Leica’s $5,300 Sl3-s Is Its Latest Hybrid Camera For Stills And Video

Leica has a caller camera for pros who sprout immoderate video and stills. The $5,295 Leica SL3-S, which launches today, is simply a full-frame mirrorless hybrid camera optimized for fast-action stills and 6K video. Like nan SL3 it’s based on, nan SL3-S has a compact assemblage and 3.2-inch tilting touchscreen display. But wherever nan SL3 pinch its 60mp sensor is chiefly for still photography, nan SL3-S is optimized for speed: its 24mp sensor tin sprout video astatine 6K pinch 12-bit earthy footage, and it tin seizure stills astatine up to 30fps pinch continuously hunt autofocus.

The SL3-S’s newfound video chops mean it supports open-gate 6K (5952 x 3968 resolution) signaling of its afloat 3:2 sensor astatine up to 30fps, aliases up to 60fps successful 4K, and it tin grounds consecutive to an SSD via USB-C connection. While it doesn’t personification an peculiarly high-resolution sensor for stills, it makes up for that pinch velocity and focusing ability. The SL3-S has 779 phase-detect autofocus points, overmuch than double nan SL3’s 315 points. It too has improved entity find and hunt focus, and it shoots accelerated tin to alteration 48- and 96-megapixel high-res multi-shot composites without a tripod.

Otherwise, nan SL3-S shares a batch pinch nan SL3 — utilizing nan aforesaid assemblage creation pinch dual insubstantial slots (one UHS-II SD and 1 CFExpress Type B), tilting touchscreen, color-coded insubstantial strategy (red for photograph / yellowish for video), and that quirky light-up powerfulness button. (Seriously, why is nan powerfulness fastener not a bully beingness move for illustration each different camera?) It’s a akin onslaught to nan 1 Leica took pinch its last-generation SL2 and SL2-S, pinch nan SL3-S erstwhile again looking identical to its pricier counterpart, reside from immoderate blacked-out Leica lettering.

The SL connection is aimed astatine pros who petition their fancy German camera to beryllium overmuch of an all-around workhorse, pinch high-res video signaling and autofocus, alternatively of a slower-paced, specialized instrumentality for photography for illustration a Leica M rangefinder. So it makes consciousness that Leica is baking its Content Credentials into nan SL3-S, utilizing Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative for image verification for illustration it first did connected nan M11-P. Strangely, this characteristic isn’t disposable successful nan modular SL3, which launched successful March 2024, and won’t beryllium added via firmware upgrade. Leica spokesperson Nathan Kellum-Pathe told The Verge that nan SL3 lacks nan basal hardware and that while software-based contented authentication is possible, it “does not meet Leica’s modular for encryption of this important data.”

If you personification Leica money, but not infinite Leica money, nan SL3-S feels for illustration nan amended worthy for each but nan pickiest pixel peepers.