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  • Design & Handling

  • Menu Design

  • Features

  • Performance

  • Conclusion

  • By the Numbers

  • Color Accuracy and White Balance

  • Noise

  • Resolution

  • Dynamic Range

  • Video Performance

  • Design & Handling
  • Menu Design
  • Features
  • Performance
  • Conclusion
  • By the Numbers
  • Color Accuracy and White Balance
  • Noise
  • Resolution
  • Dynamic Range
  • Video Performance

When we heard that Leica was producing a mirrorless camera system, we had the same reaction most enthusiasts probably did: How brutally expensive is this thing going to be? Or will it just be a Panasonic GX7 in disguise? When we actually got to shoot with the Leica T and run it through our lab tests, however... Well, apparently a lot of aluminum and glass is all it takes to warm our skeptical hearts.

The Leica T is beautiful, has a user interface that is innovative and more intuitive than most cameras, and has the kind of image quality to match all but the best mirrorless cameras out today. There are some quirks, some glaring performance issues, and some things we wish were different, but it's safe to say that the Leica T is a far better camera than we were expecting. An experimental UI? Performance that nearly matches the price? A lens system with autofocus? Where did this thing come from?

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Design & Handling

The Leica T doesn't trade entirely on design, even if it could.

When we first were shown the Leica T prior to today's announcement, the briefing began with a video of a nameless Leica employee polishing a milled aluminum chassis. For 42 minutes. Thankfully they didn't make us sit through the entire video, but the message was clear: If you care about craftsmanship, you should care about the Leica T. The Leica T's design isn't perfect, but it's one of the slickest designed cameras on the market.

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The body is almost entirely aluminum, save for the plastic card slot and large 3.7-inch touchscreen on the back. There's no extra grip material, no plastic strap lugs, no ostentatious labeling calling out every little proprietary twist on a feature everyone already has. Everything has a purpose. The T has hardly any physical shooting controls, with just a combined shutter/power/flash control, two customizable control dials, a hotshoe, and a video record button. Around back there's the large capacitive touchscreen, a plastic port door that hides an SDHC card slot and a micro USB port. And on bottom you'll find the battery along with battery release. Other than that there are just small holes for the mic, speaker, and strap lugs to plug into.

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The entire camera looks like something straight out of Apple's design labs. Steve Jobs may still have heaved it against a wall, but he would've thought about it for a second first. Case in point: the strap lugs. Most cameras—including Leicas—have some sort of anchor point that you loop a strap through. With the T, the straps have metal ends that plug into holes on either side of the body, locking into place. To remove the straps you just insert a provided key (similar to a SIM card removal tool) and out they pop. It's simple, effective, and doesn't disturb the T's rounded profile.

Actually shooting with the T can be hit or miss, however. The simple, uninterrupted aluminum grip looks great, but it does you no favors on hot days if you have sweaty hands. The rear screen is also pleasantly surprising, but the glass is a magnet for fingerprints. Also, while there is a focus assist (3x or 6x) zoom available, Leica's upscaling isn't great. As a result the zoomed in portions look cruddy even when they're in focus, with heavy artifacting. Focus peaking would've been a far better choice, but it's not something Leica has included in the initial firmware.

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Leica's new user interface makes a serious case for a touch-only control scheme.

Leica has created a new interface from scratch for the T, with a menu that is comprised of a grid of white-on-black icons. Each icon is uniform in size, with a consistent design language throughout. Tapping an icon scrolls through the available options without having to change screens, except for things like film simulation modes where deeper customization is available.

The menu is completely customizable, simple, and anyone who can use an iPhone should be right at home.

When you bring the menu up you are first given a curated selection of options, just like the home screen on a phone. A tap of the system icon will then fill up the screen with the rest of the camera's settings, with currently unavailable options grayed out. You can scroll down to sift through them and, if you wish, drag and drop any of these extra options onto the right bar to add them to the initial home screen. It's completely customizable, simple, and anyone who can use an iPhone should be right at home.

That isn't to say that the Leica T is free of quirks. For instance, playback is accessed by swiping up on the rear screen while shooting, a gesture that isn't obvious or always convenient. Though the playback mode does have pinch-to-zoom and other familiar touch controls, there's no real in-camera editing available. Also, while you can customize the dual control dials on top (similar to the Sony NEX-7), not every function is available, and you have to turn the dials one notch before they become active. This prevents most accidental changes, but it also slows you down.

Even as touchscreens have become more and more common in high-end cameras, most menus still require you to scroll through an endless list of options and hit OK when you reach the one you want. Many of the menus on cameras today are the same ones that were designed over a decade ago, with touchscreen functionality shoehorned in at best. Leica has decided to try and do things differently, adapting the best elements of smartphone UI design to craft a menu that is designed from the ground up for touch interfaces. The result isn't perfect, but it's a sign of a company willing to try something new, rather than stubbornly adhere to something that doesn't work simply because it's the way it was done last time.

Features

Despite its small size, the Leica T comes packed with extras.

The minimalist exterior of the Leica T belies the camera's hefty list of features. In addition to the new Leica T lens mount and 16.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, there's also the basics: a large 3.7-inch touchscreen LCD, rechargeable battery, SDHC card slot, and a micro USB port. Dig deeper and you'll also found built-in WiFi, 16GB of internal memory, a shutter with a max speed of 1/4000th of a second, and an ISO range of 100-12500.

The T does not come with a viewfinder standard (at least as far as we're aware currently), but we were shown a compatible unit. This new EVF is bright and sharp and also includes a GPS radio built-in—a necessity since the T's aluminum chassis would block GPS signals otherwise. Though we don't have specs on it just yet, in our short time we felt the EVF's quality is about on par with the latest Olympus external finders, though it falls a bit behind the one we just saw with the Fujifilm X-T1. The camera also has a built-in flash (guide number is still TBA, but it works well despite a long recycle time) and a hot shoe for supporting external strobes.

Though there is an adapter for using the T with M-mount lenses, the camera will have a couple native lens options right out of the gate. The kit lens is a standard 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, which is the same focal length and aperture range as most kit lenses. We found it to actually be one of the best kit lenses we've used in some time, though paying that much for a relatively slow zoom lens is a tough pill to swallow.

A more fitting native lens is the new Summicron-T 23mm f/2 lens, which has two aspherical surfaces, nine elements in six groups, and a close focusing distance of just 0.3 meters. There are supposedly plans for more lenses later this year, though details are still a little cloudy. All of the T-mount lenses that we've seen so far support autofocus, using the T's contrast-based system.

One component that merits special mention is the rear LCD. It's simply fantastic, sharp as a tack, and bright enough to actually use on sunny days if the sun isn't reflected directly back at you. As we covered above, the scaling engine is a real letdown. You can achieve correct focus, but it's difficult to be 100% confident that you got the shot you wanted, especially when using the M-mount adapter and a fast, wide lens. You can always use the beautiful companion app as well, which was put together by the people at Boinx, specifically for the Leica T. Though the bar isn't particularly high, it's easily the best looking companion app we've seen from any camera yet.

Performance

The Leica T's quality is more than skin-deep.

This is meant to be a brief breakdown of how the Leica T performed in our lab tests. For the complete performance report, including results from all of our lab tests, head over to our Science & Testing page.

Though modern compact system cameras have only been around since 2008, prices and features range from around $400 to well over $2,000. The Leica T certainly sits at the upper end of the price spectrum, though it's still cheaper than we expected it to be. And although cameras like the Olympus E-M1, Fujifilm X-T1, and Sony A7R have proven that people are willing to shell out more than $1500 for a mirrorless camera, they're some of the best you can buy. Performance-wise the Leica T isn't in that class, but it's certainly capable of creating some amazing images. Overall, in terms of raw image quality it's on par with something like the Sony NEX-5T or the Samsung NX300, with a better interface and slower focus/burst speeds than both of those models.

We were able to run the Leica T through our lab tests both with the T-mount 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens and the Leica M-mount 28mm f/2.8. In almost all of our performance tests the Leica acquitted itself well, with accurate color rendition, above average base dynamic range, and excellent handling of noise through ISO 3200. The camera also exhibited acceptable autofocus accuracy and speed, though its contrast-based system lags behind Olympus, Fujifilm, and Sony for speed in the mirrorless segment.

The Leica T is supremely sharp with the right glass, and was very good even with the standard kit lens.

One thing we can say definitively is the Leica T is supremely sharp with the right glass, and it performs very well even with the standard kit lens. While we can't say how good future T-mount lenses will be, the kit lens is impressive (save for some nasty field curvature at the wide end). We were able to pull even better performance out of the adapted 28mm lens, indicating the T can do even better than what we saw in the labs.

It's not all sunshine and roses, though. The continuous shooting speed of the Leica T leaves a lot to be desired. In our burst shooting test we found that the camera consistently hit 4.28 frames per second, regardless of whether you're shooting JPEG, RAW, or RAW+JPEG. That's a little more than half of what competing cameras can do. Unfortunately capacity is also extremely limited, with the camera only capturing around 12 shots regardless of compression type. Once you fill the buffer the camera will also lock up, preventing you from shooting or making any changes until the buffer is totally clear.

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To download full-size samples of these images, check out the full gallery right here.

Though video is clearly not in Leica's wheelhouse, the T does well for itself. It doesn't hold a candle to the Panasonic GH4 or the Sony A7R based on our recent tests, but it's okay if you just want clips now and again. In our motion test the T's footage exhibited some obvious trailing and artifacting, though when the camera was still it was able to resolve details on par with other cameras in the class. The real trouble spots came in low light, where sharpness dropped off dramatically. The T also required about 19 lux of light to capture usably bright video, about 10-15 lux more than most cameras in its class.

Conclusion

A pretty camera that costs a pretty penny

Just about any discussion about Leica products usually begins and ends with a focus on price. Authentic Leica-produced cameras and lenses are excellent, but they can cost as much as a decent used car; the prestige of owning a Leica product is factored into the price, and prestige isn't cheap. So when the rumor of a Leica-made mirrorless camera surfaced, we figured the price would probably be at least $4,000. With the T apparently settling at around 1,600 EUR, authentic Leica quality is now within reach of mere mortals.

But does it justify the price? As always, that's a very personal question. But if buying something like the $6,950 Leica M (Type 240) is 10% performance and 90% personal desire, then the Leica T is more of a 50/50 proposition. It's expensive for what it is, but not to the same degree that most authentic Leica cameras are. It's sleek, it's sexy, it's refined (if not perfect), and its performance is respectable even in a very competitive market. It's a move downmarket for Leica, but it's a legitimate entry point for those who want a modern Leica camera that was actually built and designed by Leica.

Most interestingly, the T (Type 701) is in many ways the antithesis of what we've come to expect from Leica, especially compared to the Leica M we just reviewed.

In our time with the M, we were struck by how confident Leica was in the camera's design, expertly adhering to tradition while adopting newer technology. Though there were welcome additions like live view and HD video, the M is the product of a company that knows exactly what they've always been, what they've always done better than anyone, and what Leica owners have come to expect.

But if the M is the eldest son walking in its parent's footsteps, the T is the rebel child gleefully tossing tradition out the door. It's the product of a company that knows what it wants to one day be, what it can strive to do better, and—expensive or not—it's much better than we expected.

But seriously, Leica: focus peaking.

By the Numbers

The Leica T is the first in a new system by the storied German manufacturer, so we were very eager to get it into our new test labs (recently redone) to see just how well its 16.3-megapixel APS-C sensor performed in an objective performance analysis.

Overall, it does quite well for itself. Noise is kept in check through ISO 1600, dynamic range is respectable at base ISO, and the camera's white balance and color accuracy results were among the best we've seen. That said, the Leica T isn't nearly as responsive as competing cameras from Panasonic and Olympus, and the camera's tendency to lock up after burst shooting holds it back. Those issues, as well as the lack of deeper control in playback and video ultimately keep the score down a little bit in our rating system, though when the conditions are right the image quality out of the T is nothing to be ashamed of.

Color Accuracy and White Balance

The Leica T shoots both RAW (DNG format) and JPEG, and has several film simulation modes to choose from. We found that the most accurate one was standard, with a color error (∆C00, saturation corrected) of 1.94, with near-perfect saturation at 99% of the ideal. Any ∆C00 of 2.2 or less is excellent, and the Leica T doesn't exhibit any serious issues. The biggest errors are with yellows and greens, which are slightly undersaturated.

The T also excelled in our white balance test. For that test we capture the same color chart with both custom and auto white balances under three controlled lighting setups: compact white fluorescent, daylight, and tungsten. The Leica T did extremely well under all three lighting conditions when taking a custom white balance, with temperature errors of less than 30 kelvins. When relying on the automatic white balance things are just as good under daylight conditions, though the error jumped to around 111 kelvins with fluorescent lighting.

The most interesting result is under tungsten lighting (think your typical indoor lightbulb). The Leica T's auto white balance had a temperature error of just over 400 kelvins. While that's the camera's worst result, it's actually one of the best results we've ever seen for this test. Most cameras have a temperature error in excess of 2000 kelvins, returning a warm, orange image. The Leica T's shot is a little shifted, but it's still acceptable.

Noise

The Leica T has an ISO range that extends from 100 to 12500, putting its APS-C sensor to good use. At the base ISO we saw noise levels of just 0.39%, which is excellent. Noise rises steadily from there, hitting 0.74% at ISO 400, 1.07% at ISO 800, and 1.33% at ISO 1600. At ISO 3200 noise crosses the 2% threshold (at which point we feel print quality usually begins to suffer), with a result of 2.37%.

At the highest ISOs, noise increases steadily, though the image quality doesn't suffer as much as you might think. Though noise hits 3.4% at ISO 6400 and 5.4% at ISO 12500, the shots still don't look that bad. As you can see in the 100% crops above, image quality is generally acceptable up to ISO 3200, and 6400 and 12500 are certainly usable in a pinch and at small sizes. The noise is also largely monochrome, giving it a grainer, filmic look as opposed to the uglier chroma noise most digital cameras exhibit.

Resolution

We were able to test the Leica T with the new T-mount 18-56mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens. Though it has a standard focal length and aperture range on par with what most DSLRs and mirrorless cameras offer, we found that it was certainly not slouch in the performance department. We've seen some better kit lenses lately from the likes of Fujifilm, and the Leica model here definitely holds its own.

In our tests we found that the lens performed quite well. The main performance issues are at the wide angle of 18mm. The biggest issue is with some minor field curvature, which has a tendency to alter the focal plane and throw some results out of whack. The center stays sharp throughout, but the the edges in particular begin to exhibit some big issues. This is solved a bit by stopping down the aperture, though it's also not much of an issue once you zoom in a bit.

Despite the slight curvature, distortion is otherwise kept in check through the zoom range. At 18mm we found roughly 0.9% barrel distortion. That falls to just 0.14% at 35mm and 0.16% at 56mm focal lengths, which is barely perceptible in our experience. Of course you can always fix simple distortions like these after the fact, but as a new lens mount it may take some time for correction profiles to be released.

Dynamic Range

We test dynamic range using a backlit 21-stop density stepchart, taking sample shots with identical exposure levels at every ISO. With the Leica T, things start off very well. The base ISO had well over 7.4 stops of "high" dynamic range, in which the signal to noise ratio stays above 10:1.

As you increase the ISO speed, however, dynamic range begins to fall fast. Using the same "high" dynamic range threshold, the Leica T's performance drops to 6.58 stops at ISO 200, 5.62 stops at ISO 400, 4.55 stops at ISO 800, and 3.08 stops at ISO 1600. From there things predictably get worse, with just 2.37 stops at ISO 3200, 1.93 stops at ISO 6400, and no qualifying stops at ISO 12500.

In general the base ISO dynamic range is very promising. At just that level the Leica T holds its own against some of the better APS-C cameras on the market. The higher ISO speeds do leave us with some cause for concern, however. Though the performance at the top ISO speeds is respectable, it's actually the middle areas where cheaper cameras beat out the T. This isn't a dealbreaker, but as you might expect, there are better, cheaper cameras to be had.

Video Performance

As we covered in the main page of the review, the Leica T is hardly anyone's idea of a serious video camera. But for those times where you want to just grab a short clip or two, it can definitely serve you well. The camera has two video modes—1080p and 720p—with MP4 compression. There isn't much in the way of video control, though there is a built-in stereo microphone and video stabilization.

In our performance tests we found that the 1080/30p mode held up well. In bright light the T was able to resolve 550 line pairs per picture height horizontally and 615 LPPH vertically, though that falls to 450 LPPH horizontal / 575 LPPH vertically in low light. The Leica T seemed to generally struggle with low light requiring 19 lux of light to produce an image that hit 50 IRE on a waveform monitor.

In our motion performance test the Leica T did fine, though there were noticeable issues with trailing, ghosting, and artifacting. The RGB pinwheel in particular proved to be troublesome, and the vertical lines on the train also revealed some issues. In capturing live video we also noticed some rolling shutter issues due to the CMOS image sensor.

Meet the tester

TJ Donegan

TJ Donegan

Former Director, Content Development

@TJDonegan

TJ is the former Director of Content Development at Reviewed. He is a Massachusetts native and has covered electronics, cameras, TVs, smartphones, parenting, and more for Reviewed. He is from the self-styled "Cranberry Capitol of the World," which is, in fact, a real thing.

See all of TJ Donegan's reviews

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