Leica's CL gives an iconic design the present day tech it merits

Until recently, Leica built cute, high-priced cameras that no one ever known as “modern.” The TL2, however, these days marked a trade in the path. Not best turned into it fairly reasonably-priced for a Leica at $1,950, but it changed into endowed with modern-day functions like 4K video. It’s pushing that concept in addition to the CL; it is a new $2,795 flagship 24.2-megapixel APS-C mirrorless that looks and feels greater like an old-college Leica, thanks to a new frame and manual dials. At the same time, it’s were given the tech you’ll assume in a present-day digicam, consisting of an all-new digital viewfinder.

Leica’s goal with the TL2 turned into to carry contemporary performance and specs to the T, its first APS-C camera. It replaced the sensor and electronics wholesale, endowing it with a new 24-megapixel sensor, 4K video, a touchscreen interface, and comparatively fast autofocus overall performance. “Everything the customers asked for, we gave it to them in July with the TL2,” Leica Product Manager Maike Harberts instructed Engadget.

What it became lacking, though, changed into a Leica-like tactile experience in which the CL comes in. The new version has identical electronics because of the TL2. Still, it looks greater, just like the German corporation’s more traditional M or Q full-frame fashions with an easy, low-profile metal frame and manual dials. “The CL got its idea from the cameras like the IIIG, with a conventional layout, and we transferred that type of idea onto the CL camera,” said Harberts.

More importantly, it has a new 2.36 million dot digital viewfinder (EVF) built expressly for it. “It’s for individuals who love to take the camera to their eye, modify the most crucial values and simply be inside the area and take pics,” defined Harberts. In exchange for that manual functionality, the CL has a smaller 3.0-inch touchscreen menu pushed with the D-pad’s aid. Touch options are reserved for reviewing and zooming in on pics via pinching, dragging, and switching between video and image modes. In video mode, tapping, we could turn between record and evaluate modes.

Looking at the numbers, the Leica CL has an equal 24.2-megapixel sensor, 49-point evaluation autofocus, and a Maestro II collection processor that’s at the TL2. That gives the CL 10 fps burst taking pictures speeds in both mechanical and electronic shutter modes, letting you seize around 33 RAW pictures earlier than the buffer fills.

ISOs variety from 100 to 50,000, even as the shutter speed goes up to at least one/8000th of a second in mechanical mode and 1/25,000th electronically. The electronic shutter makes nary a peep, which is ideal news for road or golf photographers. Unfortunately, there is no optical photo stabilization on either the body or TL lenses. The only way to get it is through using a complete-body stabilized SL lens, which can be hooked up without an adapter; however, it will cost you a hell of plenty extra than a TL lens.

For video, the max decision is (yay!) 4K at 30 fps, or 60 fps 1080p, however no microphone input (boo!), so that you’re constrained to the onboard mic or an outside recorder. It’s fair to say, but now not many parents in Leica’s intended marketplace could use the CL for whatever aside from informal video. You also get WiFi — the best way to transfer pix at once from the camera, in view that there may be no USB port — and an unmarried UHS-II-supported SD card slot. The TL2 did not have amazing battery life, and the CL is even worse, letting you shoot about 220 pics at a rate. In other phrases, order at least a spare battery or two. I’ve had some days to play with Leica’s CL, ready with a state-of-the-art 18mm f/2.Eight pancake lenses. Together, they make an aggregate perfect for street photography, something Leica is famous for, so that’s what I tested in my Paris community.

Built-in Germany, the body is magnesium with an anodized aluminum top and backside covers. If you are into that classic Leica fashion, it’s difficult to name this digital camera whatever, however “fantastic,” mainly if you upload the optional leather-based half case. It’s quite light at 403 grams with a battery, less than Sony’s A6500 (453 grams) and the Fuji X-T2 (503 grams). With the pancake lens, it’s about as mild as an APS-C interchangeable-lens digicam may be, and I should (just) in shape it in my jacket pocket.

The pinnacle left button/dial mixture is reserved for aperture or shutter, depending on the mode. However, the right-hand dial can be programmed for shutter, exposure repayment, ISO, and five different settings. The two dials and their buttons will let you exchange maximum settings. However, it’s no longer quite as great as having, say, five dedicated dials such as you get on the X-T2. There also are three rear buttons (“play,” a programmable “feature,” and “menu”) and a D-pad. A small, backlit screen on the pinnacle indicates essential settings like shutter velocity, aperture, and exposure compensation.

The camera turned fairly clean to learn, and I should certainly shoot without taking it far from my eye. The EVF is as brilliant and fast as promised and offers accurate colorings. The rear show is visible in daylight, but it’s now not tiltable like on most of the CL’s competitors. That’s unfortunate, especially for low- or excessive-angle road photographs; however, on the other hand, it’d upload weight and put off from the camera’s stable-slab-of-metallic feel.

Thanks to the silent digital shutter, it became smooth to be discreet while capturing. That said, the mechanical shutter makes a completely fulfilling sound, so I became a form of torn between the 2. Given the lack of stabilization, you can go along with the digital mode in low mild to reduce vibration. That lack of stabilization isn’t a massive difficulty on a huge lens, just like the 18mm; I could shoot sharp snapshots at a shutter velocity as low as 1/twenty fifth of a second. It might be on an extended, heavier lens, but capturing handheld video is quite an awful lot impossible until you’ve got steadier palms than I do.

With the color set for “herbal” (there is also “shiny,” “well-known,” and two black and white settings), the Leica CL produced correct hues that were simply on the facet of “warm” that I pick with fairly punchy contrast. I took most of the photographs at ISO stages of between 1 six hundred and six 400 and observed noise tiers to be very desirable. Snapshots begin to get a chunk crunchy when you push it as much as 12,800 and beyond. The CL’s DNG images carry the first-rate quantity of photograph data (14 bits), so it’s clean to drag info out of sections that are too darkish or too brilliant.

In sum, the CL isn’t extraordinarily exclusive from the TL2, but Leica is clearly pitching it at Leica-files who choose the conventional shape and dials. The biggest addition is the integrated digital viewfinder that is going in a protracted manner to transform it into a rangefinder-like version loved by lovers of the logo. What’s lacking as compared to opponents is picture stabilization and USB transfers, objects that probably aren’t deal-breakers for maximum wannabe Leica buyers.