Since the original Leica T (typ 701) came along a few years ago I have been in love with the system, such an innovative re-imagination of what the camera can be, and such a bold departure from traditional Leica. Being able to spend some good time with this camera has been something I have dreamt about for ages. Thanks to the good folks (Connor especially) at Leica Australia I had the chance to experience the latest generation of the T.
The Leica T has always been instantly recognisable by it's unique Bauhaus inspired aluminium unibody design, a design one may have thought "designed in California" would have been engraved into the bottom of the body. The body itself is solid and feels like a properly well built product, and whilst it may not have a huge grip is very confidence inspiring.
There is not a single line, angle or surface on the body of this camera that is not beautiful. The dials for changing manual settings have a tactile feeling with every movement, the touch screen user interface is simple and intuitive, and the battery compartment design is genius, upon releasing the battery it pops out of the body slightly but doesn't fall out, pushing the battery in gently releases it.
In an age where cameras are become less and less tactile and more heavily reliant on software, this camera takes the best of both the traditional hardware controls and flexible modern software controls in order to create a perfect sweet spot for interaction. Many will believe that this a camera of style over substance, however, why can't we have a camera that offers a perfect compromise between the two design concepts. To put it simply I think this is the best camera design since the 1960's.
If I had a gripe about the design it's that walking around the streets with this camera over a shoulder attracts attention in the same way a Ferrari 458 would. People would often stare at the camera, or make comments on the bold design of the camera. Whilst this does solidify the beauty of the system, it makes it harder to recommend the T to someone that wishes to become unnoticeable.
Within the first few minutes of picking up the TL2 I had the entire physical and graphical user interface memorised. This has to be the easiest camera I have ever used. In manual mode shooting I had the top two dials set to aperture and shutter speed, making changes on the fly really convenient.
A key stand out was the graphical user interface, the designers clearly drew direct inspiration from modern mobile operating systems. Tapping the camera icon brings up your favourites (which are customisable just by holding down and dragging). Rather than having to dig through lists in menus to find the settings. Everything about the process was natural and wasn't laden with the cumbersome software we've grown used to from the traditional camera manufacturers.
I must add the Visoflex is a must have accessory. As the camera's screen is fixed, being able to have a tilting viewfinder became really handy. (To be honest I know many don't like the design but to me it compliments and contrasts the stark simplicity of the unibody)
On paper it is nothing more or less than the highest spec APSC cameras (Fuji X-T2, Sony A6500, Nikon D500), however in practice I have found with Leica glass, especially the 35mm Summilux TL it produces a wonderful look to the image, sharp when in focus, and a lovely out of focus rendition, reminiscent of a camera with a larger sensor.
The stand out for this sensor though is the colour reproduction and white balance. I can easily say the files from the the TL2 are nicer than full frame cameras worth more than 2-3x the price and size, and I found the files super flexible and easy to manipulate to my personal liking.
Whilst many will love to play around with the raw files, I can imagine many Leica T customers shooting in jpeg, and I don't blame them. Colours are natural and well balanced, details are kept well in both the highs and lows, and whilst the RAW files maintain more detail, I found the jpeg files were more than adequate in maintaining image quality.
Along with the camera, I was very kindly loaned the 18-56mm Vario-Elmar and 35mm f1.4 Summilux TL. Whilst many will look at the 18-56mm as a kit lens, Leica will be quick to point out that this is not the case.
I was honestly shocked at the optical performance of the 18-56, this lens is sharp as (even wide open) to the point where the only zoom lens that could compete in sharpness is the Canon 24-70 and those who have experienced that lens know very well just how big and heavy it is. It blows me away how they can make such a compact zoom lens so sharp and natural in it's look, although if I had to find a fault it would be the variable aperture, which did let me down at times, it would be fantastic if Leica was to create a constant 2.8 version of this lens, even if that means it has to be slightly bigger.
TL2 W/18-56mm Vario Elmar TL
Whilst the 18-56mm was a fantastic performer, I found myself going to grab the 35mm Summilux TL over it almost every time. This is by far one of if not the best lens, optically, that I've ever used, sharp edge to edge with wonderful soft bokeh. Compared to my X-T2 & 35mm 1.4 on the same settings the Summilux absolutely put the Fujinon to shame. Apart from the absolutely crazy chromatic aberrations wide open (can be corrected in post) this lens is flawless, and easily one of the best lenses I have ever used.
TL2 W/ 35mm Summilux TL
Whilst I don't have any photos, I did try out a few Leica M lenses (including the 35mm & 50mm Summicron, as well as 50mm Noctilux) and found the resulting images to produce a wonderful look. With built in focus assistance, the system works brilliantly for those who have an existing collection of M lenses or those looking for a gateway into the M system, however to get the best experience from this I found shooting in manual is preferred as in aperture priority the camera tends to be a little bit inconsistent with it's settings.
Whilst many aspects of the Leica TL2 are what I believe to be how a modern camera should be, there were a few that I found could be improved for the next generation.
Whilst video has never been a staple of Leica, and it's only been over the last few years that they have embraced video and I must admit shooting video on this camera wasn't the best experience. Being unable to change settings whilst recording, no 3.5mm mic jack, and the atrociously over sharpened 4K video files, make it a camera I personally wouldn't use for video, which is rather a shame because Leica's wonderful colour profiles, and surprisingly good electronic stabilisation work brilliantly in video mode. I do feel that part of those issues could be fixed with a firmware upgrade. (pls Leica, remove any in-camera sharpening it looks terrible)
Whilst the video features cripple the T's performance as a motion shooting camera, I found that my biggest gripe with the camera was the focus system. Yes the focus is far from the worst system I've ever used (I'm looking at you Hasselblad X1D), however I found that straight out of the box it wasn't as responsive as I had hoped. (this was solved by playing around with focus settings, which are rather customisable and intuitive to change). But it was in single point mode that I was really disappointed. Being used to having an autofocus joystick on my camera, I found the TL2 a little bit un-prescise when it came to selecting the focus point with the touch screen, and because of that I did miss focus on more than one occasion.
The focus did the job, however picking up the sibling to the TL2, the Leica CL it did not feel as responsive as the CL, nor if I'm honest was the Visoflex as good as the built in viewfinder in the CL.
I'm not going to lie, after a month of using the Leica TL2 I do feel that I will see one in camera collection sometime soon, a camera is just a tool to take photos, but the T takes it to the next level. By simplifying the concept of the camera, Leica has introduced a unique and pure way of looking at how photos are take. For me the unobtrusive nature of the camera made it less of a tool and more of a part of my daily life, for the lack of a better description, much like the iconic Leica M has been, the Leica T feels natural and (a terrible cliche) like an extension of my eye.
A Leica should be more than just an aspiration of a "one day" purchase. A Leica should prove what a camera should and very well could be, it should be market leading, innovative and timeless. Leica has proved this time and time again perfecting the camera with the M, creating the most desirable camera on the market. Whilst many purists will be unhappy with the TL2, this camera is a true Leica, this is more than just a concept of what the camera should look like for the future. This is the definitive modern interpretation of the camera.
Shot by Michaela Taylor @michaelaltayor
Note*
All files in this review (apart from photos of the camera) were shot on the Leica TL2 in RAW with only minor tweaks in Lightroom to keep the files as close to Jpeg as possible
I have not been paid in anyway, nor was I asked to share my experiences with this camera by Leica or any other third party
All opinions are mine upon experiencing this camera over the period of a month