Industry News: Leica announces the Leica SL2

Sporgon

5% of gear used 95% of the time
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Nov 11, 2012
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Holding a Leica like this in your hands, there is a feeling of holding perfection. The price tag, however, means that the only place I'll ever hold one of the$e with a len$ on it, is in a camera store. Glad to see they've got IBIS.

I wonder though, if it didn’t have that price tag, would it still feel like perfection when you held it ?
 
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Del Paso

M3 Singlestroke
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Aug 9, 2018
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It's a beautiful camera and takes great shots, but pros won't use it because of its very slow autofocus.
When I do an event or wedding, I can't wait for the camera to focus.
In the old days before AF, you learned to focus very quickly, but I wouldn't want to rely on manual focus looking at an evf, and there's no time for magnifying etc. Not even enough time to chimp!
For studio work where you are tethered and have time to adjust for each shot - this Leica would be great, but it's not for action.
How can you know how fast or slow the AF will be? Or did you mean the first SL? :unsure:
The SL 2's AF is said to be extremely fast...
 
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Keith_Reeder

I really don't mind offending trolls.
Feb 8, 2014
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Towerjazz.

That's my understanding as well. I think I read that Towerjazz and Panasonic are building a new chip fab in Japan which is supposed to take over production for next gen Panasonic's. I'm not sure how they are related financially. Either by joint venture or Panasonic as a stakeholder in Towerjazz. Nice to see some competition for Sony in supplying sensors to third party purchasers.
 
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I don't think Leica counts as a "third party purchaser" to Panasonic. Isn't Panasonic Leica's OEM (or even ODM) for this camera?
I was speaking in general terms regarding towerjazz's entry into the high end ILC sensor market as competition for Sony who is clearly the leader in camera sensor sales.

I'm not sure what the relationship is between Panasonic and Leica as far as sensor's go. I don't know why there would need to be one. The S1R and SL2 share a mount, sensor and some other components but they are not the same camera. It's posible Leica buy's the sensors from Panasonic but they might purchase them directly from Towerjazz. Doubtful I'll ever know the answer to that.

Likewise, I'm not sure if the S1R sensor was developed by Panasonic, Towerjazz or some combo of the two. That sort of information isn't easy to find from reliable sources.

I guess I should leave it to people with legal minds better than mine to determine who is a first, second and third party.

Either way, from what I've seen, the S1 sensors perform as well as anything else on the market in most of the ways that I care about.
 
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Apr 25, 2011
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I'm not sure what the relationship is between Panasonic and Leica as far as sensor's go. I don't know why there would need to be one. The S1R and SL2 share a mount, sensor and some other components but they are not the same camera. It's posible Leica buy's the sensors from Panasonic but they might purchase them directly from Towerjazz. Doubtful I'll ever know the answer to that.

Likewise, I'm not sure if the S1R sensor was developed by Panasonic, Towerjazz or some combo of the two. That sort of information isn't easy to find from reliable sources.
I think both sensors are produced at TPSCo's Uozu factory and are basically the same sensor (maybe except for the microlenses). I also think that the SL2 is manufactured by Panasonic.
 
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My understanding is that the micro-lenses were modified to allow better IQ with the acute light angles of some M lenses. I haven't seen anything to indicate that the SL2 is manufactured by Panasonic but that may be true. Some of the technology, such as the contact-less/magnetic controls in the SL2 seems proprietary to Leica. Personally I wouldn't have any problem with Panasonic manufacture but I'm not a camera purist. Leica folks are fickle and might not go for that. I would be surprised if that were the case but I'm sure it will come out pretty quickly if that's true. Given the small number of units they are actually going to sell it seems like they could at least do final assembly in Germany. They did have their big launch party there and I'm pretty sure the SL is German made.

Personally, If Canon can't put together a full-frame mirrorless solution that works for me and I go L-Mount I'd probably just buy one of the Panasonic S1 variants or and S2 if it takes me a while to make up my mind.
 
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