Leica’s $5,300 SL3-S is its latest hybrid camera for stills and video

Leica has a new camera for pros who shoot both video and stills. The $5,295 Leica SL3-S, which launches today, is a full-frame mirrorless hybrid camera optimized for fast-action stills and 6K video. Like the SL3 it’s based on, the SL3-S has a compact body and 3.2-inch tilting touchscreen display. But where the SL3 with its 60mp sensor is mainly for still photography, the SL3-S is optimized for speed: its 24mp sensor can shoot video at 6K with 12-bit raw footage, and it can capture stills at up to 30fps with continuously tracking autofocus.

The SL3-S’s newfound video chops mean it supports open-gate 6K (5952 x 3968 resolution) recording of its full 3:2 sensor at up to 30fps, or up to 60fps in 4K, and it can record directly to an SSD via USB-C connection. While it doesn’t have an especially high-resolution sensor for stills, it makes up for that with speed and focusing ability. The SL3-S has 779 phase-detect autofocus points, more than double the SL3’s 315 points. It also has improved object detection and tracking focus, and it shoots fast enough to enable 48- and 96-megapixel high-res multi-shot composites without a tripod.

Otherwise, the SL3-S shares a lot with the SL3 — utilizing the same body design with dual card slots (one UHS-II SD and one CFExpress Type B), tilting touchscreen, color-coded menu system (red for photo / yellow for video), and that quirky light-up power button. (Seriously, why is the power button not a nice physical switch like every other camera?) It’s a similar approach to the one Leica took with its last-generation SL2 and SL2-S, with the SL3-S once again looking identical to its pricier counterpart, aside from some blacked-out Leica lettering.

The SL line is aimed at pros who need their fancy German camera to be more of an all-around workhorse, with high-res video recording and autofocus, instead of a slower-paced, specialized tool for photography like a Leica M rangefinder. So it makes sense that Leica is baking its Content Credentials into the SL3-S, utilizing Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative for image verification like it first did on the M11-P. Strangely, this feature isn’t available in the standard SL3, which launched in March 2024, and won’t be added via firmware upgrade. Leica spokesperson Nathan Kellum-Pathe told The Verge that the SL3 lacks the necessary hardware and that while software-based content authentication is possible, it “does not meet Leica’s standard for encryption of this important data.”

If you have Leica money, but not infinite Leica money, the SL3-S feels like the better value for all but the pickiest pixel peepers.