Leica T Review

Love It Not for Me

Leica T Review – Image Quality

Colour and white balance

In general the model’s auto white balance performs well in a range of conditions – including both overcast conditions and bright sunlight. There is a slight tendency to produce more neutral results than one might expect in bright conditions in particular, however there is a range of presets which allow you to tailor end results to your needs.

Unlike a host of other cameras with which the Leica T is competing, the amount of colour settings it features is surprisingly limited.

However, the limited amount of colour settings is actually somewhat refreshing. The only real criticism being that you cannot apply colour filters to effect black and white film modes.

Exposure

One thing you can certainly rely upon with the Leica T is the performance of its metering system. Highlights are pushed to the very limited of their capabilities, although this does mean that shadows can sometimes lose a touch of detail.

It’s pleasing to be able to leave a camera such as the Leica T in the evaluative metering mode and be assured of even exposures in a range of lighting conditions.

The Leica T also delivers in terms of dynamic range, managing a level or performance around expectations when you consider the size and resolution of the sensor.

Noise

In terms of image noise, the Leica T does a very good job of managing it in both Raw and JPEG files. In the latter there’s very little of note to complain about right up to ISO 3200, and it’s only at ISO 6400 that there are some hints of purple and magenta noise.

To get the best results out of the camera however, it’s probably worth limiting the ISO range to between ISO 100 and 1600 in most shooting settings.

Raw vs. JPEG

As is almost always the case, to get the most out of the Leica T it’s best to shoot Raw.

The difference between Raw and JPEG files is most keenly felt when comparing the amount of detail captured. While in JPEG setting the Leica T resolves an amount of detail in keeping with its CSC status, when shooting Raw the level of detail captured is almost comparable to that of a high-end full frame model such as the Nikon D800E.