Leica SL3 vs. Hasselblad X2D etc.

[dirk]

Fullframe cameras are so good nowadays, that a question pops up again and again. Is it worth it to buy today Medium Format?

I do not want to go into detail about MF vs. FF. But I find these two video for L-Mount users interesting to get a better feeling about the Leica SL3 sensor, which we probably get on the Lumix S1R MKii.

Both videos are long. Use the chapters on the buttom to fast forward to the posts you are most interested in. Probably image quality, AF etc.









In another SL3 video a youtuber complains about the time it takes to review the images after you press the play button. I havethe same problem with my Leica Q3 43. That is really annoying me. I hiope they will fix this with a FW update soon. Both on the SL3 and the Q3 43.

 

[pdk42]

Let me guess (TLDR) - the MF is better, but the FF is pretty good. Am I right?

 

[Oíche]

In another SL3 video a youtuber complains about the time it takes to review the images after you press the play button. I havethe same problem with my Leica Q3 43.

It's slow on S5ii also and I'm assuming every other Lumix camera, it's like 1-1.5sec which seems insignificant but it's a bit like using a older budget smart phone... That annoying delay which feels like a mini prison sentence

But the 5GHz wifi upgrade didn't speed file transfer up and that's too slow at ~ 3-6MB/s. The camera to LumixLabs fked up on me last night and couldn't get it working again. It's still rough!

 

[dirk]

Let me guess (TLDR) - the MF is better, but the FF is pretty good. Am I right?

It depends on the size of the print, which is more a question on the amount of MP. 60MP vs. 100MP and the sensor ratio.

But in that video, I do not see any dynamic range advantage of the MF camera vs. fullframe.

The blurring fall-off will probably be better with Medium Format, if you want to use selective DOF

According to the video, if at all, you will only see a difference in landscape shots. Not in street photography, people etc.

 

[dirk]

I find it interesting that the 60 MP sensor of the SL3 is less forgiving with overexposed images than with underexposed images.

I had with the S5ii the feeling that both can be recovered the same amount

 

[Oíche]

Proper medium format was 67 or 645, this 44x33 I don't consider MF which is why it's difficult to see a difference.

 

[pdk42]

I find it interesting that the 60 MP sensor of the SL3 is less forgiving with overexposed images than with underexposed images.

This is all to do with the saturation point of the sensor and its ISO calibration. Setting things up so that there is little headroom for overexposure has the benefit of keeping the shadows cleaner if you go lifting them in PP. But of course, it does mean that you need to underexpose more to preserve highlights, so then you need to push more. There is no magic here, it's just about how the metering loads up the charge wells!

I had with the S5ii the feeling that both can be recovered the same amount

When Kirk Tuck did his tests of the S5 vs the EM1.3, he found that the S5 was worse at highlight recovery (using raw files of course). I actually agree with him. But the S5 is way better at dealing with lifting brightness afterwards (as you might expect given the much bigger pixels). So, the best technique is keep the S5 exposure down. I personally ignore the meter anyhow and just use the zebras to ensure that I'm not blowing out anything important. I don't care what the meter is telling me - the zebras and my eyeballs are my exposure meter.

 

[pdk42]

Proper medium format was 67 or 645, this 44x33 I don't consider MF which is why it's difficult to see a difference.

Ignoring what we might or might not call "proper MF", the areas of the various formats are as below:

M43: 224 mm^2
APSC: 368 mm^2
FF: 864 mm^2
MF: 1452m mm^2

This means that the scaling jumping to and from FF is:

M43 to FF - 3.85
APSC to FF - 2.34
FF to MF - 1.68

In other words, the difference between FF and MF is small compared to the difference between M43 and FF, or even APSC to FF. In fact, the difference is similar to that between M43 and APSC (1.64). Many people consider M43 and APSC to be quite close in terms of real IQ.