The Leica T - Impressions and Images

[ptomsu]

Long time lurker....I hope you won't mind me participating in this discussion.

I'm quite concerned about the aluminum body. Aluminum is a terrific thermal conductor and will match the temperature of its surroundings rather quickly. Yet, because of the mass of this block of aluminum, it will exhibit some thermal hysteresis. So, should you take the camera from an air conditioned hotel room outside to a warm humid atmosphere, it very well may become slippery and noticeably moist in the hand. I can imagine water condensing on the surface of the body. Moreover, in a cold environment, it might feel like holding an ice cube and you might even experience a frosty surface.

I think this is why you could take one of the rubberized covers - in the color of your choice - mine would be orange or yellow!

 

[Robert Campbell]

Did I understand right?

1) It's either jpg and dng, or jpg alone: no dng by itself?

2) The colour space can't be changed: so is it always sRGB?

If correct, these seem rather odd limitations. But I admit, I'm rather taken with it.

 

[bradhusick]

I just learned something from David Farkas' article about the T. It is not possible to review images in the EVF beyond the auto review. As a wearer of reading glasses, this is something I do all the time on my other cameras to check focus. I have the right diopter set in the EVF. If I can't do that on the T I am afraid that makes it a non-starter for me.

 

[bradhusick]

Long time lurker....I hope you won't mind me participating in this discussion.

I'm quite concerned about the aluminum body. Aluminum is a terrific thermal conductor and will match the temperature of its surroundings rather quickly. Yet, because of the mass of this block of aluminum, it will exhibit some thermal hysteresis. So, should you take the camera from an air conditioned hotel room outside to a warm humid atmosphere, it very well may become slippery and noticeably moist in the hand. I can imagine water condensing on the surface of the body. Moreover, in a cold environment, it might feel like holding an ice cube and you might even experience a frosty surface.

The aluminum unibody weighs only 94 grams. That's not a lot of thermal inertia.

 

[k-hawinkler]

This was posted on Sony Rumors. Is this true about the sensor.

and I quote

ell, Leica knows how to make ane exclusive camera! They just announced the Leica T APS-C mirrorless camera ($1800 here at BHphoto). It has the same 16 Megapixel sensor of the $398 NEX-3n. But the NEX-3n comes with a lens while the Leica T does not. And the (slow!) Leica T kit zoom costs another $1750.

A quote from Ming Thein, http://blog.mingthein.com/2014/04/24/2014-leica-t-typ-701-review/:

"In essence, the T appears to share the core technology from the X2 and X Vario – same 16MP Sony-sourced APS-C sensor, without anti-aliasing filter; mid-sized mirrorless body without viewfinder (but optional 2.4-million dot EVF) and lenses that are either a moderate-aperture normal zoom or 35mm equivalent."

Now, this is interesting. Not matching the jewelry aspect of the Leica T, here is a shot with the 16MP Sony APS-C sensor in the Sony NEX-5N and the Leica WATE 16-18-21/4 lens.

 

[HeavyDuty]

The more I consider the T, the more I actually like it. It's still not appropriate for me (I'd prefer a built-in EVF in the corner, and I really couldn't live without a dedicated AF-ON or AF-L button on the back) but the clean design and simple UI is almost Barnack-like.

(Edit) Interesting - I just read in the David Farkas T review about how the AF has been implemented:

When in AF mode the ring has a bit of a hidden feature. Turning the ring in AF mode usually does nothing. But, if you press and hold the shutter release to lock focus (box turns green) you can then turn the ring to adjust focus manually. The camera will fire as if it locked AF without trying to reacquire. Unfortunately, there is no auto magnification focus aid when doing this, so you’ll have to depend on the high-res screen or Visoflex. Even still, this is a great option for tweaking focus.

This actually sounds to be workable for the way I shoot. Hmmm...

 

[Ulfric Douglas]

They seem to have added the EVF without asking EVF-users how they actually use theirs.
No review in EVF? Silly.
No auto-magnify with turning the focus ring? Lacking.

I think the EVF looks very smart, but no bare alloy model? Cheap.

Still no VF-4/E-M1/X-T1 equivalent for the T or the M260? Slow.

 

[Lars]

Long time lurker....I hope you won't mind me participating in this discussion.

I'm quite concerned about the aluminum body. Aluminum is a terrific thermal conductor and will match the temperature of its surroundings rather quickly. Yet, because of the mass of this block of aluminum, it will exhibit some thermal hysteresis. So, should you take the camera from an air conditioned hotel room outside to a warm humid atmosphere, it very well may become slippery and noticeably moist in the hand. I can imagine water condensing on the surface of the body. Moreover, in a cold environment, it might feel like holding an ice cube and you might even experience a frosty surface.

Another problem in cold climate is that oxidized aluminum gets quite slippery when handled with bare fingers. Anyone who's handled a MacBook outside in cold weather knows this.

Of course, the T - just like today's phones - isn't meant to be handled without a case. So it's probably less of an issue.

 

[HeavyDuty]

They seem to have added the EVF without asking EVF-users how they actually use theirs.
No review in EVF? Silly.
No auto-magnify with turning the focus ring? Lacking.

I think the EVF looks very smart, but no bare alloy model? Cheap.

Still no VF-4/E-M1/X-T1 equivalent for the T or the M260? Slow.

Your first two issues could be easily addressed in firmware, and I'd argue the second is more of an annoyance than a help.

 

[Godfrey]

...No review in EVF? Silly. ...

That may be, but I never review in the EVF. I review and check focus on the LCD. I never use auto-magnify ... etc.

Only negative far as I'm concerned is the lack of magnification for manual focus lenses, but then I'm not sure that it's actually missing as I haven't seen a manual for the Leica T yet.

(Jono, does the T have a focus magnification aid?)

G

---
Ah, never mind. I see that you quoted "the left hand dial defaults to focus magnification" for when you fit the adapter and a manual lens. 3x and 6x sound good enough!

 

[ptomsu]

I would like to know what color space the T supports. Is it sRGB and AdobeRGB or is it only one of them?

Thanks for answering!

 

[Godfrey]

I would like to know what color space the T supports. Is it sRGB and AdobeRGB or is it only one of them?

Thanks for answering!

Remember that if you're capturing raw, it doesn't matter: color space is set by the raw converter. I'm sure they support sRGB JPEGs. The only question is whether there's an option for AdobeRGB (1998) JPEGs.

G

 

[jonoslack]

Did I understand right?

1) It's either jpg and dng, or jpg alone: no dng by itself?

2) The colour space can't be changed: so is it always sRGB?

If correct, these seem rather odd limitations. But I admit, I'm rather taken with it.

HI Robert (and others)
You're right - it's either DNG and jpg or just jpg. The X cameras are the same - I'm not sure why - but it's not much of a hardship. you can ignore the jpgs on importing, and they can be useful if you're using an ipad or similar when away.

Colour space only relates to jpg files (not DNG as Godfrey points out) - but you're right, you can't choose the colour space for jpgs. I haven't talked to them about this, but I assume they thought that anyone who understood colour spaces these days would shoot DNG (I'm inclined to agree). For most purposes the jpg files are pretty good though.

Hope this helps

 

[bab]

I would love to think one day not just Leica but all camera companies would invite comments to be used in a think tank discussion BEFORE the engineers and marketing dept. decide on what is to be made. It always seems as those companies that write their own coding for the firmware have less limitations using the products, but sometimes those companies writing their own coding allow the engineers to layout the design of the way the menus work...sinking usable features deep in the menus. Leica at least in my opinion makes cameras that are simple, buttons in the right places and easy to access menus.
I'm glad this forum has nice comments, its a pleasure to interact with people who have a good nature for conversation.

 

[Godfrey]

HI Robert (and others)
You're right - it's either DNG and jpg or just jpg. The X cameras are the same - I'm not sure why - but it's not much of a hardship. you can ignore the jpgs on importing, and they can be useful if you're using an ipad or similar when away.

I nearly always have my cameras set that way nowadays, for exactly that reason.

When I'm on travel, I have the JPEGs set to max resolution/minimum compression so I can do processing on the iPad with a good file. When I'm at home, I change the JPEGs to a smaller size with more compression as I generally don't care about them.

Some cameras that have only JPEG and JPEG+raw capabilities actually store different things in the EXIF data between their JPEGs and raws ... Applications like Lightroom need to have both to obtain the full EXIF data.

G

 

[ptomsu]

Remember that if you're capturing raw, it doesn't matter: color space is set by the raw converter. I'm sure they support sRGB JPEGs. The only question is whether there's an option for AdobeRGB (1998) JPEGs.

G

Many thanks, that seems great!

Peter

 

[Robert Campbell]

HI Robert (and others)
You're right - it's either DNG and jpg or just jpg. The X cameras are the same - I'm not sure why - but it's not much of a hardship. you can ignore the jpgs on importing, and they can be useful if you're using an ipad or similar when away.

Colour space only relates to jpg files (not DNG as Godfrey points out) - but you're right, you can't choose the colour space for jpgs. I haven't talked to them about this, but I assume they thought that anyone who understood colour spaces these days would shoot DNG (I'm inclined to agree). For most purposes the jpg files are pretty good though.

Hope this helps

Thank you, Jono!

I suppose this has to do with the target audience, those who use iPads etc, and who now expect simple functionality and don't want to delve into the mysterious complexities.

 

[Chuck Jones]

I also got to try the Leica T, and found it to be more camera than most are giving it credit for being. The Leica T: A Working Mans Leica | The Camera Forum

This camera is going to be a big game changer for Leica, I would predict. Once you try it, your hooked, so if you are not seriously looking for a new camera, STAY AWAY! This thing is about as slippery a slope as it gets Leica wise. At a price that just about fills your credit card too. Almost.

 

[JMaher]

Chuck,

Nice write-up.

Since I am on vacation near a Leica store I am going to stop by tomorrow with the hope they don't have one! That way there is no chance I might want to order one when I am home. Luckily there isn't a store near me when I get back and that will keep any temptation down.

Seriously this isn't a camera that I think will appeal to me strictly based on the lack of IS and FF. However you never know and so far many people seem to really like it.

Jim

 

[Chuck Jones]

Chuck,

Nice write-up.

Since I am on vacation near a Leica store I am going to stop by tomorrow with the hope they don't have one! That way there is no chance I might want to order one when I am home. Luckily there isn't a store near me when I get back and that will keep any temptation down.

Seriously this isn't a camera that I think will appeal to me strictly based on the lack of IS and FF. However you never know and so far many people seem to really like it.

Jim

Thank you Jim. For exactly the same reasons as you, I made up my mind this was not a camera for me either. When I went to the Leica 100th anniversary party I took a look out of curiosity, and was smitten with how well this whole system works. And that 23mm Summicron, ooooola la. It is one sweet lens.

So my advice is ether clear space on your credit card, or stay away from the store!