These are the Leaked Images of Leica’s New SL2-S “Reporter” Camera

Rumors have been circulating since May of this year that Leica might eventually be releasing a new SL2-S “Reporter” edition camera in 2022. For a while thereafter, there was nothing concrete.

Now, new leaks have emerged via the website Leica Rumors showcasing images of what is indeed a new Reporter edition with a new look and (presumably) all the specs of the existing Leica SL2-S.

For those of you who didn’t know about it, the Leica SL2-S is a scaled-down successor to Leica’s 45MP SL2 camera. It offers a boxy but fairly compact body that contains a 24MP CMOS-BSI sensor, Meastro II processing engine and dual shooting modes for both photos and videos.

In other words, it’s a hybrid camera with many of Leica’s typical high-quality design and tech features that combine professional video performance with pro photography chops.

The Leica SL2-S camera’s Cine Mode covers the video aspect of the camera and is designed to shoot crisp 4K and Cine4K video in 10-bit 4:2:2 format with Leica L-LOG gamma technology at frame rates of 60fps.

Its integrated viewing LUTs deliver a high amount of shooting control during recording and the camera has the unique feature of being capable of limitless recording time as long as memory and charge can be maintained.

Photo-wise, the SL2-S camera’s 24MP CMOS-BSI sensor includes backside illumination and is particularly good at low-light shooting. It also offers an enormous dynamic range, 14-bit color per RBG channel and an ISO that goes up to 100,000 for very low-noise images at lower ISO settings.

The camera also comes with high-speed object Detection AF that automatically detects if objects are stationary or moving to switch its AF accordingly for highly focused shots.

The above are just some of the significant features that the Leica SL2-S offers. Its new Reporter version will presumably offer all of the same features and specs, but with a whole new external look that’s much more rugged.

As you can see in the images here, sourced from Leica Rumors, the SL2-S Reporter loses the darker and slightly smoother matte body of its standard version to replace it with a more rugged protective Kevlar layer that covers most of the body and the grip.

Because the grip of the standard SL2-S wraps right around the body, the tough Kevlar in this edition does the same for added dent, scratch and bump resistance.

Then there’s the camera’s new color, which is something closer to a dark military green with a steel grey tone that’s slightly metallic in its look.

 

Overall, the camera looks quite fetching and might be especially attractive to outdoor photographers or photojournalists who want a truly high-quality camera (as pretty much all Leica models are) with a simple-looking but tough body covering its precision internal technology.

While it’s odd that Leica decided to give these new external design features to the SL2-S instead of the pricier Leica SL2, it’s hard to complain about the result.

One thing we are expecting for the new SL2-S revamp whenever it does go on sale is a slightly higher price tag. The new external design isn’t purely cosmetic with its tough wrap-around Kevlar layer and this model is likely to cost a few hundred dollars more than its standard version.

While we don’t know the exact release date for the Leica SL2-S Reporter edition, the standard version is certainly still available.