Top of the list of improvements in the new 3.2 firmware version for the Leica SL is the ability to deactivate the joystick from the menu “to prevent inadvertent changes to settings while the camera is in use.”
This is big news for Macfilos since we’ve been campaigning for just such a setting ever since the introduction of the SL. The problem of the wayward joystick was most annoying because it could easily move the focus point around the frame. Those of us who like to fix the focus in the centre of the frame and shoot by focus-and-recompose went unheeded. Indeed, Leica implied that we were being pernickety and that there was no call for a method of fixing the focus point. Das Wesentlich, apparently, forbade more tinkering.
We have exactly the same problem with the CL. But the four-way pad on the CL is even more mischievous than the joystick of the SL because it is more susceptible to movement caused by the ball of the right thumb. The resulting peripatetic focus point is a constant irritation which I have highlighted time and time again. No one wanted to listen, apparently, and I’ve been told that Leica wishes to keep things simple and that there is no demand for fixing the focus point.
It appears, though, that someone has been listening, at least as far as the SL is concerned. Making the change wasn’t so difficult, after all, despite all the protests of “not necessary” and “no demand”. And it certainly doesn’t complicate the camera. On the contrary it enables users to make the camera more simple and more easy to control.
Can we now expect a similar menu option to paralyse the four-way pad when the next CL firmware is produced? I certainly hope so because, for me and others like me it will transform the handling of this camera. At the moment, for centre-focus-point shooters, the CL is lacking.
Previous comment on Macfilos:
- Taming of the wayward joystick (March 2016)
- Why can we not fix the Leica CL focus point? (December 2017)
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Please Please Leica do finally listen to us and sort this problem out on the CL as well. Many of us have been complaining to deaf ears about this for over two years now and it is time Wetzlar listened. Who knows such as I might even get to quite like the ‘B’ camera if you did us long sufferering CL system owners a favour and did so.
To be honest, Don, I don’t think they will ever do it. They had a chance with the last firmware update but did something else – that silly total lockdown feature that is no use to man nor beast. I worry that the entire TL/CL lineup, including the lenses, has been in limbo for some time. I wonder what the future holds.
Can we tame the joystick on the SL2?
The joystick on the SL2 can be disabled, Richard. I normally do so because I find it does cause problems.
If they fixed the SL, does this mean the CL may get a fix at some point?
I truly hope so. If they’ve acknowledged the need on the SL I can’t see how they can continue to deny it on he CL. But you never know!
Do you remember, Mike, there was a similar problem with the X Vario? I devised an ugly hard foam pad to raise the thumb out of the way, and when this had proved its practical value made a much slimmer little angle pad in aluminium which looks as though it belongs to the camera. So, if Leica don’t oblige…………
I do indeed remember. This problem is endemic to all Leica models from the X and X Vario onwards (except the M of course). Yet until now, with the SL joystick, the factory has failed to listen. Instead they have said that it isn’t a problem, that we are just being difficult. I dare hope that the message has a last got through.
Hi John, Any way you can show us a picture of that modification? Not only do I have a similar problem with the XV pad but also with the damn video button!
I can send Mike a photo and ask him to forward it to you. It has been 100% effective and much more I keeping with the camera than the experimental prototype.
Thanks, that would be great. Look forward to seeing it.