Together, they make a combination that's ideal for street photos, something Leica is famous for, so that's what I tested in my Paris neighborhood.īuilt in Germany, the body is magnesium with anodized aluminum top and bottom covers. I've had a few days to play with Leica's CL, equipped with a brand new 18mm f/2.8 pancake lens.
In other words, order at least a spare battery or two. The TL2 didn't have great battery life, and the CL is even worse, letting you shoot about 220 photos on a charge. You also get WiFi - the only way to transfer pictures directly from the camera, since there's no USB port - and a single UHS-II-supported SD card slot. It's fair to say, however, that not many folks in Leica's intended market will be using the CL for anything other than casual video. The only way to get it is by using a full-frame, stabilized SL lens, which can be mounted without an adapter, but will cost you a hell of a lot more than a TL lens.įor video, max resolution is (yay!) 4K at 30 fps, or p, but no microphone input (boo!), so you're limited to the onboard mic or an external recorder. Unfortunately, there's no optical image stabilization on either the body or TL lenses. The electronic shutter makes nary a peep, which is good news for street or golf photographers. ISOs range from 100 to 50,000, while the shutter speed goes up to 1/8000th of a second in mechanical mode and 1/25,000th electronically. That gives the CL 10 fps burst shooting speeds in both mechanical and electronic shutter modes, letting you capture around 33 RAW images before the buffer fills. Looking at the numbers, the Leica CL has the same 24.2-megapixel sensor, 49-point contrast autofocus and Maestro II series processor that's on the TL2. In video mode, tapping lets you switch between record and review modes. Touch options are reserved for reviewing and zooming in on photos via pinching and draging, and switching between video and photo modes. In exchange for that manual functionality, the CL has a smaller 3.0-inch touchscreen with menu functions driven by the D-pad. "It's for people who love to take the camera to their eye, adjust the most important values and just be in the zone and take pictures," explained Harberts. More importantly, it has a new 2.36 million dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) built expressly for it. "The CL got its inspiration from the cameras like the IIIG, with a classic design, and we transferred that kind of idea onto the CL camera," said Harberts.
The new model has the same electronics as the TL2, but looks more like the German company's more traditional M or Q full-frame models with a smooth, low-profile metal body and manual dials. What it was missing, though, was a Leica-like tactile feel, which is where the CL comes in.
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