Andrew Reid

Regarding the EVF It is 4.4m dots (RGB), not Pixels as stated by Leica themselves on their website (cmd-f 'EyeRes viewfinder' http://us.leica-camera.com/Corposite/Photography/Leica-SL/Details) It is 1400 x 1050 so Eno is right about 1.45 megapixel. That's nearly double the 0.7 megapixel (approx 2.36 million dot) resolution EVF in the Sony A7R II and Fuji X-T2. The panel size for the Leica SL EVF is 0.66 inch compared to the usual 0.48 inch and 0.5" of Sony and Fuji. I am hearing great things about the Panasonic GH5 3.68m dot EVF though. The Leica Q also appears to have that same panel with 3.68m dots and since it is a smaller viewfinder the picture is even sharper to the eye than the Leica SL, and I'd give it the edge for contrast as well. Looking through the Leica Q EVF gives you an insane 3D effect to the 28mm lens and really nice colour, way better than the LCD on the back.

Japan and Germany are both top-teir manufacturing countries with the best and most advanced skills and factories. Even if it is thought of as a full frame Panasonic GH5 with Leica's ergonomic design and custom lens mount, that's fine by me. A lot of Leica's best lenses were made in Canada any way Noctilux among them.

The LAOWA may have a silly name, but it looks absolutely stunning. You're right, the Sigma 30mm F1.4 is a great bargain I have the Panasonic-Leica 25mm F1.4 DG and it's just ok. The original Four Thirds Leica 25mm F1.4 D, was better optically, better mechanically and had OIS. miss that beast I have the Sigma 30mm F1.4 on E-mount and even on APS-C there's hardly any distortion and the corners are tack sharp.

No religious talk on this forum, thank you.

Well people with 8bit displays have been raving about 10bit for ages now so it's time to find out the truth I can certainly see a difference with 14bit RAW but I'm not sure about 10bit vs 8bit YUV JPEGs are 8bit, nobody complains That said, the whole image processor seems to have had a hefty upgrade in the GH5 and I am still expecting good things from it

It's a Rumours website vs a Leica engineer What does God have to do with it you lunatic?

Well the differences in that video are so subtle I can't even see any The colours coming off the sensor though look fantastic, a big improvement in skintones for Panasonic this time round Is that the 180fps at the end? they didn't bother to label it... If it is 180fps that looksimproved over the pre-production model footage I saw before... not a hint of moire and very nice detail But the 10bit needs some proper evaluation once this marketing bullshit period is over, me thinks

Unless you need AF for video, which by that I mean the 1D X Mark II is literally the only good choice, then you will be manually focussing. Therefore you are going to be using the same Canon lenses on the Leica SL as you would be on the GH5 with Speed Booster or any number of other standard lens mounts. The SL lenses are incredibly expensive as I mentioned in the blog post, I am not tempted by any of them unless the used price of the 24-90 comes down to something sane! Having said that they are absolutely on the cutting edge of mirrorless optics. I knew this. Yeah it's interesting and I'm not denying it but a rumours site is not "proof" I just wondered if you had absolute proof or not. The spec does have the hallmarks of Panasonic But Fujitsu make their processors so it isn't that simple. Also the sensor and image processor are custom designs which Leica had a heavy input into. I wish Panasonic would make their own full frame mirrorless camera based on the same tech... but oddly they seem not to be up for it. GH5 might be great but it is no A7R II rival in the stills market and most photographers will go for the E-M1 II if they want a M43 body. L-LOG format is nothing like V-LOG... Leica seem responsible for the LOG characteristics and it is still not right. They should copy Canon LOG like me You are making out that everything is just a straight re-badging of a Panasonic product. Again things are not that simple I have had this lens in my hands. It says Made in Germany on the body. The electronics and AF systems very likely come from Panasonic. The optical formula is definitely designed in-house at Leica though. They have said so in interviews. I expect it is a joint effort between Leica and Panasonic in terms of design, speccing out, manufacturing and housing the optics. Correct, they also make the 3m dot EVF in the GH5 and Leica Q, which by the way is an amazingly sharp panel as well But the optics of the EVF are not by Epson, and are just as important as the LCD. There is no one single origin.

Does ANYBODY have a proper comparison video up yet? What about a direct split screen comparison between the 10bit and 8bit mode? And does 10bit make a difference in the grade? Aside from Neumann all the coverage this time has been total lightweight fluff. Really lazy. Quickly punted out, to collect hits. I honestly don't think any of the testers have put more than 5 minutes of work per video into what they have done. Can't find anything comprehensive at all. They really should have given me a camera, the retards

Looking forward to seeing how your medium format speed booster goes They make it in E mount and SL mount You're right, once you get bitten by the Leica bug you want more and more until you go broke The used price of the SL, I've seen as low as £4200 in the UK. Mine was £5000 new. With Sony churning out their mass market stuff for £3500 new, the price difference isn't as big as people think - you get a lot from Leica for your extra dosh The SL is a niche camera made in much smaller quantities and it is nicer in almost every way to shoot with especially stills I also like how you can enter video mode with a single press of a dedicated button and it can remember to stay in when you turn the camera off and on again, unlike the Samsung NX1. No dwiddling the mode dial. It doesn't even have a mode dial. Then you have a user favourites menu on one press, put the video resolution and frame rates as top option, so you can be in there changing between 4k and 120fps 1080p on one page in just 2 presses. Try doing that with a Sony It has the best joystick of any camera, it is like tweaking a nipple, on a very nice supermodel. RAW stills quality is similar to the 1D X Mark II. Low light performance is also very good.

Source? The electronics may be sourced from Asia and most likely Panasonic but you haven't provided any proof. The aluminium body is made in Germany.

I've seen conflicting reports of the M10 sensor's high ISO performance, either way there's not much in it. That camera sadly doesn't do video at all. The Leica Q has a slightly noisier readout in that small body, it is very nice but not quite Leica SL performance in low light for stills. For video the Q is nowhere close, it doesn't even have 24p. No 4K on the Q and its 1080p isn't as crisp as the SL. Yes I believe it is TowerJazz or their joint venture with Pana that fabs the Leica sensor (and possibly RED's), while the Arri Alexa is ON Semi. Will be trying the 10bit 4:2:2 4K with the Odyssey 7Q+ later.

What do you upgrade to once you get bored of Sony and Panasonic? I went to find out. Read the full blog here

Soon I will be moving EOSHD to a new server, so the forums will shortly show a message saying we're offline... Should only be out of action for an hour or so...

Nofilmschool can fuck off.

There's no point being anti-raw when you have it on something like a 5D Mark III, and it turns out to be a million times better than the compressed option on that camera.

This is a complete no-brainer. The 1D C is the one to go for if you want the best 4K. The sensor crop of the 5D Mark IV and poor low light performance kill it. The only reason to even consider it is Dual pixel AF. The 1D C is also a MUCH better stills camera, with a pro body - which means build quality is in a different league altogether.

In my experience, at least for video the low light is definitely not significantly better than the Panasonic G85!

More like Japanese needs are often vasty different to the mainstream. EOS M sales flunked everywhere else.

The pinch of salt comes in handy because the Japanese market is so different to the rest of the world. Nice to see Olympus doing well back at home though!

The problem with these charts and scores is that they don't take into account subjectivity by their very nature, they are only about technical dynamics and figures. The Leica M9 full frame CCD sensor is a case in point. Different tonal response, colour, noise pattern, more filmic to my eye to CMOS - subjectively so. Loses badly to a lot of crop sensor crap on the DXOMark charts. So you need to be careful, there are a lot of people taking DXOMark as gospel and the RED Helium sensor, which I am sure is incredible, will also have a look that either subjectively you like to dislike, that only a real world test can show... yet because it got a high score on DXOMark the internet went wild and a consensus grew that this could be one of the best sensors ever created. Personally, a sensor cannot be judged independently of the lenses you use on it and the format of the sensor - i.e. Super 16mm, 35mm, 65mm. And as we see from the Leica M9, how the dynamic range is subjectively handled is more important than the number of stops on a test chart, which may not even all be usable any way.

What Fuji is good at is value for money by comparison to Leica. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Yes the lenses are sharp, decently made - for what they are. But the reality is - Fuji is cheap cut price crop glass compared to Leica. Very cheap to make, APS-C, not full frame. The system is good but a pale imitation of what the Leica M and SL range offers optically. Fuji have been inspired by Leica in terms of design, sure... Right down to the rangefinder style Hybrid VF. But technically they are not at the same level. Also Leica glass has that artisan, painterly look that the clinical modern mirrorless Panasonic, Fuji and Sony lenses don't usually have as much of. Fuji are not into the medium format market with GFX - very good sensor in that camera but again the optics are a bit uninspired compared to Leica. Medium format apertures tend to be slow. I'd rather use a fast F1 or F1.4 Leica lens on full frame than go medium format right now, if we're talking £8000+ for the Fuji GFX or Hasselblad X1D.

Leica Noctilux F1 would be F0.64 brightness on this puppy... I am going to try it out.

You broke the skintones entirely. Back to the drawing board with that one.

Here's what I don't get though - the 5D Mk IV is a noisy as hell camera with 30MP, yet have you seen the ISO score on Bill's chart and at DXOMark? Makes no sense for it to be so high.