So I just point the camera towards them and snapped the photo below. Suddenly a couple saw me taking photos and starting posing to me but at the same time walking away from me. It was quite dark already and I was shooting at f/1.4 with the 35mm Summilux-TL lens. One of the evening, I was walking in the city and taking photos with the Leica CL. While it may not be as snappy as the latest Panasonic cameras and does struggle a little bit when shooting under very low light, for most kind of everyday photos it works pretty well and the autofocus speed is fast enough. Leica CL has a contrast detection based autofocus system. But once it’s all done then it works quite well. I spent a bit of time to figure out how the customise functions work and set it up. You may like it or you may not, but I definitely see a lot of benefits with a more simple and smaller menu system. But this is how Leica always do and this is what makes Leica Leica in my opinion. Yes it’s true the user interface is quite simple, doesn’t offer you an extensive list of options and adjustability when you compare it to other brands. Personally I don’t really find it to be an issue at all. I’ve read a few reviews that complains about the camera interface. I have to admit the design has started to grow on me after using the camera for a week, so maybe give it a bit of time, I’ll change my mind. I understand it is paying tribute to the old Barnack Leica screw mount rangefinder camera, but I don’t know if the more modern CL design is really suitable for that. I’m not too sure about the other side where the EVF and hot shoe mount extrudes quite a bit above the top plate. Now while I really like the design of the twin dials and the little LCD screen at the top as it just look very nice and elegant.
But it does have Wifi connection so you can download photos to your smartphone or remote control from your smartphone easily. No USB, HDMI, mic, headphone ports at all. This is dramatically different to most mirrorless cameras in the market these days which have at least one or two dozens on the body,Īpart from the battery and memory card at the bottom of the camera, there isn’t any other input or output ports. And that’s pretty much all the buttons you can find on the camera. There is also the power switch with the shutter button on top of it. And at the top of the camera, there are two dials with an integrated button inside each dial which I think is a fantastic design. The rangefinder style CL only one button at the front, three buttons + directional pad at the back. The Leica CL has the typical Leica style design, it’s clean and simple.
Any Leica TL and SL lenses would work on this camera and you can also attach Leica M and Leica R mount lenses onto the camera using the corresponding adaptor. It is a compact camera with a 24MP APS-C sensor, built-in EVF, touch LCD screen.
The Leica CL is the latest mirrorless camera from the premium German manufacturer.