Why the Leica SL3-S is the ideal camera for event photography

Last year, I tested the Leica SL3-S and wrote about it when it was released in January. One of the burning questions about this camera was whether the autofocus was dramatically improved with the addition of Phase Detect sensor points, which the SL2-S did not have and which the SL3 has, but far fewer (the SL3 has 315 AF points, the SL3-S has 779 AF points).

I had spent my testing time taking pictures of our puppy charging about the fields, and this had proved challenging — very fast changes in direction (very fast!).

During my testing of the SL3, I investigated some faster stacked sensor cameras, including the Sony A1 and the Olympus OM-1 Mk II (which I still own). I talked about this in my review of the camera.

Just before I was due to send back the SL3-S to Leica in February, and after having written my article, I was asked to do the snaps for a stage play in Walberswick in Suffolk, England. This went much better than I expected, and I wrote a brief addendum to the article when it was published in the Leica International Society’s Viewfinder magazine in the Spring.

This experience rather percolated in my slow old brain. Then, in June, Leica announced the 28-70 f/2.8 Vario Elmarit (which I hadn’t tested) and a good package deal with the SL3-S. I had a few events lined up for the summer, so I bought the kit — it really is rather a good deal.

This article is the result of the last three months shooting of very diverse events with the SL3-S (and, often, with the lovely little 28-70 f/2.8 zoom).

The Real Inspector Hound

As is usual for shooting drama, I was asked to take the photographs at one of the dress rehearsals. I turned up with a bag of different lenses, expecting to shoot with the Vario Elmarit 24-70 and 70-200. I had a feeling that, although I prefer the original L-Mount zooms (the 24-90 and the 90-280), they wouldn’t focus fast enough.

As it turned out, the lighting wasn’t working properly, so it was pretty dark. On a whim, I thought I would just prove to myself that the 90-280 wasn’t going to focus fast enough for this kind of job.

I set the camera on spot metering with Auto ISO and eye body detection. As it was really dark, I set the aperture to f/4 and the shutter speed to 1/200s, which, I hoped, was safe with the in-body IS. With the SL cameras, I really miss being able to set the maximum shutter time as a function of the focal length (as you can with the Leica M11 cameras)

It became increasingly clear that the 90-280 was nailing the focus pretty well, despite the difficult lighting conditions — so I stuck with it

The Denouement

When I got home and started to process the images, I got a real surprise (I had taken around 400 with the SL3-S and a few with the M11). The focus hit rate with the SL3-S was better than 90%, despite the poor lighting.

This was just a couple of weeks after I had published my initial review, and it put a much better light on the camera for this type of event.

The Leica 100 year celebration

It was a real privilege to be invited to the celebration of the 100 years since the Leica I went into production. It was at various venues in Wetzlar. So, rather than just enjoying myself, I thought it would be good to make a record of it. This, as it turned out, was to be my second event with the Leica SL3-S.

If you would like to see the results, I wrote about it here.

Of course, in this case, the lighting situation was changing all the time. I decided to really put the 28-70 through its paces, and used it for the whole two days.

Camera settings changed, but generally speaking, I was using Aperture Priority, with Auto ISO, Daylight white balance outside and Auto White balance indoors.

The combination of the Leica SL3-S and the 28-70 f/2.8 Vario Elmarit Asph did an outstanding job here. I took more than 500 photographs over the three days, with an excellent hit rate. Certainly, the autofocus never let me down, and the high-ISO characteristics of the camera meant that at no point did I need to do any noise reduction in post-processing.

Definitely a hit!

The Pink Ladies Tractor Road Run

This is my biggest job of the year. Emma likens it to shooting a wedding with 200 brides.

I wrote about it at length a couple of years ago.

Before the start of the run, everyone is extremely excited (and so am I). It’s mixed emotions as many of the ladies are cancer survivors and almost all of them have close friends or relatives who have become victims.

There is an incredible spectrum of women, all united by the experience. It’s no mean feat driving a vintage tractor 25 miles, lots of it off-road on (sometimes muddy) tracks, sometimes (like this year) in pouring rain.

This is at the Brockdish Water Splash — this year it was dry when the first ladies came through, and it started to rain. Forty minutes later and there was nearly a foot of water, some drivers really went for it…

The idea is to get a good shot of every one of the 200 ladies at four different locations — they go past at 10 mph or so, and the 200 tractors pass in about 40 minutes. So that’s about 12 seconds per tractor. Lots of concentration required.

In 2024, I used an Olympus OM-1 Mk II for the Tractor Road Run, as I had a problem with my SL3 at the time. The OM performed really well, the face detection and incredible autofocus with its stacked sensor did a fantastic job.

This year, the SL3-S with the 28-70 did an equally good job. Once again, I mostly used face-detect focusing. I tried various exposure methods, but ultimately, I mostly set the aperture and shutter speed manually and allowed the auto ISO to get the exposure correct.

This worked well, especially with the light changing so fast and so dramatically, to the extent that the ISO varied between 64 ISO and 16,000! But still, noise was not a problem (I don’t think I would have done so well with the Olympus for the shots when it was very dark)

The Pyrenean Sheepdog Show

We have had Pyrenean sheepdogs for getting on for 20 years now (Uny is our current bitch — you may have seen pictures). Every year there is a breed show — the dogs are very zippy, and it’s a challenge keeping up with them at the best of times.

I used the SL3-S with the 28-70 and the 70-200 f/2.8 Vario Elmarit Asph for the show. The animal-detect mode worked very well. Uny won third prize in the post-graduate bitch class, and a second in the best trick event (jumping into my arms).

Extravaganza at Coltsfoot Barn

This is a favourite gig of mine — I’ve been recording the fantastic musical parties there for about 20 years. There are always wonderful musicians, but also a lot of family fun. It’s the sort of gig that you would pay to photograph.

But the lighting, although lovely, is not bright, so these pictures are up to 50,000 ISO. I haven’t applied any noise reduction (although I might be guilty of cropping and the electronic equivalent of dodging and burning).

This year, Johnny Johnson (a long-time regular) opened the bill with a storming blues set. It was still light, and the band was playing in front of a window, making the exposure tricky.

After the interval, Dai and the Ramblers played a wide range of jazz blues and Cajun music with guitar, violin, and accordion. By this time, it was dark outside and nailing the exposure was easy, but the light was very low. Still, focusing with the 28-70 was quick and efficient.

The accordion player was Al Dunn, a long-standing member of the Boomtown Rats and session musician for many artists. He was magical to watch, and as you can see, a dream to photograph.

Final thoughts

Well, many conclusions in reality. When I was reviewing the camera back in January, I rather felt that Leica had missed a trick by not using a stacked sensor like those in the recent batch of cameras from Sony, Canon, and Nikon. Of course, OM Systems as well.

But full-frame stacked sensors are expensive things, and it would have made the SL3-S a much more expensive camera (more than the SL3, I would imagine).

There is no doubt that stacked sensors are faster, and these flagship cameras probably have faster autofocus as well. But you have to ask yourself at what point you actually need this speed. All these events required quick and accurate AF and often very good high ISO. What they didn’t require, however, is blazing multi-shot mode and fantastic tracking.

In fact, any continuous shooting at an event is best avoided; it’s bad enough having a thousand pictures to process afterwards. I can imagine that the Ladies Tractor Road Run shooting on drive mode could easily produce 5000 images!

Stacked sensors are also less prone to ‘rolling shutter’ when using the electronic shutter (where fast-moving objects appear distorted because of the time it takes to read the sensor sequentially). This can be a problem in sports shooting, but you are not obliged to use the electronic shutter under such circumstances.

Of course, you can shoot any of the professional cameras in single-shot mode, but if you don’t actually need that speed (and most of us don’t) then why pay for it?

Shot-to-shot times on the SL3-S are excellent, and for most event work it’s better to be prepared for that special moment than it is to be blitzing at 30 frames a second. But if you really want to, then the SL3-S supports AF at 30 frames per second!

Nevertheless, the advantages of the SL3-S are palpable and useful. Leica’s exceptionally logical interface, which keeps getting better. Fantastic configurable quick menu with simple and understandable options. Internally consistent user profiles, which even covers the interface. It’s both intellectually and haptically satisfying.

Then there are the lenses. Not only do you have access to the wonderful Leica lenses, but also great L-Mount lenses made by Sigma, Panasonic, and others. There is also proper support for all the Leica M-Mount lenses made since the early Fifties.

I don’t shoot video, but I understand that the SL3-S is a very competent video recorder. Indeed, as Ralf Ilgenfritz pointed out in my original SL3-S review, he would prefer to use it over his Sony cameras.

At list price, you can currently buy a kit with the SL3-S and the 28-70 for several hundred pounds less than the Sony A1 II body alone. It’s nicer to use, and it will probably hold its value a lot better, plus the 28-70 is a really excellent lightweight lens.

Downsides: Nil

My experience over these few months, shooting events, is that there really aren’t any downsides to the SL3-S. I’ve been getting a splendid hit rate, the autofocus face / eye detection works well, and very high ISO is perfectly acceptable.

I have given up shooting weddings (apparently) but I have to say that the SL3-S would also be the perfect wedding workhorse.

However, I’ve been struggling to find a good metaphor. I was thinking it was like the difference between driving an electric car compared to a 2017 911. The Tesla is more advanced, but the journey is so much more enjoyable with the 911…. But the analogy isn’t right because the SL3-S is also advanced.

User-interface and haptics do really matter, and the SL3-S is just a lovely tool for shooting events, there aren’t really any practical downsides, and the driving experience is so much of a pleasure.

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