feels amazing.
So this camera feels like really solid.
Like the grip feels better
than almost any camera I've ever held
especially for stills.
So let's wait and see how this compares to my daily driver.
Okay, so it's 938 grams and then I'll weigh my M10.
This is a little unfair because it's wearing cage
but let's say it's around 655 grams, something like that.
This is significantly heavier and it shows
but it's also a more functional camera overall.
Let's take a look at a sensor.
Wow full frame 24MP backside illuminated sensor.
Apparently this is a new sensor from Leica.
I'm not a hundred percent certain on that.
Let's cover that up so that no dust gets in there.
And this man, this camera is just like
it feels like a brick, but like the best
most premium brick that ever held.
For IO we have a headphone and microphone jack.
We have a full size HDMI which I love to see.
And we have a Type-C port
which is good for file transfer and charging.
So you can keep this thing powered
and you'll probably wanna use the charging feature
because one single battery from this camera costs $275 USD
on BNH, which is a very tough pill to swallow.
When a battery for your camera is worth almost as much
as a very affordable lens.
The dial on the topic camera feels really nice.
It's really large, very cliquey.
And then there's two programmable buttons on the top.
And two programmable buttons, just
on the side of the grip here, which is also really nice.
And each of these buttons, you can kind of set
to whatever you want.
On the back of the camera there is the rear LCD
which is actually very nice.
And you have this little silicone joystick.
Honestly, I have loved the navigation of these menus.
Like there's only three other buttons on the back.
There's play there's function and there's menu.
And when you hit menu
you get this photo and video mode settings first
photo video and the settings are completely separate
from each other, which is the most seamless experience
between photo and video that I've ever had.
And I love it.
And if you press the menu button again
you get into the deeper part of the menu, which lets you get
in like, like more like a traditional camera.
But in general, you'll probably be using the quick settings.
And with this joystick, it's pretty easy to navigate.
So to finish off the back, you have the thumb dial here
which can be aperture or shutter speed.
You have an EVF toggle.
So if you press this, you can get turned off
LTG do EVF only or you switch it back to auto.
Where if you go to your IPS here, it'll just switch for you.
And that's pretty much it it's pretty bare bones
on the back of the camera.
But honestly I like the simplicity.
You have dual SD card slots.
So I've got two, 256 gig cards in here
which unfortunately aren't fast enough for the 4K video.
So you'll need pretty fast cards for the 4K video
on this camera because it's up to 400 megabytes per second.
Internally you can do up to 4K 30fps
and then externally you can do up to 4K 60fps.
And it has 180 and 120fps full HD modes as well.
Let's take a look at the bottom of the camera.
You have a little port for what I assume is a better grip
or you got a tripod Mount.
And then it took me a second
the first time I took this out of the box
but after I figured it out, it was very interesting.
for the battery release on this camera.
You press this little knot here
and then the battery pops out
but then it doesn't, it doesn't come out.
And I was like, Oh, is the camera broken?
It's actually really smart.
So you press this and then you click once
and then the battery comes out.
There's no battery door on this camera.
It's just a hole for where the battery would go.
It's almost like loading like a mag or something.
It's so satisfying.
Like Andy, can you hear that?
That click? I don't know.
Okay enough about the battery door
even though it's really cool.
I could not get over the sound.
Let's get to the lens.
Let's put this gigantic lens
on this camera and see how it feels.
Oh that's a good click. Very satisfying.
Wow. This is really heavy now. Holy crap.
Here's my M10 for reference.
So why don't we give this thing a test drive
We have Madison here.
We're gonna do a quick test on this lens the 24-90.
And then I'm gonna to switch to the 50mm
Noctilux then see how these photos turn out.
- If I was a super hero this would be my pos
- With the joystick the auto focus point
is so easy to almost even easier and faster
than my Fuji to adjust.
Do you hear that shutter sound?
That shutter sounds so nice.
- Now you're just gonna to have eight pictures on the wall.
- That's enough photos of this lens
and now I'm gonna switch them.
Don't bother including this part
of the video editor, because this is boring.
- No, it isn't a super exciting.
- Let's try this out.
And it's all manual focus.
I don't even, I can't even tell
if I'm it's so bright out and this is at like F1.
This lens is ridiculous on this camera because it's amazing.
I've never used anything harder to focus.
So as someone who doesn't really like
know that much about cameras
how much do you think this camera costs with this lens?
- Like wanna say over 10 grand it's like smoother.
It just sort of looks more sleek.
- Yeah, you're right on the money.
It's about just over 10 grand for the whole setup.
- Oh, okay well, yup.
- Let's see how these photos
The auto focus on this lens
and the sharpness performed pretty good
but you guys can be the judge.
Here's the photos
and we'll have these available for download.
If you wanna take a closer look at them
we're also gonna throw up a couple of photos
I took on the weekend here.
So you have a better sense
of like the different kinds of colors
you get straight out of camera on this.
After using this camera shooting a portrait of somebody
it was really fun.
And I enjoyed it.
The auto focus was as responsive as I needed it to be.
And while the camera is really heavy
it feels really good in the hand, just like a lot
of people who shoot video, like heavy cameras for balance.
I would describe this in a similar fashion.
Okay. Let's talk about why somebody would buy this camera
and why somebody might buy a Leica in general.
Because this camera set up
the body is $4,900 and this lens is $5,500.
But $10,000 is a ridiculous amount of money for a camera
and lens setup even for the most expensive stuff.
So why would you buy a Leica?
I can boil it down to three main reasons.
I think people like Leica cameras.
The first one being is the Leica of look, whether you agree
with it or not Leica has a specific look to the images.
I've been able to see images on Instagram and be like,
yup that was shot on the Leica.
And I was usually right because there's a feeling
to them that you can't really describe in words very easily.
Yes. Every camera has its own color science
and you can edit photos to look
like basically anything at this point.
But the colors that come out of this straight
out of camera with minimal editing, it's just
it's a different experience.
And that's the second part of this.
The camera itself, trust me guys for years.
And I've used a lot of cameras.
I thought while Leica seemed cool
and they were obviously very expensive.
They seemed unnecessary overpriced and something
that no one should really give that much attention to.
But from top to bottom the way the camera feels
the way it operates, the images coming off the sensor
how they are to edit everything that
Leica does is about the experience.
Leica knows that they will never be the most
cutting edge the most top end in terms of their specs
but they're not trying to be.
Like focuses mostly on delivering an experience
that you you want to use, want to be part of.
You want to pay, pick up this camera and use it.
I don't wanna put it down.
I just want to keep shooting.
And that's the best way I can explain it
because it really is the feeling of using the camera.
That is what they deliver.
And that might not matter to you.
You might not care about the experience of using a camera.
This is one of the easiest cameras I've ever seen for used.
And so are all of these.
You pay a lot for that experience.
The third and final reason,
some people might see as a good thing,
some people might see it as well
unnecessary is these cameras hold their value pretty well.
For example, this Leica M10 that came
out almost four years ago was just over we're $10,000 new.
And even today it's still worth about $6,000 Canadian.
That's a lot better than most cameras last
in terms of value over a four year period.
So if you are already on board for Leica
as experience for their cameras
and you want a camera that is the best they've made
for video and photo at the same time
then this is probably the camera for you.
If you want something that's the most cutting edge
has the best auto focus has the most utility
on gimbals and all these other video accessories.
This camera probably isn't for you.
So thank you guys for watching.
If you liked this video, give me a thumbs up.
If you didn't like it, you can give it a thumbs down
and leave a comment on any other camera.
You want me to check out.
I mean, I haven't checked out Hasselblad yet,
so maybe that's coming out.
We also have a video coming
out on the Sony FX3 very soon.
And we also recently did a video on the Zeiss ZX1
if you're interested in that, thanks for watching.
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