Leica SL hands-on first impressions review from a video perspective

[Andrew Reid]

The Leica SL has hit Berlin already and retail units will begin to ship in just over a week. I took the final camera in my hands to suss it out from a video point of view.

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[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

It's really seems made more for "oligarchs" than for photographers! 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

What's an oligarch? =D

It's not good/buy-able as a video camera given the cost and rivals, but it gives parts that will probably be used in future smaller cameras, most likely GH4 series. The EVF seems a great upgrade for GH4 users, a s35 Cut of this probably Panasonic sensor, giving the gh4 a big upgrade in size and high ISO performance (saying it looks noisy at 25000 ISO as a con made me laugh, how spoiled have become. I'd love that noise performance in a gh4)

 

Thanks for the hands on and files

[bunk]

I'd love that noise performance in a gh4) Thanks for the hands on and files

+1 ...also the YCbCr macroblocking smearing thing is way less ...and that with only half the data.

[JuankyAlvarez]

This camera graded beautifully. Although I had to move the "Black" and "Contrast" sliders on Premiere all the way Down and Up to get the black+contrast levels just right.

If the GH5 comes close to this camera it would be a color monster. Nice DR by the way. Those highlights are well under control for a heavily compressed file. 

I just used Lumetri in Premiere, nothing fancy.

 

[Brett Munoz]

Lmao. What a POS!  Will sell 10 cameras.   

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Theoretically this LOG gamma is bad it's actually gorgeous to grade. 

Most importantly, it looks great with a single S-curve, like Canon-Log.

I am shocked how it can be stretched soooo hard, in 8bit, yet still have no side effect. I mean this is the flatest thing I've seen, even latter than Arri LogC.

One Curve, et voila (listen S-log and V-log!)

 

 

The most common theoretical effect of this LOG gamma stretching is enomous banding everywhere, but ere, no hint of banding even on this very fine gradient. Highlight rolloff and DR are very very good. You can get such high contrast images.

 

 

Some extreme pixel peeping at solid gradient areas: No bands or steps in highight, mids or shadows despite extreme push. Weird

The only bad element in the Leica images, some colour noise, red but most apparently blue.

This pushed towards blue with added saturation for demonstration:

Pass through neat video (disabling any luminance NR, just chroma noise), it takes it away fully very quick, 

 

 

In short: I want a GH5 with this s35 image, DR, noise performance, highlight rendition, Log gamma and EVF. 

Anyone can calculate if Panasonic makes a s35 APS-C sized 3:2 sensor how many mps would it have? If it's below 16mp it aint gonna happen for photographers.

[3D-Kraft.com]

You wrote "The A7R II with it’s unusable 25p sunspot problem is one of them." - I assume you meant the A7SII?

[tugela]

What's an oligarch? =D

It's not good/buy-able as a video camera given the cost and rivals, but it gives parts that will probably be used in future smaller cameras, most likely GH4 series. The EVF seems a great upgrade for GH4 users, a s35 Cut of this probably Panasonic sensor, giving the gh4 a big upgrade in size and high ISO performance (saying it looks noisy at 25000 ISO as a con made me laugh, how spoiled have become. I'd love that noise performance in a gh4)

 

Thanks for the hands on and files

Its a Russian mafia boss.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

You wrote "The A7R II with it’s unusable 25p sunspot problem is one of them." - I assume you meant the A7SII?

yes.

Its a Russian mafia boss.

cute! Pronounced Olee-Gark?

[Mattias Burling]

It means a person with power through capital. Doesnt have to include or exclude mafia.

[Antonis]

And it can be applied to non Russian individuals just as well..

Back on topic//

Quite impressed with the dynamic range and ease of grading such flat images.
I did see quite a lot of macro blocking on the edge pillars of the window shot when you don't crash the blacks too much.

How easy was it to judge the exposure with the flat profile?
 

[pss]

i heard really good things about the 10bit HDMI output to a 7Q+ and got a chance to play with the SL and shoot some clips....my experience is very different then what is described in this review....i found the internal (4k non log) video horrible but then i haven't shot anything non log in a long time, i did (and do) find the internal vlog pretty amazing....yes, it is really flat but as far as i can tell it holds up better then (let's say) internal A7(r,s)II slog in grading....color especially is really nice and at lowest iso the files are some of the cleanest i have ever seen...i can't judge higher iso video but for the stills, leica chose to approach the issue by mostly removing chroma noise, so noise looks really nice (organic, grain like)....but regardless it is not A7SII performance....

i haven't had a chance to check out any external recording but 10 bit pro res 422 should be another step up from the internal 8bit 420 which is was already very impressed with....

there is another look at the camera:http://www.newsshooter.com/2015/11/03/test-video-leica-sl-4k-camera-tested-by-tim-arasheban-and-cinoflex/

i only had limited time to set the camera up and had to shoot without histogram, it was a little difficult to judge exposure because the log is so flat....shooting with an external recorder and using a LUT would make this easier, i don't believe leica has built in LUT support (yet?)....i also had a call in to find out how and what the histogram actually shows when shooting log but have not received an answer.....

[tugela]

It means a person with power through capital. Doesnt have to include or exclude mafia.

Except that the people who acquired that power didn't have capital to start with. They just took it, most likely by less than conventional means.

In English "mafia" is loosely used to describe organized crime, and if the rise of the wealthy in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union doesn't fit that description, then I don't know what does, lol.

[Don Kotlos]

I feel this camera is exactly opposite to what this forum is a about. Expensive with very little to offer. 

[Shield3]

"the quality of the full frame internal 1080/24p and 120fps, it really is very poor, reminiscent of the internal 1080p of the Samsung NX1 rather than the GH4."

Uhm, have you seen the 96FPS from the GH4?  The NX-1 @ 1080p120 crushes that IQ-wise.  Not sure what you mean here.

[Shield3]

After watching a car show yesterday (Fantomworks) I think I've finally figured out the purpose (and the author) of this website.

Andrew is like a horsepower nut for car guys.  He'll do all the things to squeeze out every ounce of HP (IQ/dynamic range) at the sake of usability (log shooting/exposure and grading).  He's like the guy who rips out the air conditioning in your car just to add 10 HP, no matter how nice and convenient it is to have (ND filters, normal profile shooting,, etc).  And always chasing that new engine.

What do I win?

[Liam]

"the quality of the full frame internal 1080/24p and 120fps, it really is very poor, reminiscent of the internal 1080p of the Samsung NX1 rather than the GH4."

Uhm, have you seen the 96FPS from the GH4?  The NX-1 @ 1080p120 crushes that IQ-wise.  Not sure what you mean here.

the standard frame rate 1080p.

and I find his reviews very helpful, thorough, and practical. others often are really basic or miss the point. or don't have any good footage attached to it

[Shield3]

the standard frame rate 1080p.

and I find his reviews very helpful, thorough, and practical. others often are really basic or miss the point. or don't have any good footage attached to it

Did anyone say Andrew isn't? 

[Liam]

Did anyone say Andrew isn't? 

guess I just didn't get your comment? sounded like you were describing a crazy person I'd never take advice from. anyway