Leica SL2

Leica was the second company after Sony to make a full-frame mirrorless camera, in the shape of the 24MP SL (Typ 601) in 2015. But a lot has changed since then: Sony has released a couple of increasingly refined generations of its Alpha 7R series, and both Canon and Nikon have jumped into this market, too. In response, Leica has joined forces with Sigma and Panasonic to form the L-Mount Alliance, with its first new camera as part of this venture being the updated SL2.

Leica has a long and deep-running cooperation with Panasonic, and as a result, the SL2 has a great deal in common with the Lumix S1R. Both are large, heavy SLR-style cameras that sport a 47.3MP full-frame sensor, 5-axis in-body stabilisation, a 5.76m-dot electronic viewfinder with 0.78x magnification, and a large, sharp 3.2in, 2.1m-dot touchscreen LCD. Yet at £5,300 body-only, the SL2 costs almost £2,000 more than its L-mount cousin. We're used to seeing a premium for the Leica red dot and ‘Made in Germany' engraved on the baseplate, but what, if anything, do you gain in terms of photographic capability?

Features

For most photographers, Leica is indelibly associated with its M-series rangefinders, which took the transition from film to digital in their stride while barely changing a design that originated in the 1950s. So it's perhaps tempting to assume that the firm's mirrorless models might be similarly conservative in their approach. But nothing could be further