Leica SL3-S review: Leica's fastest camera ever – and its best ever mirrorless?

If you're going to whine about the price of the Leica SL3-S, you should probably stop reading right now. Cameras are expensive; luxury cameras even more so. And while the Leica SL3-S is absolutely a luxury camera, it's also a damned good one.

Yes, similar technology is available cheaper elsewhere – but it's not a Leica. It doesn't look this good, it doesn't feel this good, and in a few respects the actual technology isn't this good, either.

The Leica SL3-S is officially "the fastest Leica system camera ever built". More than that, though, it might just be the best mirrorless camera that Leica has ever made – and is a much more versatile performer than 2024's 60MP, 8K Leica SL3.

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Leica SL3-S: Price & availability

The Leica SL3-S is available now with a retail price of $5,295 / £4,500 / AU$8,990 – which is, unquestionably, a lot of money. But again, Leica is a luxury brand and the cameras are hand-assembled in Germany.

It's irresponsible not to provide perspective, though, and the Panasonic Lumix S5 IIX shares the same core technology as the SL3-S – and is currently available for $2,199 / £1,999 / AU$3,199.

Purely in terms of technology, the Lumix offers largely like-for-like shooting performance at a far more affordable price. However, the Leica's shooting experience is a very different one – as are the ergonomics, interface and prestige. Only you can decide whether that is worth the difference in price.

Leica SL3-S: Specifications

Leica SL3-S: Build & handling

I'm lucky enough to have been to the Leica factory in Wetzlar, Germany, to see these cameras being manually checked and assembled by hand. I also got to look in the archives to see the original design sketches for the SL camera series.

Which is to say that craftsmanship is at the heart of the red dot experience. Like its siblings, the Leica SL3-S is an artisan product that oozes quality. The lines and silhouette may not be to everyone's taste, but there's no denying that this is a beautifully designed camera – and I'm a fan of the sleek black Leica logo on the viewfinder hump (rather than the white lettering of the SL3).

Likewise, while there are other cameras with more pleasing ergonomics, no one would dispute that this camera just feels good in the hand. It has weight and heft, the way you imagine a bar of gold bullion might.

The body is identical to the SL3 in dimension, the only outward difference being that black logo. As such, it retains the design hallmarks – including the minimalist aesthetic, with only three of its numerous buttons and dials being labeled (in part because Leica wants every camera to be unique, customized to its user's requirements).

The three control dials are meaty and satisfying to use, placed exactly where your thumb and forefinger expect them to be. And the rear joystick is fast and accurate, enabling you to breeze through menus or manipulate your focus points quickly and easily.

And a feature that shouldn't be overlooked is the camera's IP54 certification (again like the SL3), meaning that it's protected from dust ingress and water splashing from any direction. I took this camera out to shoot in the lashing rain as Storm Eowyn battered the British Isles, and the camera shook it off like it was nothing.

Still, maintaining the design of the SL3 means carrying over some less-than-loved features. Chief among these is the tilt-only screen, rather than a fully articulating affair. In fairness, Leica shooters – being largely traditional photographers – are likely more inclined to a tilting screen than a flip-out affair. That said, for a camera that leans so heavily into video, it's strangely user-unfriendly not to have that articulation.

The other red flag – well, red, green and white flag – to some users is the illuminated power button. The button is surrounded by a white ring that changes color depending on the situation. When powered up, the light is a gentle white; when the battery is low or expired, it's red; when charging, it's green. I personally like the feature, but others – including some Leica owners I've spoken to – feel that it cheapens the premium aesthetic.

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Leica SL3-S: Photo performance

The shooting experience of the Leica SL3-S is absolutely exquisite. Cynics will say that this doesn't count for anything, but it does. Can anyone honestly say that the experience of shooting on an iPhone is in any way satisfying, let alone inspiring or aspirational? I don't think so.

I believe the shooting experience very much matters – and shooting on the SL3-S is simply a joy. This is a camera that is truly pleasurable to use, with a friction-free interface that connects your vision to your shutter finger in an intangible, incredible way.

This is where Leica and Hasselblad just blow everyone away: the way the camera just gets out of your way. Both brands have seamless, instinctive, Apple-like menus and controls; you don't find yourself wrestling with settings, or lost in endless screens trying to change something. The SL3's menus are sleek, slick and smooth.

Connect the camera to your phone and you'll be able to download Leica Looks, offering a similar experience to filters and film simulations on other cameras. But honestly, it's hard to beat the purity of the in-body black-and-white modes – which really do feel like the way the SL3 was intended to shoot.

After the burst limitations of the SL3, I was very happy to have the ability to shoot at 30fps (with full autofocus!) on the SL3-S. I struggle to see anyone using this on the sidelines of a sports event, or sat in the dirt photographing wildlife, but this camera can largely do those things if you want it to (just be aware of the aggressive rolling shutter).

The "largely" part relates to the SL3-S' autofocus system, which like its big brother is a little on the slow side when compared to other AF systems – including the phase detect AF on the Lumix S5 IIX. It's not bad, but it definitely lags behind the pack – though again, I don't think this is a camera that anyone is really going to use for lightning-fast action.

The best way I can describe it is that the SL3's autofocus is reactive, rather than proactive in the way that Canon or Sony's are. It finds faces and eyes, on people as well as animals, and it tracks things when you ask it to – it just takes a hair to do so. I guess I'm spoiled, because it's not as predictive or algorithmic as some of the other top cameras I've used.

However, the AF seems much improved over the SL3 in low light conditions. I shot both cameras in extremely dim environments and, while the SL3 often struggled, the SL3-S did a great job of finding my subjects. The only real knock against the stills performance is the pixel shift mult-shot capability, as the 48MP and 96MP composites were a bit muddy and I wouldn't really recommend using them.

Leica SL3-S: Sample photos

Leica SL3-S: Video performance

Yes, the Leica SL3-S boasts very familiar video capabilities to the Lumix S5 IIX (come to think of it, it blacks out the company logo in the same way as the S5 IIX, too) but with a few differences and key improvements.

Both cameras offer headline specs of 6K open gate at up to 30p, C4K / 4K / FullHD at 10-bit 4:2:2, internal 5.8K ProRes capture with no limits, recording to an external SSD and so on. However, the specs have been bumped in a few areas.

For starters, the Leica's 24.6MP sensor is a brand new and back-side illuminated affair. This enables it to achieve far greater sensitivities (ISO50-200,000) with Dual Basis ISO at 50-560 and 640-200,000 with superior dynamic range and noise performance.

There's also the adoption of a split CFexpress Type B / UHS-II SD card setup, giving you the option of a much more stable memory format (which is extra important when shooting at high frame and bitrates).

The viewfinder and LCD screen are better, too, inheriting the SL3's 5.76 million-dot EVF (compared to the S5 IIX's 3.68 million) and 3.2-inch, 2.33 million-dot rear screen (versus the 3-inch, 1.84 million affair on the Lumix). Though of course, there is the caveat that the Leica's LCD is tilt-only – which is less than ideal for videography.

An area that the Lumix has a clear edge, though, is in the controls. The Batman-like unmarked buttons and dials add to the SL3-S' stealthiness and cool factor, but if you actually want rapid access to your settings then the S5 IIX's clearly labeled excess of controls really make life easier.

And, while I enjoy Leica's streamlined menus for friction-free photography, I don't know that their sleek nature is optimum for video; the Lumix displays settings and options in a more conventional way that will better fit seasoned shooters (though, conversely, Leica's intuitive menus make things like open gate feel a lot more accessible to non-videographers).

Performance is generally great, though like the SL3 the AF feels a tad less responsive in video compared to stills – again, it's "less predictive", and tends to behave best when you tell it exactly where to autofocus rather than expecting it to know or predict. Check out the sample video snippets below.

Leica SL3-S: Sample video

Leica SL3-S: Lab testing

For our lab data comparison we compared the SL3-S to its Panasonic sibling, the Lumix S5 IIX, along with 24MP full-frame cameras from Canon and Nikon: the EOS R6 II, and the Z6 III.

Resolution (line widths/picture height):

The SL3-S performs on par with EOS R6 II and Z6 III at lower sensitivities, but Leica's excellent noise control at higher ISOs means fine detail is more easily visible, leading to slightly higher resolutions scores.

Dynamic range (EV):

Dynamic range is a measure of a camera's ability to record extreme brightness ranges and still retain detail in the brightest and darkest parts of the scene. It's measured in EV (exposure values, or 'stops').

Whatever Leica has done to tune the image processing of the SL3-S, it's clearly worked. The camera is capable of capturing excellent dynamic range, especially at higher ISOs, and maintains a clear margin over the S5 IIX on which it's based.

Signal to noise ratio (decibels):

This test compares the amount of random noise generated by the camera at different ISO settings as a proportion of the actual image information (the 'signal'). Higher values are better and we expect to see the signal to ratio fall as the ISO is increased.

Though all four cameras control image noise well, the SL3-S is still the camera to beat. Right through our tested sensitivity range it consistently delivers clearer image quality than the competition.

Leica SL3-S: Verdict

The Leica SL3-S is a triumph for the red dot brand, cementing a commitment to its mirrorless system that comes on by leaps and bounds every generation. It's easy to overlook the fact that the SL2-S (and SL2, for that matter) had a fixed screen and borderline unusable autofocus system.

The SL3-S, by contrast (and phase), is a confident, capable camera that delivers fantastic results for stills shooters and unlocks a wealth of potential for videographers. The new back-side illuminated sensor delivers some of the best image quality I've seen from a 24MP body, and it runs circles around its hybrid rivals in terms of things like dynamic range.

It certainly stands as one of the best hybrid cameras available, between its blistering 30fps bursts and 6K open gate recording, and if the price of entry doesn't put you off then you're going to be for a hell of time with this luxurious camera that inspires you to pick it up and create with it.