No question here. I'm a big fan of the Leica SL series cameras and especially the SL2. High resolution, beautiful color and beautiful industrial design. Besides the price, what's not to love?
I just became aware that Leica updated the firmware in the camera from 4.1 to 5.0. In doing so they added an internal perspective control feature, which I think is really great for all those architectural shooters out there, but what they added for me that put a big smile on my face is the ability to pair an old manual (non-Leica) lens with the camera's really good image stabilization.
Previously the camera would look at whatever lens you put on it to see if it was: A. A native L mount lens from one of the three participants in that lens family. B. An R Rom lens mounted to the camera with a Leica R to L adapter. C. A coded Leica M lens mounted to the camera with a Leica M to L adapter. If you had Leica lenses that were not equipped with coding or rom you could look in the lens profiles and choose your Leica lens. There was no option to just key in the focal length of a non-profiled lens and take advantage of the in-body I.S.
Sure, you could cheat and select a lens from one of the Leica lens on the profile lists and make due but the profile for, say, the 50mm R Summilux, includes more than just the focal length. The engineers built profiles that take into consideration things like color shifts across the frame and those are different from lens to lens. Same with distortion characteristics and vignetting. Using an included profile not specific to your actual lens might give you I.S. but it might also provide you with a host of unwanted issues as well.
With the update to 5.0 you can now go into the menu and select a specific focal length for a "mystery" lens and the camera will use the information for the purposes of stabilization without messing up other parameters of the lens's imaging. It's really nice to have.
The update to 5.0 also enhances the performance of other makers's L mount lenses (Think: Sigma and Panasonic) when used on the Leica SL2. I'd conjecture that we'll see greater battery life and more responsive AF performance as a result.
This and the previous major firmware update (4.0) both added to the camera's depth, performance and video chops. It's a continuous transformation of an already great product.
But I have a pressing question.
Why is it that the world's "largest" digital camera review site made no mention of such an important upgrade on a current, production camera? Has DPR given up reporting on Leica products altogether or are they too busy noting what's in Chris Nichols's backpack when he goes out on a canoe ride to bother reporting major camera upgrades from a company that is both a legend in the industry and the most profitable (per unit) camera maker in the world?
I guess when Barney left we ended up depending on DPR's "B" team for timely info only to see laid bare that their real focus is on.......only contemporaneous, mainstream product launches and leaky articles about technology on which they have a very shaky grip. Caveat Emptor.
https://leica-camera.com/en-US/photography/cameras/sl/sl2-black/firmware
