I was in the Sydney Leica Boutique on Friday and they were getting ready for an event that evening. Had a good chat with Luca and he was giving me the breakdown of this. I think it's amazing. i wish i could have walked out with one of these camera's but instead i ended up with a 24-90 for my SL2. Maybe we might see this in an update?
The CAI feature is based on a digitally signed chip inside the camera. Being hardware, it cannot be added to other cameras through a f/w update, unfortunately.
I like that creating a digital signature is literally one line of code but Leica hypes it up 😅. It’s nice to have I suppose but it’s very trivial to add.
The SL and SL lenses are IP52. I shot an outdoor event entirely with the SL2-S and the APO-Summicron-SL 2/75 for 2 hrs in heavy rain, even my Arc’teryx Alpha SV started leaking (SV stands for SeVere weather conditions). Zero issues. I’m still asking myself why there were no Sony A1 guys…😅
Besides, how did they do it with the M3s and M4s available during the Vietnam war 1960’s to 1970’s? The conditions there are poring rain during Monsoon season, permanent 99% humidity and where there is no jungle dust, almost no tarmac roads back then. Carrying tons of 36 frames cartridges of film, sometimes even developing it in the legendary Agfa Rodinax 35U Daylight Film Processing Tank. Unfortunately no longer produced. Ars Imago in Zürich has once Kickstarter funded developed a replica branded LAB-BOX with modules for typ 135 (35mm) and typ 120 (e.g. 6x6 cm) film. The LAB-BOX is kinda permanently on back order.
Why do you still use the red dot? It just adds visibility to a camera that wants to go unnoticed. Isn't part of Leica's fame its discretion? When Cartier Bresson switched to an M6 he covered the red dot and marking with black adhesive tape. I don't think there is anyone to whom Leica owes more than his prestige. With a part that discreetly says the brand is fine, but it is not an object of bad taste clothing, but a tool. It's time for design to be driven by engineering and not tacky marketing (lifestyle and those absurd things in a tool).
